Nelson Algren

Algren

Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren's brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and "literary soulmates," as well as through the photography of Algren's friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.

Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, the Road Is All...

An in-depth feature length documentary of one of America's greatest and least understood authors, Nelson Algren. This never before told compelling life story reveals a unique literary voice through rare interviews, archival footage and the gritty noirish voice of Algren on Algren. Kurt Vonnegut and Studs Terkel, literary giants in their own right, sing songs of praise along with many of his old friends, which makes this film seem like a hymn from the grave. This stylishly produced film embeds us in the 1950's cold war world when Algren worked. Algren's touching love affair with Simone de Beauvoir weaves it's way through the film along with the damaging impact of FBI and CIA surveillance.

The New Deal for Artists

The Arts Project of the Work Projects Administration (1935-1942) was a USA government agency established to support writers, theater people, painters, sculptors, and photographers.

Fearless Frank

A country boy arrives in Chicago, gets killed by some gangsters, and returns to life with superhuman powers in this satirical look at movie genres.

Goldstein

GOLDSTEIN, the feature film debut of talented director Philip Kaufman, is an early example of American independent filmmaking from the early 1960s. A fable about an old man with an odd effect on those he encounters, the film is a funny, warm-hearted postcard from an important moment in American cinema. GOLDSTEIN, starring veteran character actor Lou Gilbert, shared the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival with Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution. Cinema deity Jean Renoir called the film "the best American film I have seen in 20 years."