Anarchist Emma Goldman, also known as "Red Emma," was once described by a young J. Edgar Hoover as the most dangerous woman in America. Born to Russian Jewish parents, Goldman was radicalized by the 1886 Haymarket Square bombings in Chicago (in which several anarchists were implicated for murder and hanged on flimsy evidence), becoming convinced that revolution was the only means to improve the lot of working-class men and women during America's Gilded Age. Passionately devoted to free speech, birth control, draft resistance, and workers' rights, Goldman campaigned tirelessly until, in the wake of the post-World War I "red scare," she was deported to Russia, where she met Lenin and witnessed the Communist revolution, but became disillusioned by the Soviets' indifference to free speech and individual liberties. Produced by Canadian filmmaker Coleman Romalis, this documentary focuses on Goldman's later years of self-imposed exile in Toronto, Canada, a place she often found dull and confining, but which offered her a haven to continue her work in speaking out against social injustice. In a story that will be somewhat familiar to those who saw Maureen Stapleton's Oscar-winning turn as Goldman in the film Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds, the documentary covers Goldman's life and times from Haymarket Square to her last years opposing fascism in the Spanish Civil War, as aging friends and sympathizers recall an energetic woman who lived life to the fullest and had her share of lovers, despite her rather dowdy appearance. Between the interviews and some rare footage of an elderly but still defiant Goldman, the biography offers a valuable but incomplete view (more of a biographical sketch than a completely realized portrait) of an often misunderstood radical. Recommended, with reservations. [Note: also newly available from PBS Video is the American Experience entry Emma Goldman, priced for home video at $24.98 on VHS and $29.98 on DVD.] Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)
Emma Goldman: The Anarchist Guest
(2000) 42 min. VHS or DVD: $159. Coleman Romalis (tel: 416-657-1708, email: <a href="mailto:colemanromalis@rogers.com">colemanromalis@rogers.com</a>). PPR. Color cover. January 24, 2005
Emma Goldman: The Anarchist Guest
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