Film and Photo League, Program 2

1) The National Hunger March 1931 (11 min.): Concentrating on the groundswell of activity as 1650 men and women, black and white, set out from disparate parts of the U.S. to represent 12 million unemployed, the League filmmakers assembled views of various groups as they passed through different cities bound for Washington: Boston, Providence, New Haven, Buffalo, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis. 2) America Today/The World in Review (11 min.): America Today features protests against the first U.S. envoy from Nazi Germany, the jailing of striking workers in New York and against the framing of the Scottsboro Boys. It also depicts farmers' action against scab milk shipments in Wisconsin and a vicious, armed attack on striking steel and metal workers in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. The World in Review depicts world leaders (Mussolini, Hitler and FDR) preparing for war, Nazi stormtroopers enforcing the anti- Jewish boycott and the French Popular Front opposing fascism in France. 3)Bonus March 1932 (12 min.): This film begins with an ironic homage to the heroes of World War I and Congressional legislation to provide a future service bonus for veterans. When a Bonus Expeditionary Force of unemployed servicemen arrived in Washington to demand immediate payment of their bonus money, President Hoover called out the regular army, under the command of MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower, which gassed the vets out of the capital. The film sounds the call for renewed struggle reflecting the League's conviction that the film medium must serve as an essential weapon.