Locarno Film Festival retrospective to explore Hollywood's McCarthy era and blacklist

The 79th Locarno Film Festival will present a retrospective dedicated to Hollywood during the McCarthy era, exploring the period of anti-communist witch hunts and the subsequent blacklist that affected hundreds of American artists.

Titled "Red & Black – Hollywood's Left Wing and the Blacklist," the retrospective is curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, who has led the festival's retrospectives for four years. Following previous themes on Mexican cinema, Columbia Pictures, and post-war British cinema, this program delves into a politically charged chapter of Hollywood history.

Around forty films will be screened, directly engaging with the political and social history of the 1940s and 1950s. The festival aims to highlight how the film industry found itself at the forefront of the anti-communist fervor, a position many would have preferred to avoid. The retrospective will examine the careers of artists who were blacklisted, with some choosing exile, particularly in London, while others relocated to Mexico.

The festival intends for attendees to draw parallels between the historical events and contemporary issues. The "witch hunt" against communists, intensified by Senator Joseph McCarthy, initially targeted Hollywood before spreading across the United States. This retrospective offers a critical look at a period when political ideology profoundly impacted artistic careers and freedom of expression in the American film industry.