documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
directed by Jim Klein and
Julia Reichert
Julia Bell Reichert (June 16, 1946 – December 1, 2022) was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a direct ...
. It was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
The documentary film looks at the political activities and activism of Americans who were members or supporters of the American
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. It is one of the first non-fiction films to examine the role of a third political party in the United States.
Reaction
In a mixed review,
Dan Georgakas
Dan Georgakas ( el, Νταν Γεωργακάς; 1938–2021) was an American anarchist poet and historian, who specialized in oral history and the American labor movement, best known for the publication ''Detroit: I do mind dying: A study in u ...
wrote in '' Cineaste'' that "given the failure of the interviewees to seize the opportunity offered by the filmmakers, seeing Red is unable to penetrate new ideological terrain or reconcile the radical generations. Nevertheless, the film provides a vivid sense of the public life of rank and file Communists of the 1930s and 1940s." In a negative review for ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'',
Joshua Freeman
Joshua B. Freeman (born 1949) is an author and professor of history at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Graduate Center.
New Day Films New Day Films is a U.S. film distribution company based in Newburgh, New York that serves the non-theatrical market (colleges and universities, libraries, high schools, and community groups).
History
Founded in 1971 by Julia Reichert and James Klei ...