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- For over 100 years, Hollywood cinema has crafted the ultimate "villain"-the Indian, as they were labeled in early Westerns. Confined almost exclusively to this genre, the Western became a vehicle for American racism, obscuring the genocide upon which the United States was built. For more than four decades, these films glorified "Manifest Destiny" and the conquest of so-called "wild" lands, with little regard for those who stood in the way. It wasn't until the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s that a shift occurred. A new wave of films, such as Little Big Man and Soldier Blue, emerged, offering more authentic portrayals of Native Americans and acknowledging the horrific massacres they endured. In this documentary, only Native Americans are given a voice to share their story, one that has been overshadowed by Hollywood's portrayal. Their narrative, part of the larger American story, highlights how cinema has long been used as a powerful propaganda tool, distorting history and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
- Hopkins' career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him back into the context of each period and will be helpful in understanding his role in the history of cinema, because he was far from following the trends. He never belonged to any film movement; he is a chameleon that has always preferred natural acting, 'non-acting' when method acting was the fashion.
- Dorothy Arzner was Hollywood's most powerful director, though History has forgotten her. She began working in the film industry at 19 as a "cutter" before the advent of editors, and gradually worked her way up through the studio system. Determined and ambitious, she was accepted as a director at Paramount, as the first woman to direct a talking picture for the star Clara Bow. A true pioneer of the cinema, she was the only woman director at a major Hollywood studio in the 1930s and 1940s, openly lesbian, dressed like a man, making movies "avant-gardiste" about women condition.She was a mentor for Francis Ford Coppola, who considers her as one of the most important woman director of Hollywood.
- The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.
- AmaIn the 1950s and 1960s, Ida Lupino was the only woman in Hollywood with a serious career as a director: first in cinema and mainly for her own production company The Filmmakers Inc., and then in television, contributing episodes to some of the most celebrated series of the era. A staunch Democrat and Catholic, Lupino's cinema often tackled subjects considered risky if not outright taboo in her day, ranging from rape and bigamy to the way people suffering from polio were ostracised. Too humble for the vanity fair that is Hollywood, independent producer-writer-director Lupino remained historically a fringe figure in film - when she should have been venerated as one of the most complete and politically responsible filmmakers of all time. With their Ida Lupino: Gentlemen and Miss Lupino, Clara and Julia Kuperberg now offer a concise look at her career, themes, obsessions and achievements, bringing a long-overdue appreciation of this loneliest of path-breakers.
- Mary Pickford's name remains inseparable from the legend of American cinema. She invented the star system at the beginning of the 20th century, and was the biggest star ever known, not just in Hollywood, but worldwide, at a time when actors didn't even have their names on movie posters. She was more than a pioneer, she was a jack-of-all-trades: world-famous star, producer and formidable businesswoman, screenwriter and director in the shadows, studio boss, Mary Pickford alone embodied the entire legend of cinema and the advent of women in that particular era.
- Gene Tierney's life story would perfectly lend itself to a screenplay for a successful Hollywood movie with herself starring in it. She grew up in a well-to-do middle class family and began to write poetry at an early age. On a trip to Los Angeles she was taken on a tour through the Warner Studios. When Anatole Litvak spotted her, he said to her mother : she ought to be in pictures. This was the beginning of a long career with masterpieces as Laura, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Leave Her to Heaven. For Martin Scorsese, she is maybe the most underrated actress of our time.
- During the 1930s anti-Semitism was rampant not only in Germany but also in America. There was a German American Bund and pro-Nazi rallies even filled Madison Square Gardens in New York City. And the US was isolationist. Until Pearl Harbor, then, everything changed. Spymasters throughout the 20th century, and particularly during times of conflict, thought it advantageous to enlist the services of celebrities who had high level and powerful "fans" in various industries, many with easy access to politicians and high ranking government officials. Hollywood, as we now know from declassified National Archive documents, aided in the mobilization for war and its people contributed as spies, combatants, propagandists, documentary and fund-raisers, entertainers, and morale- boosters. Hundreds of celebrities eagerly answered the "call to arms" and brought their talents and patriotism to the intelligence services, military and war information offices. In the wake of Pearl Harbor President Franklin Roosevelt by executive order formed in June 1942 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of today's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In the National Archives we discover that stars as Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Leslie Howard, Josephine Baker, John Ford and many more, were spies for the Allies, and changed the curse of the war. They did amazing things, dangerous things, and their fame was their asset. This untold story is very accurate and relevant still today.
- The dashing and dazzling Douglas Fairbanks was the movie star who "swash buckled in Zorro, dueled exuberantly in Robin Hood and soared magnificently in The Thief of Bagdad". He was the "First King of Hollywood". His life story unfolds with American history and the emergence of the film industry as backdrop. His style made him the perfect American icon. At a time when the country did not have any self-doubt, he represented America like no one else: strong, confident, heroic, smiling and conquering. He was "Everybody's Hero". He married the "America's Sweetheart"; Mary Pickford, he also started, with Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith, the United Artists Studio which is still a Hollywood player today. This film is the life of Douglas Fairbanks in a first person narration.
