Letting the World Know: The Role of Film in the Spanish Civil War
Letting the World Know: The Role of Film in the Spanish Civil War
Friday, May 3, 6:00pm
721 Broadway, Michelson Theater
Speakers
- Kimberly Tarr, Visiting Assistant Professor, Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies / Associate Director, Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) program
- Jo Labanyi, Professor Emerita NYU Department of Spanish and Portuguese
During the Spanish Civil War, Harry Randall (1915-2012) volunteered to join the fight against fascism as a U.S. Abraham Lincoln Brigadier. A skilled photographer and film projectionist, Randall took on the role of Chief Photographer of the Photographic Unit of the 15th International Brigade from 1937-38. Shot on 16mm film, Randall's work documents the life of the troops as well as quotidian life in the Spanish countryside during the war. Reflecting on his role, Randall noted, "What was going on was important to us; we wanted to document it. We wanted to let the world know." This event will explore how the format's portability enabled its use during times of war. New York University Special Collections accessioned the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) Collection in 2000. NYU Professor Emerita and active ALBA Board member Dr. Jo Labanyi will discuss the role of documentary film during the war.
Free and open to the public. RSVP required.
About the speakers
Kimberly Tarr is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies and serves as the Associate Director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) program. Previously, she administered the Media Preservation program in NYU Libraries managing strategy and operations. She has been instrumental in preserving and restoring feature films, including The Grim Game (1919), the first feature film to star Harry Houdini, and Shu Lea Cheang's eco-feminist feature, Fresh Kill (1994). She earned her undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Arts from NYU MIAP. Since 2012, she has supported students' exploration of the theory and practice of media preservation as a MIAP instructor.
Jo Labanyi is Professor Emerita in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University. A founding editor of the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, she has published widely on 19th-21st-century Spanish culture. Her books include the co-edited Companion to Spanish Cinema (Blackwell, 2013) and co-authored Cultural History of Modern Literatures in Spain (Polity, 2021). She has a particular interest in the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, and is currently completing a co-authored oral history of cinema-going in early Francoist Spain. Her next project is a cultural history of the Spanish Civil War for Reaktion Books.