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The Department of Film and Media at the Museum of Modern
Art is pleased to recognize the achievements of Pacific
Street Films with a five film two-program retrospective
that covers the breadth of Pacific Street Films' subjects.
Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher, Brooklyn neighbors, founded
Pacific Street Films in 1969 while students at NYU where
they studied under Martin Scorsese. During this time they
began filming undercover agents who kept showing up at protest
rallies, and they themselves were harassed, photographed
and arrested. This experience became the basis for their
first documentary Red Squad completed in 1971, and since
then they have produced a series of non-fiction films that
illuminate and explore modern American social history.
THE FILMS IN THE SERIES INCLUDE:
Red Squad. 1971. Howard Blatt,
Steven Fischler, Francis Freedland, Joel Sucher. About the
surveillance units of the New York City police and the FBI.
42 min. Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish
Anarchists. 1980. Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher.
About the Jewish anarchist movement and its evolution out
of American immigrant sweatshop life in the early twentieth
century. 55 min. I Promise to Remember:
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. 1983. Steven Fischler,
Jane Praeger, Joel Sucher. In the two years of its enormously
popular career, this singing group, having emerged from
Harlem 'doo wop' sessions, was one of the first to break
the music color barrier. 27 min.
Friday, March 19, 6:30 (filmmakers
present); Wednesday, March 24, 6:00.
The Other Half Revisited: The Legacy
of Jacob Riis. 1989. Steven Fischler, Joel Sucher,
Martin D. Toub, Sam Roberts. In the 1890's photojournalist
Jacob Riis portrayed poverty and homelessness in urban America.
Using Riis's photographs and magic lantern slides, this
documentary contrasts Riis's original odyssey to the streets
of New York in the 1990s. 59 min. From
Swastika to Jim Crow. 2000. Lori Cheatle, Seven Fischler,
Joel Sucher, Martin D. Toub. Based on the book by Gabrielle
Simon Edgcomb. About those Jewish scholars who fled to the
United States from Nazi Germany on the eve of World War
II and were unable to find employment at many universities
(partly because of discrimination against Jews). A significant
number became respected professors at black colleges in
the segregated South in the 1930s. The film traces long
lasting relationships between teachers and students from
institutions like Howard University, Tougaloo College and
Hampton Institute. 60 min.
Friday, March 19, 9:00 (filmmakers
present); Tuesday, March 23, 6:00.
All screenings will take place at MOMA’s temporary
film home, The
Gramercy Theater on East 23rd Street.
This exhibition is organized by Laurence Kardish. Thanks
go to the distributor of Pacific Street Films works, Cinema
Guild in New York and to Ryan Krivoshey for making this
program possible.
For further information contact Ryan Krivoshey at Cinema
Guild, rkrivoshey@cinemaguild.com
or Paul Power at the Museum of Modern Art, Paul_Power@moma.org.
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