Portside

Tech and disability, the French Murdoch, and more media flashes

The first time I saw Casablanca was 1992, The most recent was last night. On each viewing, I notice something I hadn’t seen before, walk away with something new. Casablanca is often described as a romance—and it is. It is a drama. It is a war film...

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The agreements with actors and writers represent a capitulation by Hollywood’s biggest companies, which started the bargaining process with an expectation that the unions, especially SAG-AFTRA, would be relatively compliant.

Anti-fascists, leftists, socialists, radicals, and revolutionaries looking for a horror film to watch this October should seek out one of Bela Lugosi’s classics. But please broaden your horizons beyond Dracula. You won’t regret it.

Writer Gary Phillips traces the history of the Writers Guild, the militancy of Hollywood unions, beginning with the writers, the difference between the writers and actors, and why the actors remain on strike.

Telling the story of a slave revolt in ancient Rome, the 1960 film Spartacus was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood and publishing.

The singer-songwriter met the demands of striking SAG-AFTRA, including streaming residuals, to release The Eras Tour documentary.