Strange Victory
Leo Hurwitz, 1948, 64 min 

Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht

“In 1945, the free world rejoiced over the defeat of fascism. But the sense of peace was short-lived, and as the Cold War began, the United States entered a period of national paranoia and political repression. In response, boundary-pushing publisher and producer Barney Rosset and director Leo Hurwitz joined forces to create Strange Victory. This rarely seen, stylistically bold documentary equals the visual brilliance of landmark works like Battleship Potemkin and I Am Cuba while delivering an extraordinary cry for equality and justice. Skilfully combining real-life footage of World War II combat, post-war refugees, and the Nuremberg trials with powerful dramatic re-enactments, Hurwitz weaves an extraordinary cinematic portrait of post-war American fascism. How could it be, the film asks, that servicemen returning home from defeating a racist and genocidal enemy found a United States plagued by prejudice, Jim Crow, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and xenophobia?” – Milestone Films

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On the Bowery
Lionel Rogosin, 1956, 65 min

Lionel Rogosin’s landmark of American neorealism chronicles three days in the drinking life of Ray Salyer, a part-time railroad worker adrift on New York’s skid row, the Bowery. When the film first opened in 1956, it exploded onto the screen, burning away years of Hollywood artifice, jump-starting America’s post-war independent-film scene, and earning an Academy Award nomination for best documentary. Developed in close collaboration with the men Rogosin met while spending months hanging out in neighbourhood bars, On the Bowery is both an indispensable document of a bygone Manhattan and a vivid and devastating portrait of addiction.

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Never on Sunday is a series of screenings of rare classics, archive masterpieces, obscure delights and forgotten gems carefully curated and introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht and taking place the last Sunday of each month at Close-Up.