Calendar – Past Event

On Friday nights in January, February and March, UnionDocs will screen six excellent films, all of which have been named named Pare Lorentz Award Winners by the International Documentary Association (IDA). It is no surprise, then, that the selections in this traveling festival resound with influence from the socially conscious documentary films of Pare Lorentz, who, during the depression, produced and directed the first government sponsored feature documentary and was named head of the United States Film Service by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. We are very fortunate to also have the opportunity to conclude the festival by showing four important works by this pioneer. All of these are documentaries that inspire the best in all of us – films that address issues of social justice, political strife, and survival in a world with declining natural resources. Each screening will be followed by a discussion, with filmmakers and special guests in attendance.

The Pare Lorentz Film Festival is supported by the New York Community Trust. We are very grateful and excited to bring these filmmakers from across the country and beyond together with scholars, experts and our local audiences in Brooklyn.

When?
Fridays, January 22 - March 12, 2010, at 7:30pm, followed by post-screening discussion.

Tickets
$7 suggested donation

Reservations
www.uniondocs.org

Venue
UnionDocs, 322 Union Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Directions
L train to Lorimer Street / G to Metropolitan Ave
Exit subway and walk south on Union Ave (away from the BQE)
322 Union is on the east side of Union Ave after you cross Maujer St.

THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (1936)

Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
25 minutes

With The Plow That Broke the Plains, his first film and the first US Government-sponsored documentary, Pare Lorentz won praise and wide recognition for using sensitive photography, dramatic editing and a beautiful score by composer Virgil Thomson to illuminate a local problem of national importance the challenges faced by wheat farmers and cattle ranchers in the Great Plains. As the film climaxes in a vivid portrait of the record drought that produced the dust bowl and the plight of the “blown out, baked and broke” people who felt its impact, it becomes clear that a new master of the documentary form has found his voice.