Seeing red: Stories of American Communists

Seeing Red, and Oscar-nominated feature documentary, produced over six years by Julia Reichert and James Klein, takes an intimate look at the people who made up the Great American Taboo, the U.S. Communist Party. Through personal interviews with rank-and-file members as well as much never before seen archival footage, SEEING RED paints a picture of Communist’s activity in its flower during the 1930s and 40s – when more than a million Americans joined the Communist Party – and, in a dramatic turnaround, relates the decision to leave by many Communists after the Stalin revelations of 1956. SEEING RED shows a remarkable group of people, full of humour and warmth, stirringly able to reflect on the strength and weakness of the movement to which they devoted much of their lives. Among those appearing in the film are Pete Seeger, Dorothy Healey, Bill Bailey, Howard “Stretch” Johnson and a dozen other former or current Communists, as well as official figure including Ronald Reagan, Hubert Humphrey, J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon. Significance: the program in quite controversial in its own country, having been attacked from both left and right while drawing a large audience nevertheless. Is also expands the social documentary genre via its use of “epic” film elements juxtaposed with very probing personal interviews.