Tacoma Public Library's Spring Film Series:
Films of Power & Fear

As Tacomans read and discuss Arthur Miller's classic play, The Crucible, during Tacoma Reads Together 2006, the Library's Spring Film Series explores the events which inspired Miller to tell the story of the Salem Witch Trials, as well as other films that examine this tumultuous time in America's past or that provide a unique perspective on the hysteria and paranoia of the early 1950s.

This film series is cosponsored by the Tacoma Grand Cinema, and each film will be introduced by Jaime Simmons of the Grand Cinema staff. Please note: due to adult subject matter, these films are not recommended for children ages 14 and under unless otherwise stated.

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Thursday, March 2 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
The Crucible (1996 - 124 minutes)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Joan Allen star in the story of a young girl who terrorizes her town by accusing fellow townsfolk of practicing witchcraft. Arthur Miller, who adapted the movie's screenplay from his acclaimed play, believed the play was still relevant. "It's about panic, paranoia, about people believing in things that don't exist and going a little crazy because of that," said Miller. "And I'm afraid it doesn't go away."

Saturday, March 4 @ 2 p.m.
Moore Library
The Front (1976 - 95 minutes)
Written by, directed by, and starring various talents blacklisted during the McCarthy-era witch hunts of the 1950s entertainment industry, the film stars Woody Allen as Howard, a cashier and bookie approached by a blacklisted television-writer to act as a "front," i.e., the alleged author of the writer's works. The scam proves hugely successful until congressional investigators dig into Howard's past for Communist ties and squeeze him to name others with supposed links to the Red Menace.

Thursday, March 9 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
Guilty by Suspicion (1991 - 105 minutes)
David Merrill (Robert DeNiro), a fictitious 1950s Hollywood director, returns from filming abroad in France to find that his loyalty has been called into question by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and he is unable to work until cleared.

Saturday, March 11 @ 2 p.m.
Moore Library
Point of Order (1964 - 93 minutes)
Compiled from TV footage of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, in which the Army accused Senator McCarthy of improperly pressuring the Army for special privileges for Private David Schine, formerly of McCarthy's investigative staff. McCarthy accused the Army of holding Schine hostage to keep him from searching for Communists in the Army. These hearings resulted in McCarthy's eventual censure for conduct unbecoming a senator

Thursday, March 16 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
The Devils (1971 - 111 minutes)
Based on a historical facts, as told by Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudon, Ken Russell's controversial film explores how Cardinal Richelieu and his power-hungry followers use accusations of witchcraft and devil worship to take over the small provincial (and walled) town of Loudon in pre-Renaissance France. Due to graphic violence, adult language and subject matter, this film is not recommended for viewers' 18 years old and under. Post film discussion led by Jaime Simmons, The Grand Cinema.

Saturday, March 18 @ 2 p.m.
Moore Library
Mean Girls (2004 - 97 minutes)
How much damage can be caused by one 'little' lie? Based on Rosalind Wiseman's best-selling "Queen Bees and Wannabes," Mean Girls is set in the hormone-pressurized, clique-ruled high school world and puts the dark impulses of human nature--ambition, envy, lust, lies, gossip and revenge-under a comic and scathing microscope. Post film discussion led by Jaime Simmons, The Grand Cinema.

Thursday, March 23 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
Edward R. Murrow: The McCarthy Years (114 minutes)
Few dared stand up to crusading anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy like Edward R. Murrow. In this gripping series of broadcasts from the Fifties, narrated by former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, Murrow challenges McCarthy's abuses of power and helps signal the emergence of television news as an influential force in American life

Saturday, April 1 @ 2 p.m.
Moore Library
Hollywood on Trial (1976, 100 minutes)
"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" is the familiar phrase that echoes through David Helpern's portrait of Congress's Hollywood witch hunt, the dark period of American Cold War hysteria that opened the door for Joseph McCarthy's "red-baiting" reign of terror. Hundreds of Hollywood artists had their civil rights suspended when they were called before Congress to confess their Communist dealings, past and present, and identify other potential "enemies of democracy." A brilliant film about a turbulent time in our nation's history.