Barney Rosset (1922-2012), publisher of Grove Press

[Lang Thompson]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/arts/bar...?pagewanted=all

Grove also did film distribution for a few years and had a hit (of sorts) with I Am Curious (Yellow). There's more info at http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/collections/grove_press.html. Grove re-edited Vladimir et Rosa, cutting it by about 30 minutes and adding footage of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.

[Brian Camp]

Rosset produced a feature-length documentary called STRANGE VICTORY (1948), directed by Leo Hurwitz, that explored the social landscape of postwar America from a Popular Front perspective. All the social problems put on the back burner by the war flared up again after the war and this film addresses practically all of them, particularly race relations. There's a great staged sequence showing a former Tuskegee Airman trying to get a job as a pilot with an airline and being turned down everywhere.

The narrators include Alfred Drake and Gary Merrill. It's a bit heavy-handed in spots, but I found it an intriguing overview of the political undercurrents of the time that didn't quite make it into Hollywood films of the era, except when mediated by the likes of Darryl Zanuck (GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, PINKY) and the Hollywood Ten (CROSSFIRE) or stylized beyond all recognition through the conventions that came to be known as film noir.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Feb 23 2012, 01:39 PM