Sylvia Jarrico

Based on information from FBI cases, this documentary investigates the dark years of American cinema and attempts to discover the mechanisms leading to one of the most diabolical periods in US history.

This one-hour film, narrated by Actor BURT LANCASTER, explores the lingering effects of The Hollywood Blacklist, which occurred in the late forties and early fifties as part of the Anti-Communist witch-hunts that terrorized the nation. This film is seen through the eyes of the wives and children of the now deceased Hollywood figures whose careers were destroyed when studio bosses, along with guild and union officials capitulated to the demands of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

This powerful one-person show stars William Marshall (Blacula) as abolitionist and trusted Lincoln advisor Frederick Douglass. Based on Douglass’ essential writings, Sylvia Jarrico’s teleplay dramatizes the highly influential thinker’s life from the period surrounding his birth as an enslaved person through Reconstruction. Dixon trains his incisive video lens directly on Marshall as he addresses the audience, channeling Douglass’ profound insights on slavery, emancipation, suffrage and equal rights for all.