CARL MARZANI AND UNION FILMS: Making Left-Wing Documentaries during the Cold War, 1946–53

• Published in: Moving image (Minneapolis, Minn.) Minn.), 2009-04, Vol.9 (1), p.104-160
• Main Author: MUSSER, CHARLES
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 1940s; Activism; Activists; American cinema; Campaigns; Communism; Criticism and interpretation; Deadlines; Documentaries; Documentary films; Film companies; Film criticism; Film directors; Film history; Filmmakers; Labor unions; Marcantonio, Vito; Marzani, Carl; Motion picture industry; Movies; Political aspects; Political attitudes; Political campaigns; Political filmmaking; Politics in motion pictures; Postwar periods; Progressive parties; Theater; Works
• ISSN: 1532-3978; 1542-4235; 1542-4235
• DOI: 10.1353/mov.0.0040

The author discusses filmmaker Carl Marzani's production company Union Films, its 1948 campaign film "People's Congressman" for Congressman Vito Marcantonio, and the importance of Union Films in post-World War II documentary filmmaking. Marzani was a liberal political activist that joined the left-wing Unity Theater in London in the 1930s. Marzani's connection with Marcantonio, at first political and later personal, began during the 1940 election. His filmmaking began after he joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 and started making documentaries for the US government. The labor organization, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE), began working with Marzani in 1946 under the moniker Union Films and producing films that criticized corporate America and stirred controversy from the government. Union Films was the most productive and dynamic left-wing organization making documentaries in the immediate post-World War II era despite Marzani's constant legal battles.