Overcoming Silence - 9 June 2010
Exploring New Sources on the Workers Film and Photo League
by Daniel Frontino Elash
The Workers Film and Photo League (WFPL) was a short-lived attempt by committed Communists to build a proletarian capacity to produce pro-worker newsreels. It often functioned through the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), producing footage of strikes, demonstrations, and other such events. Its short period of activity (ca. 1932-34) does not indicate its disproportionate importance in American documentary film history. Many involved were later involved in projects like Frontier Films (which produced Native Land, 1942) and Independent Production Company (which produced Salt of the Earth, 1954). Many names from the WFPL were later named before HUAC. For example, Elia Kazan got his early start in filmmaking through artists' networks established in the WFPL.
WFPL locals are known to have existed in New York and in California, each having produced several reels of footage still known to exist. In New York City, about 6 reels' worth of materials are preserved at Anthology Film Archives. In Los Angeles, the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research also holds about six reels' worth of material, available for viewing on premises in VHS format. The California material contains footage from agricultural workers' strikes in Southern California in the early 1930s; footage of the comrades who jumped the field at the Los Angeles Olympics with "Free Tom Mooney" t-shirts; and footage of the warm reception given Mooney by thousands of workers in Los Angeles upon his release from prison.
New sources continue to emerge, offering tantalizing glimpses into the organization and work of the WFPL. One fine example is the materials from the Comintern Files, which have been microfilmed and are generally available through academic Interlibrary Loan programs in the USA. From the 1920s through the start of World War II, the Communist Party USA was in the habit of sending copies of important organizational documents to be filed for safekeeping in the Comintern's archives. Several of these files, or "delos," contain primary source material on the WFPL, though not all of the materials are legible.
Delo 2209 contains a four-page, unsigned document attempting to convince the CPUSA to systematically support the work of the WFPL. Dated December 16 [1932?], it summarizes the program of the WFPL in its own words:
"Concretely: The next six months must witness the development of the WORKERS FILM AND PHOTO LEAGUE OF AMERICA into an organization capable of producing at least a thousand feet of workers' News weekly. By spring we must be ready to project films at open-air meetings on a wide scale; the issuance of a monthly organ for struggle against the bourgeois film and for the popularization and development of the workers' film movement; the forming of classes to train workers in the shooting of films with hand cameras. This is our immediate program and we are pledged to carry it forward to the conquest of the film! (Delo 2209, page 18)"
Delo 3385 contains several pieces of correspondence dated 1933, between I. Franklin and various individuals. These documents indicate the formation of Garrison Film Distributors, Incorporated, 729 - 7th Avenue, New York City, BRyant 9-2914. Their letterhead also indicates that they are "Distribution Agents for German and Russian Films." They further describe their work in an unsigned letter dated March 14, 1933:
"We have advised you during the months of October and November of last year that the Garrison Film Company has been organized to act as a central distributing organization for films to workers clubs, fraternal organizations and unions. This firm has been trying to reduce prices of films in order to make it possible for our various bodies to have showings and realize profit while at the same time spreading out in certain sections that have never before shown Soviet films. To date they have already acquired the following... films: POTEMKIN TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD END OF ST. PETERSBURG CHINA EXPRESS FRAGMENTS OF AN EMPIRE TWO THIEVES (Delo 3385, page 4)"
Progress in showing such films in new places, such as at Atlanta, Georgia, is reported in an unsigned letter dated July 14, 1933. (Delo 3385, page 6) Several letters refer to arrangements for the American distribution of Kuhle Wampe:
"We have your letter with reference to the film, KUHLE WAMPE. This film is an Anti-Hitler picture and was made by a radical group in Germany. The leading stars are Herthe Thiele who played in MAEDCHEN IN UNIFORM and Ernst Busch from KAMERADESCHAFT. ... There seems to be a misunderstanding on this film. This is a regular talkie with a lot of beautiful revolutionary music... (Delo 3385, page 10)"
Garrison Film's close ties with the CPUSA, and the implications of those ties for wider distribution in American leftist circles, are make clear in a letter signed by I. Franklin and dated November 30, 1933. (Delo 3385, pages 12-14) That letter also describes film distribution efforts in specific localities, including Chicago and Cleveland. Another undated letter signed by I. Franklin indicates difficulties in retrieving circulating copies of films. The letter makes clear an attempt to interact with a CPUSA section organizer as a local film distribution agent. (Delo 3385, page 17) An undated, unsigned document exhorting comrades to get and show films briefly describes the contents of the films listed on page four (above), as well as some of the available newsreels:
"There are also a number of newsreels that can be shown dealing with events in this country such as May Day demonstrations, a film on Scottsboro, March 6th, Miners Strikes, etc. (Delo 3385, page 18)"
As few documents as exist in the Comintern Files, they are a wealth of information on the WFPL, not least of all indicating how little is still known of them and their work. An excellent, concise history of the WFPL by Carla Lashne was published volume 18 of "Film History" (2006; 361-373). Mostly focused on WFPL activities in California, the article includes photos, product descriptions, and quotes from interviews of people who were involved. Perhaps the most interesting quote is from Lester Balog, who describes the fate of the San Francisco WFPL cache:
"Burned them! Believe it or not. I must have had seven or eight 400-foot reels, silent, 16mm. And what happens is, there were many people on it, some of whom were Lefts, Communists, Socialists, who were in demonstrations that may have had signs ... in '52, we had some 'visitors' and that worried me, and my wife too ... I didn't want to incriminate people who may have changed since then ... after three or four days, I burned the stuff. Yeah, I know, it broke my heart. (371)"
As the above quote illustrates, much of this material may not have survived the McCarthyist 1950s. The importance of this kind of material to American documentary filmmaking tradition, suggests that the task of identifying, locating, and publicizing such resources should be given some priority by film researchers, historians, and activists.