Nominated for the 1984 Best Documentary Feature Oscar, Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists is a film about passionate commitment, numbing disillusionment, and renewal. Directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein, the rousing Seeing Red features rank-and-file Americans who joined the U.S. Communist party in the 1930s, fighting for racial and economic justice, only to see their lives attacked in the McCarthy era 1950s, including Pete Seeger, who, in the film, admits for the first time that he was a communist.

One of the most widely seen theatrical documentaries of the 1980s, Seeing Red premiered at the Telluride and New York Film Festivals and played in nearly 100 cities before finally being nominated for the Academy Award (Julia’s second nomination of four).

In Person: Filmmaker Steven Bognar

With support from Participant