Join us for Refugees in Black and White, a five-film exploration of the representation of people persecuted by the Nazis during World War II.
The movie series is organized by Swen Steinberg from the Department of History at Queen’s University, The Cinema Society of Kingston, and The Screening Room Movie Theatre. Each movie will be introduced by Dr. Steinberg, followed by a discussion.
Buy Tickets:
- Sunday January 12 – So Ends The Night (1941)
- Sunday January 19 – Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
- Sunday January 26 – Three Faces West (1940)
- Sunday February 2 49th Parallel (1941)
- Friday February 9 To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
- Full Series Pass (5 Films) – $40
The aggression of Nazi Germany, beginning in 1933, forced many individuals to flee due to political or racist persecution. Among these refugees were numerous artists involved in the film industry. This series showcases five films produced up until 1945 that depict refugees from Nazi persecution. Additionally, it highlights the personal stories of exiled directors, actors, musicians, and screenwriters behind these films that often remain invisible.
Series Screening Events
So Ends Our Night (1941)
Sunday January 12 at 3:30pm
An anti-Nazi on the run and a young Jewish couple race across Europe trying to escape Hitler’s ever powerful influence. When the political refugee risks his life to see his dying wife in Austria, he has a dangerous encounter with a rabid Nazi.
Runtime: 117 minutes
Directed by: John Cromwell
Starring: Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Glenn Ford
Screenplay: Erich Maria Remarque, Talbot Jennings
Based on: Erich Maria Remarque (Flotsam, Boston 1941 / Liebe deinen Nächsten, Stockholm 1941)
Music: Louis Gruenberg
Hangman also Die (1943)
Sunday January 19 at 3:30pm
During the Nazi occupation of Prague, a Czech patriot assassinates the brutal “Hangman of Europe”, Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich. But his getaway car is found, and the hunt begins…
Runtime: 130 minutes
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring: Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart
Screenplay: John Wexley, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht
Music: Hanns Eisler
Three Faces West (1940)
Sunday January 26 at 3:30pm
Viennese surgeon Dr. Braun and his daughter Leni come to a small town in North Dakota as refugees from Hitler. When the winds of the Dust Bowl threaten the town, John Phillips leads the townsfolk in moving to greener pastures in Oregon.
Runtime: 79 minutes
Directed by: Bernard Vorhaus
Starring: John Wayne, Sigrid Gurie, Charles Coburn
Screenplay by: F. Hugh Herbert, Joseph Moncure March, Samuel Ornitz
Music: Victor Young
49th Parallel (1940)
Sunday February 2 at 3:30pm
A Nazi U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada during the thick of World War II. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral USA.
Country: UK
Runtime: 123 minutes
Directed by: Michael Powell
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey
Screenplay by: Emeric Pressburger (original story and screenplay), Rodney Auckland and Emeric Pressburger (scenario)
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Muir Mathieson, with the London Symphony Orchestra
To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
Sunday February 9 at 3:30pm
When the Nazis invade Poland, a group of actors with a lot of Nazi uniforms on their hands find a new role to play. As a spy arrives in Warsaw, the actors turn to impersonating Nazi officers–and even Hitler himself– in order to outwit the enemy and keep the resistance safe from spies.
Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
Starring: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
Screenplay by: Edwin Justus Mayer
Based on: Melchior Lengyel
Music: Werner Richard Heymann
About The Series
The Nazis’ seizure of power and the following aggression in Europe forced many artists, including filmmakers, to emigrate: directors, actors, musicians, and screenwriters were banned from working for political or racist reasons and had to flee under threat of persecution. However, some were able to rely on international networks established in the 1920s. For this reason, Los Angeles and Hollywood became important points of contact and reception for these exiled artists, serving as a new form in the fight against National Socialism and Fascism. Therefor, such so called Anti-Nazi Movies in this series represented global developments especially in North America – and a specific transfer of knowledge.
The movie series “Refugees in Black and White” does not merely focus on the work of well-established artists associated with them, such as Fritz Lang or Erich Maria Remarque, although their noteworthy films are also featured. Instead, the series presents also films produced up to 1945 that dealt with forced emigration itself as a theme and were directly related to the experiences of German or Austrian directors, actors, musicians, and screenwriters who fled. In some cases, refugees played their own persecutors because of their accents. Additionally, the series includes films that have previously received little or no attention in this context. For example, it showcases a British production about the “Fifth Column” that represents the mistrust of German refugees in Canada.
Series Curator & Host
Swen Steinberg, PhD, is a historian who teaches as adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of History and the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and is an affiliated researcher at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. with its Pacific Office at UC Berkeley. Previously he taught in the Migration & Diaspora Studies Program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He also serves as a Research Ambassador of the German Academic Exchange Service and joined the Advisory Committee of the Austrian Archive for Exile Studies and the Exile Library in Vienna, Austria, in 2019.
Steinberg’s interests are located at the intersection of migration and knowledge, borderland networks, the history of social ideas, transit situations in migration, and refugees from Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe (especially unaccompanied minors). More information.
| Series | |
| Genre |
Classic Hollywood
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| Country |
USA
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