6 April marks the debut of the film, “Ivan’s Childhood” sometimes also known as “My Name is Ivan”. It was the premiere film of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. The film relates the story of a …
Arts
I Knock at the Door
30 March marks the birthday of Irish playwright and memoirist, Sean O’Casey. O’Casey was the first Irish playwright of note to focus his work on the themes of the Dublin working class. O’Casey’s father died …
Coal Country
On 28 March, 1977, the film, ‘Harlan County, USA’ was awarded the ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar at the 49th Annual Academy Awards. The film, which chronicles a protracted struggle of 180 miners and their wives against the …
A Grand Hungarian
25 March marks the birthdate of Hungarian composer and pianist, Bela Bartok, in 1881. The picture above is of a statue of Bartok in Mako, Hungary. In Pozsony, Bartok gave his first public recital at …
Ingrid Bergamn – This Week’s Women in History Profile
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who became best known to American audiences through her role in the 1942 motion picture, ‘Casablanca’. In 1949, Bergman wrote to Italian director Roberto Rossellini, expressing her admiration for …
Vivan Maier – This Week’s Profile in Women’s History
Vivian Maier was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago’s North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her …
Who Will Speak Out?
6 March marks the day on which Martin Niemöller died in 1984. Niemoller was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. A German Navy and WWI Veteran, Niemöller was a …
A Powerful Voice
21 February marks the birthday of singer Nina Simone. The sixth child of a preacher’s family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied …
Man with a Movie Camera
11 February marks the day that Sergei Eisenstein died in 1948. Eisenstein was a Soviet movie director and film theorist and is recognized world-wide as a pioneer in film making. At the Petrograd Institute of …
Citizen 13660
10 February marks the birthday of Mine Okubo in Riverside, California in 1912. Okubo is best known for her graphic illustrated memoir in which she told the story of her families internment during World War …