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Seeing Red
A film by James Klein and Julia Reichert. Color, 90 minutes. Distributed by New Day Films, Box 315, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417.
In his 1962 introduction to The First Ten Years of American Communism, James Cannon noted that the Communist Party of America (CPUSA) had become the most friendless party in the history of American radicalism and that its unpopularity was by no means confined to reactionary ruling circles. One of the tasks set by Jim Klein and Julia Reichert for their film, seeing Red: Stories of American Communists, is to understand the loss of general and radical esteem by a party that was, at one time, on the cutting edge of nearly every significant labor, civil rights, and antifascist struggle in the United States.
The format adopted by the filmmakers is the oral history interview interspersed with period footage and music, a format they have employed so brilliantly in previous film work, most notably Union Maids. Skepticism has arisen over whether certain types of investigations can be properly served through this form. seeing Red provides an illustration of both the strengths and weaknesses inherent in an approach that has become something of a formula for many radical documentaries. The film also raises troubling questions about how demanding filmmakers can be with reticent interviewees without shattering the trust needed to undertake the project in the first place. The filmmakers clearly are concerned about this challenge, for Julia Reichert establishes herself as an active participant in the film from the opening sequences. Her function is to raise the kind of issues radicals who came of political age in the 1960s most want their Communist predecessors to deal with.
During the face to face interviews which made up the bulk of seeing Red, we find that the terrible commies of legend turn out to be very engaging, if somewhat ordinary looking Americans voicing some very sensible ideas about social change. At this level-and it is an extremely important level given the pervasive anticommunism of Americans, including many considering themselves left of center-seeing Red absolutely overturns the conventional stereotypes fostered by forty plus years of cold war. The Communists tell moving stories drawn from their work with the unemployed, minorities, and the emerging CIO. Newsreel...