A magnificent city symphony, regarding the activity in and around New York City’s waterfront.

This copy comes from the website of the George Eastman House and has a watermark. They describe it thusly:

Quote:
A voyage of discovery among familiar things: the images and sounds of New York Harbor. This film-poem explores the edge of the shoreline, where man and nature persistently confront one another. In the words of critic, Faubion Bowers, “It is the most haunting film I have ever seen. The film’s poetry is utterly visual – such wonder at the ordinary, such mastery of the natural.” The film was made by Leo Hurwitz and still photographer, Charles Pratt.

Here at the Water's Edge.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	59mn 45s
Size: 	2.38 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	5 445 Kbps
BPP: 	0.109
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AAC LC @ 253 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/9685E74C77A524B/Here_at_the_Water’s_Edge.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post Leo Hurwitz & Charles Pratt – Here at the Water’s Edge (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This is a rather remarkable documentary made by left-wing filmmaker Leo Hurwitz and his wife, Peggy Lawson. This copy was made available on the Eastman Museum website.

Here’s how Hurwitz’s official website describes the film:
The result of a commission from Film Polski, the Polish Film Production Agency, to make a film on the concentration camps, The Museum and the Fury was made with access to the Film Polski archive, out of which Hurwitz integrated wartime footage with images of the reconstruction of Poland and various works of art. Centering on the museum of the concentration camps at Auschwitz, it begins as a historical survey exploring the function of a museum, establishing the kinship of all art, and stating that “art is man’s way of remembering his experience.” Along with the use of archival actuality and enacted footage, Hurwitz used the technique of photo-animation — a moving camera over still images, now used in many films — for the first time in the U.S. This study of war, art, memory and genocide is one of Hurwitz’s most concise and powerful films.

hurwitz_museum_and_the_fury.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	52 min 2 s
Size: 	234 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	454x360 
Aspect ratio:  	5:4
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	500 kb/s
BPP: 	0.102
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AAC LC @ 128 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/0E12767420EFCCE/hurwitz_museum_and_the_fury.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:none

The post Leo Hurwitz & Peggy Lawson – The Museum and the Fury (1956) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
“Strange Victory” is about racial bias in post World War II America. Folowing “Native Land” in Leo Hurwitz’ filmography, it uses some of the same techniques: dramatized scenes interspersed with scenes of compilation news reel footage, and scenes of evocative imagery. An epilogue about the civil rights movement, added in 1964 makes the arc of the film more complete.

Strange Victory (1948) -- Leo Hurwitz.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 4mn
Size: 	1.66 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	768x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 450 Kbps
BPP: 	0.325
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/93DED02C8789258/Strange_Victory_(1948)_–_Leo_Hurwitz.mkv https://nitro.download/view/52FBCC28CB3AB11/Strange_Victory_(1948)_Extras.rar

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Leo Hurwitz – Strange Victory (1948) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The late filmmaker Leo Hurwitz created this documentary tribute to his deceased wife Peggy Lawson by mixing both actual footage of historical events, clips from his own films, and personal remembrances of her life. Lawson was a partner in Hurwitz’s cinematic endeavors and shared his commitment to political and social change. Hurwitz brings up images from the Great Depression, from the persecution of union organizers and laborers in the 1930s, through his blacklisting in the ’50s, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the following decade. These years of turbulence are contrasted with scenes from nature, images of Lawson, and attempts to convey what she meant to him. These two aspects — private and public — are woven together to form the main theme of this very personal documentary, winner of an International Film Critics prize. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

https://nitro.download/view/A1193FCB17EAB0E/DIALOGUE_WITH_A_WOMAN_DEPARTED_PART_1.avi
https://nitro.download/view/D02116F28540AEB/DIALOCUE_WITH_A_WOMAN_DEPARTED_PART_2.avi

At the end of part two there is an interview with Hurwitz talking about the film. Enjoy!

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Leo Hurwitz – Dialogue with a Woman Departed (1980) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Paul Robeson narrates a mix of dramatizations and archival footage about the bill of rights being under attack during the 1930s by union busting corporations, their spies and contractors. In dramatizations, we see a Michigan farmer beaten for speaking up at a meeting, a union man murdered in an apartment in Cleveland, two sharecroppers near Fort Smith Arkansas shot by men deputized by the local sheriff, a spy stealing the names of union members, and a dead Chicago union man eulogized. In archival footage we witness police and goons beating lawfully assembled union organizers, and we see men at work and union families at play. The narration celebrates patriotism and democracy.

Criterion wrote:
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.

Quote:
In an intriguing documentary that wants to trace the notion of liberty and its application and abuse over the course of American history, actor/singer Paul Robeson lends his distinctive voice over narration. We see stories involving the murder of sharecroppers, the torture of men by the Ku Klux Klan, and the incredibly incendiary activities of an anti-union corporate spy. While all of these sequences are dramatic recreations, they are based on actual fact. Indeed, these incidents were reported to the Senate Civil Liberties Committee in 1938. Throughout it all, Robeson sings, and suggests ways to avoid this obvious “fascism” at home.

Extra: “The Story of Native Land,” a video interview with cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, son of Frontier Films cofounder and Native Land codirector Leo Hurwitz. In English with no subtitles. Framerate is the best possible constant framerate, as all the new sections are shot in pure NTSC video.

1.83GB | 1h 28m | 720×540 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/9ECFAA6983560CE/Native.Land.1942.DVDRip.mkv https://nitro.download/view/2B976C12935CD0D/The.Story.of.Native.Land.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English, English HOH

The post Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand – Native Land [+Extra] (1942) first appeared on Cinema of the World.