Trisha Ziff's Mexican Suitcase (trailer, Kickstarter), which after successful runs at DocuWeeks in New York and Los Angeles is on its way to the San Sebastián Film Festival, is continuing to attract the media's attention. "Memory is at the center of The Mexican Suitcase (La Maleta Mexicana), Trisha Ziff’s magnificent, complex...
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Chris Books, the ALBA Board member who is responsible for much of our online database of Lincoln Brigade volunteers, never stops researching for his Biographical Dictionary Project. Follow his latest questions and finds on his blog, Americans in the Spanish Civil War.
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Millie Rosenstein, wife of Lincoln vet Herman Rosenstein, passed away earlier this month at the age of 96 in her hometown of Santa Monica, California. The LookOut News writes:
The mother of former Santa Monica mayor Paul Rosenstein, Millie was a force...
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Film International magazine dedicates a good part of its current issue (vol. 9, no. 4) to three giants of Spanish Civil War filmmaking: Jaime Camino (La vieja memoria, Los niños de Rusia), Basilio Martín Patino (Queridísimos verdugos, Caudillo) and Vicente Aranda (Libertarias). Preview here.
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Hugh Thomas, whose The Spanish Civil War (1961) marked a milestone, was interviewed on NPR last week about his latest take on Spanish history: The Golden Empire: Spain, Charles V, and the Creation of America:
THOMAS: I'm still thought of in Spain, to some extent, as Hugh Thomas of the Spanish...
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Trisha Ziff's new documentary Mexican Suitcase (trailer, Kickstarter), on the photography and historical memory of the Spanish Civil War, was among the casualties of hurricane Irene; but before the New York DocuWeeks screenings were suspended yesterday, it was officially selected for San Sebastián's Made in Spain category, for the DocMiami...
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The Latin American Herald Tribune alerts us to the publication of a new study of Cuban volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. In "La leyenda roja. Los cubanos en la guerra civil española," Denise Urcelay-Maragnès tells the story of the more than 1,000 Cubans--including a sizable number of Cuban exiles from the United...
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This event has been canceled due to expected weather conditions in New York. Tomorrow at 7:35pm at the IFC Center as part of the DocuWeeks: Special screening of "Mexican Suitcase" (86', Mexico, Spain) followed by Q&A with director Trisha Ziff. Tickets for individual films at the IFC Center are $13; $8 for ALBA's Friends - presenting...
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AMIGO, the 17th feature film from Academy Award-nominated writer-director John Sayles, stars legendary Filipino actor Joel Torre as Rafael, a village mayor caught in the murderous crossfire of the Philippine-American War.
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WPA 2.0 The Brand New Deal Cultural Arts Series Presents "Pasiones: Songs of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939," featuring Jamie O'Reilly & Michael Smith, with Katrina O'Reilly-Greene & Bob Weber. Sunday October 9, 2:00 pm, SPACE 1245 Chicago Ave, Evanston, Il. Tickets: evanstonspace.com. Produced by J. O’Reilly Productions and portoluz.orgInfo 773 989-7825. More information
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Learn more at our website or
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New information about the New Zealand-born Spanish Civil War surgeon Doug Jolly (1904-1983) has emerged following the recent publication of his biography, Frontline Surgeon.
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On September 24, 1945, Dr. Barsky delivered this speech during the Spanish Refugee Appeal rally at Madison Square Garden.
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In 1944, Barsky wrote A Surgeon Goes to War, an 18-chapter memoir of his time in Spain, which was never published but can be consulted at NYU’s Tamiment Library. This is the first chapter.
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Self-effacing and shy though he was, Dr. Edward Barsky’s experience in Spain made him an outspoken activist, tireless organizer, innovative frontline surgeon, and political prisoner. “Eddie is a saint,” Hemingway wrote. “That’s where we put our saints in this country—in jail.”
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The Volunteer is thrilled to honor Dr. Barsky on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
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For Edward Barsky, political and humanitarian activism were two sides of the same coin. Those who persecuted him begged to differ.
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The time she spent in civil-war Spain loomed large in the life of Martha Gellhorn, the St. Louis-born war journalist. “The truth is that Martha could not stop thinking, feeling, and writing about her Spanish experiences.” “Objectivity bullshit.” That’s what Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) called the journalism of her day. Her letters to personalities like...
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Among the thousands of Jewish volunteers who joined the International Brigades were many descendants of the Sephardim. What was it like for them to “return” to Spain? Three case studies: Lini de Vries, César Covo, and Samuel Nahman, aka Manny Harriman.
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How the 22-year-old Jewish American dancer Janet Riesenfeld performed flamenco to help raise money for the Second Republic under fascist attack.
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Why did Jawaharlal Nehru, future prime minister of India, visit civil-war Spain in 1938? As it turned out, the triangular relationship between Britain, Spain, and India had deep cultural and geopolitical implications.
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ALBA's project to provide a complete list of the more than 2,800 individuals who left from U.S. territory to fight with the Spanish Republic
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