Double Jeopardy

Hollywood Emigrés and the Second Red Scare (1947-1952): Migration and Integration

This colloquium investigates the precarious conditions of directors, screen writers and actors who immigrated to the United States around the time of the Second World War in order to escape persecution in Nazi Germany and Eastern Europe, only to find themselves persecuted in the 1950’s by the House Un-American Activities Committee, spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy. In many ways their condition mirrors the uncertain realities of refugees of our days like those fleeing the tyranny of the Syrian Government and ISIS only to find themselves unwelcome in their new homelands.

Including original filmic materials to illustrate their lectures, distinguished Film Studies, and German Studies scholars Doris Berger (Exhibitions Curator at the Academy Museum) and Jan-Christopher Horak (Director, UCLA Film & Television Archive) and Turner Prize-winning visual artist Susan Philipsz focus on the lives of five émigrés whose lives express unique narratives in relationship to this phenomena: Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, Lion Feuchtwanger, Paul Henreid and Edward G. Robinson.

Audio and cinematic renditions of the Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht testimonies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities will be presented.

A reception will follow the colloquium

Double Jeopardy constitutes the second event in a series of works by Warren Neidich titled The Hollywood Blacklist Project, 2014-2017. The first work, Book Exchange: The Hollywood Blacklist, premiered January 2015 at Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair. The third installment, Threshold and Re-Imagining the Hollywood Walk of Fame, will premiere at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition in 2016 and 2017. 

// Colloquium
// Wednesday, December 9th 2015, 7:00 pm
// Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036
// Free Admission, RSVP mandatory
// RSVP via 323.525.3388 or rsvp@losangeles.goethe.org
 
// $1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1.

Curated by Warren Neidich and co-sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles with the support of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and the Villa Aurora.