Pacific Street Films: 35th Anniversary Salute
March 19–24, 2004
Brooklyn neighbors Steven Fischler and Joel
Sucher founded Pacific Street Films in 1969 after studying under
Martin Scorsese at New
York University. During this time they had been filming undercover
agents who showed up at protest rallies, and they themselves were
harassed, photographed, and arrested. This experience became the
basis for their first documentary, Red Squad, completed in 1971.
Since then they have produced a series of nonfiction films illuminating
modern American social history. MoMA’s Department of Film and
Media recognizes the achievements of Pacific Street Films with a
two-program, five-film retrospective. For further information on
Pacific Street Films, visit www.psfp.com/aboutus.htm.
Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film
and Media. Thanks to Ryan Krivoshey and Cinema Guild in New York,
distributor of works by Pacific Street Films, for making this program
possible.
. 1971. USA. Directed by Howard Blatt, Steven Fischler,
Francis Freedland, Joel Sucher. A documentary about the surveillance
units of the New York City police and the FBI. 42 min.
. 1980. USA. Directed
by Steven Fischler, Joel Sucher. A documentary about the Jewish anarchist
movement and its evolution out of American immigrant sweatshop life
in the early twentieth century. 55 min.
.
1983. USA. Directed by Steven Fischler, Jane Prager, Joel Sucher.
Within the two years of its enormously popular career, this singing
group, which emerged from Harlem doo-wop sessions, became one of
the first to break the music color barrier. 27 min.
Program 124 min.
. 1989. USA. Directed by Steven Fischler, Joel Sucher, Sam
Roberts. In the 1890s, photojournalist
Jacob Riis examined poverty, homelessness, and race relations in
urban America. Using Riis’s photographs as well as his magic
lantern slides, this documentary contrasts the artist’s original
odyssey with the streets of New York today. 59 min.
. 2000. USA. Directed by Lori Cheatle, Steven
Fischler, Joel Sucher, Martin Toub. Based on the book by Gabrielle
Simon Edgcomb. In the 1930s, Jewish scholars who had fled Nazi Germany
for the United States were denied teaching positions at American
universities because of religious discrimination. Many, however,
were welcomed into black colleges in the segregated South. The film
traces the lasting relationships between teachers and students from
institutions like Howard University and Tougaloo College. 60 min.
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