Pare Lorentz | |
|---|---|
_Pare_Lorentz.%2c_(1935_-_1942).jpg) Pare Lorentz, 1935—1942 | |
| Born | Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz (1905-12-11)December 11, 1905 Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States |
| Died | March 4, 1992(1992-03-04) (aged 86) Armonk, New York |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker and critic |
| Employer | Resettlement Administration |
| Organization(s) | WWII U.S. Army Air Corps,Colonel |
| Known for | |
| Movement | New Deal |
| Spouses | |
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Pare Lorentz (December 11, 1905 – March 4, 1992) was an American filmmaker known for his film work about theNew Deal. BornLeonard MacTaggart Lorentz inClarksburg, West Virginia he was educated atBuckhannon High School, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and West Virginia University.[1] As a young film critic in both New York City and Hollywood, Lorentz spoke out against censorship in the film industry.
As the most influential documentary filmmaker of theGreat Depression, Lorentz was the leading American advocate for government-sponsored documentary films.[2] His service as a filmmaker for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II was formidable, including technical films, documentation of bombing raids, and synthesizing raw footage ofNazi atrocities for an educational film on theNuremberg Trials. Nonetheless, Lorentz perennially will be known best as "FDR′s filmmaker."[2][3]
Lorentz left West Virginia University, in 1925, to begin a career as a writer and film critic in New York City.[4][1] He contributed articles to leading magazines such asScribner's,Vanity Fair,McCall's, andTown and Country.[5]
Lorentz also co-authored a 1929 book,Censored: the private life of the movie.
His work as a film critic led him to Hollywood, where he wrote several articles on censorship andThe Roosevelt Year: 1933, a pictorial review of the first year ofFranklin D. Roosevelt′s presidency. Roosevelt was impressed with the articles and the book, and in 1936, as president of the United States, invited Lorentz to make a government-sponsored film about theOklahoma Dust Bowl.[3]
Despite not having any film credits, Lorentz was appointed to theResettlement Administration as a film consultant. He was givenUS$6,000 to make a film, which becameThe Plow That Broke the Plains, a film that showed the natural and man–made devastation caused by the Dust Bowl. Though the tight budget and his inexperience occasionally showed through in the film, Lorentz's script, combined withThomas Hardie Chalmers′s narration andVirgil Thomson′s score, made the 30-minute movie powerful and moving. The film, which had its first public showing on May 10, 1936 at Washington, D.C′sMayflower Hotel, had a preview screening in March at theWhite House.[6] Roosevelt was impressed and, after his re-election in 1936, gave Lorentz the opportunity to make a film about one of the president's favorite subjects: conservation. Lorentz madeThe River, a film celebrating the exploits of theTennessee Valley Authority.[7]
The TVA mitigated flooding but, more importantly to Lorentz and to Roosevelt, it put a stop to the prodigiouspillaging of the forests by providing cheap, readily available hydro–electric power to a wide area. This film won the Best Documentary at theVenice International Film Festival. The text ofThe River appeared in book form, and was nominated for thePulitzer Prize in poetry the same year. It generally is considered his most masterful work.
When Republicans gained seats in Congress in 1938, and the congressional balance of power shifted in a more conservative direction, the pipeline of federal commissions for projects like Lorentz's were halted along with the short-lived existence of the US Film Service, which Lorentz headed. In 1940, he producedPower and the Land promoting theRural Electric Administration.[8] The REA took over its own production, and the film was directed byJoris Ivens, the prolific Dutch filmmaker best known for his anti–fascist documentaries.
Before the U.S. involvement in World War II, Lorentz madeThe Fight for Life (1940), a semi-documentary on the struggle to provide adequate natal (obstetric) care at the Chicago Maternity Center, based on a book byPaul de Kruif.John Steinbeck worked on the project with Lorentz.[1]
He made a film for RKOName, Age and Occupation that was never completed.
Lorentz served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, more specifically theAir Transport Command (ATC), accompanied byFloyd Crosby, who became an outstanding cinematographer during World War II. He was promoted to the rank of colonel. While serving, he made 275 pilot navigational films and minor documentaries for theU.S. Office of War Information (OWI) and theU.S. Information Agency (USIA), and filmed over 2,500 hours of bombing raids. (Note: Lorentz's name is not associated with any OWI or USIA films; his son Pare Lorentz, Jr., may have worked on a USIA film though most of his work was for USAID.) In 1946, Lorentz made a federally funded movie about theNuremberg trials, intended to help educate the German people as to what had happened during the war. In the process of compiling material, Lorentz reviewed over 1 million hours of footage about the Nazis and their atrocities.[1]Nuremberg, the film that resulted, played to "capacity audiences" in Germany for two years. However, it was not released in the United States until 1979.[9] This film was produced for the Civil Affairs Division of the Government of Military Occupation (OMGUS). Lorentz's role and contributions to this production are not entirely clear because he prematurely resigned and the Hollywood directorBudd Schulberg is given credit for completing it.
In the prosperity of the post–War period, there was no revival of partnerships with the federal government. He had ambitious plans to make documentaries about the New Deal and the United Nations, but funding was not available from government or private sources. His final film wasRural Co-op, which he wrote and directed in 1947.[3]
Lorentz lived a quiet life among the country gentry 37 miles (59.55 kilometres) north of New York City in the upscale town ofArmonk, New York until his death in 1992.[1]
TheInternational Documentary Association named itsPare Lorentz Documentary Fund, as well as the Pare Lorentz Film Festival and its grand prize in honor of Lorentz, granted to individuals whose work best represents the "democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision" of Lorentz."[10][11]
TheLibrary of Congress has made available on its website a full-length version ofThe River, open for public viewing at the print's digital ID ofhdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/ntscrm.00101008. This is a theatrical projection print acquired as part of the library's preservation program for films which were honored by being selected for listing on theNational Film Registry.[12] The followingXML page contains the print'smetadata as aDublin Core record:lccn.loc.gov/2007640253/dc.
The Pare Lorentz Center, located at theFranklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, but with its separate online presence, has links on its website to three films which were posted to YouTube by the FDR Library's account:
Stackpole Sons, 1st pub.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)The Plow That Broke The Plains (1936),The River (1938), andThe Fight for Life (1940).
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help) At theFranklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum