Tickets are on sale now for The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Coming January 2025

A Movie Series About the Representation of People Persecuted by the Nazis until 1945

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.

Watch this space! Tickets & Series Passes will go on sale in October.

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 Events

Sunday January 12 at 3:30pm, 2025: So Ends Our Night
US, 1941, 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

Sunday January 19 at 3:30pm, 2025: Hangman also Die
US, 1943, 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

Sunday January 26 at 3:30pm 2025: Three Faces West
US, 1940, 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

Sunday February 2 at 3:30pm, 2025: 49th Parallel
UK 1940, 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

Sunday February 9 at 3:30pm, 2025: To Be Or Not To Be
US, 1942, 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
Country
USA

Announcements

Tickets go on sale soon: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

October 11: School PA Day Matinees!

Classic Cinema in October

October 11-12: Silent Movie Weekend

Now Playing: Francis Ford Coppola’s Megaopolis

October 18-20 in Port Hope: The Vintage Film Festival

Oct 24 & 27: 90’s Witches Double Feature

October 19: Home Movie Day!

August: New Vintage Poster Exhibit on Display

Upcoming Cinema Society Events

Become A Member of The Screening Room

Subscribe to Email Newsletter

Upcoming Screenings with On-Screen Captions