ALBA Celebrates Pride Month and Inaugurates New Monthly Spanish Civil War Film Series
ALBA’s Monthly Film Discussion Series Kicks Off
On July 16, ALBA hosted the first session of its new online film discussion series, sponsored by the Peter N. Carroll Anti-Fascist Education Fund, and geared toward both teachers and the general public. The series features in-depth discussions on important Spanish-Civil-War-themed films. Each session is led by an expert who also shares, in advance, a specially produced introductory video on each film. The first session featured Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001). Close to one hundred people joined for a deep-diving conversation about the film, which is set during the Spanish Civil War and explores history, memory, violence, and trauma through a Gothic lens. On August 13, Peter Carroll hosted a session on Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, in which the Spanish Civil War looms larger than many think. Both sessions can be viewed at ALBA’s YouTube channel. In September, the session will focus on Víctor Erice’s haunting classic The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena). To sign up, keep an eye on ALBA’s email announcement or visit the ALBA website.
ALBA Celebrates Pride Month
On June 25, ALBA commemorated LGBTQ Pride month with an online event entitled “Telling Our Stories,” featuring Shannon O’Neill and Bettina Aptheker. O’Neill, Curator for the Tamiment-Wagner Collections at NYU Special Collections and ex-officio ALBA board member, re-acquainted the audience with the ALBA archives and highlighted the importance of telling the stories of LGBTQ volunteers and the challenges involved. Aptheker discussed her book Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s. Drawing on the ALBA collection, among other archives, the book recounts the struggles of the Party to come to grips with the many LGBTQ folks among its rank-and-file. To view this lively and informative session, visit ALBA’s YouTube channel.
