1997 Virginia Film Festival

Press Release
For further information: Victoria Joyce (804) 361-1259


Filmmaker John Berry to shine light on Hollywood Blacklist at The Virginia Film Festival

Charlottesville, Virginia: - The Virginia Film Festival is pleased to announce that director John Berry, sent into exile nearly fifty years ago by the infamous Hollywood blacklist, will be a featured guest at the four-day event which runs October 30 through November 2, 1997 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Berry will attend the screenings of two of his most famous films, He Ran All The Way (1951) starring John Garfield, in his last role, with Shelly Winters (Oct. 30, 7pm, Regal Downtown Mall) and Tamango (1957) with Dorothy Dandridge (Nov. 1, 4pm, Vinegar Hill). Berry will also participate in the discussion of Red Hollywood (1996) which examines the work of blacklisted directors and the cultural and ideological struggles that were taking place within Hollywood and America in general following the second World War (Nov. 1, 1pm, Vinegar Hill). The blacklist, which began exactly fifty years ago, is a form of surreptitious imprisonment being explored as part of the Virginia Film Festival's 1997 theme, Caged!

A protege of the legendary Orson Welles and John Houseman, Berry got his first break at 17 when he joined their Mercury Theater in New York. It was also thanks to Houseman that Berry got his major break in Hollywood when, in 1944, Houseman, then a producer at Paramount, tapped him to replace Harold Clurman as director of Miss Susie Slagle's. A child of the Great Depression, Berry was a political leftist with a strong belief in the need to fight against social oppression. He did, however, learn to temper his comments and until 1950 had managed to avoid the attention of the blacklisters. In 1951, however, he agreed to direct a film in defense of the Hollywood Ten. Although his involvement was meant to be unrecognized, his role was exposed and he came under investigation by the FBI. To avoid questioning when agents arrived at his door, Berry went out the window, literally, and fled to Paris.

The intercession of the FBI came just as Berry's career as a director was poised to take off. 1951 was the year in which, as Berry ran to Paris, He Ran All The Way was released. The first film to focus on a family held hostage in their own home by convicts, He Ran All The Way is a powerful film noir that has developed a loyal following over the years.

In France, Berry continued to examine the issues of friendship and betrayal he tackled so powerfully in He Ran All The Way. In 1957, he directed Tamango, the tale of an attempted slave rebellion on a pirate slave ship in 1820. In a triangle formed by a revolutionary slave leader and the captain of the ship, Asche, the bi-racial concubine portrayed by Dorothy Dandridge, is trapped between her own self-interest (her lover, the captain, offers her the promise of freedom) and loyalty to her fellow slaves. Tamango is often described as a parable for Dandrige's own experiences as a black actress in the 50s when Hollywood offered money and recognition but withheld respect.

While the majority of Berry's films since the 50s were filmed for a French audience (and, according to a recent Film Comment story, are overdue for rediscovery in the U.S.), he directed Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones to fine reviews in Claudine (1974).

Details of all scheduled films, together with details of how to order tickets by mail, are in the Festival Guide. Guides are available in and around Charlottesville and are available by mail. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, please call 1-800-UVA-FEST.