Screenwriters, actors, musicians, all of the characters we see and hear in this film were, as they used to say, blacklisted – inscribed on Hollywood’s blacklist in the 1950s. They were filmed at a “survivors’ reception” organised by two young cinema enthusiasts in the early 1980s. Both fresh out of university, the two young men contacted everyone that they could track down. Some had served time in prison, some were exiled in Europe, some had made a complete career change, and others, after working under a false name, had been able to resume their true identity, and even become famous (again). On the day of the gathering in Los Angeles the excitement was palpable, and this comes through in the film. The young organisers took time filming these reunions, and then conducted one-toone interviews with 20 or so guests who talked about their stories: their lives and careers, ruined by a suspicion or a denouncement. Now the two friends have grown old. One became a university professor in the US and authored many books on great American film directors. The 36 hours of interviews they amassed remained packed in their boxes, never shown. Scanned and restored, these intertwining stories come together to form the warp and weft of our story. They add weight and humanity to the memory of these men (and some women) who fought for free speech and lost, crushed by the steamroller of propaganda.

Christopher Jones