Look Who’s Back: The Hollywood Renaissance and the Blacklist

Fri 18 Aug – Thu 7 Sep

Much has been written about the renaissance in Hollywood cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The fact that this is often portrayed as a moment when a younger generation got its chance in the mainstream has meant that the contribution of a previous generation of Hollywood voices, those blacklisted in the 1940s and 1950s in particular, has been overlooked. In fact, the 1960s saw the return to the mainstream of a number of film professionals who had been blacklisted in the anti-communist drive within the Hollywood film industry in the late 1940s and 1950s. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, when America was experiencing social and political upheaval – the fight for civil rights and the anti-war movements – these filmmakers once persecuted for their progressive politics were now more in tune with the times. As a result, they found fresh collaborators in the new American cinema of the period. This strand invites audiences to re-think the contribution of Hollywood’s blacklistees to American cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s. Far from being a spent creative force as they are often represented, these films show that formerly blacklisted directors, actors and screenwriters made a vital contribution to the re-invigorating of cinema in one of American film’s most creative eras.

Curated by Andy Willis, Senior Visiting Curator: Film at HOME.

See below for the full programme of films