Pare Lorentz
Encyclopedia
Pare Lorentz was an American
filmmaker known for his movies about the New Deal
. Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in Clarksburg, West Virginia
, he was educated at Wesleyan College
and West Virginia University
. As a young film critic in New York
and Hollywood, Lorentz spoke out against censorship in the film industry. As the most influential documentary filmmaker of the Great Depression
, Lorentz was the leading US advocate for government-sponsored documentary films. His service as a filmmaker for US Army Air Corps in WWII was formidable, including technical films, documentation of bombing raids, and synthesizing raw footage of Nazi atrocities for an educational film on the Nuremberg Trials
. Nonetheless, Lorentz will always be known best as "FDR's filmmaker."
, Vanity Fair
, McCall's
, and Town and Country
. and co-authored a 1929 book, Censored: the private life of the movie.
His work as a film critic led him to Hollywood, where he wrote several articles on censorship and a pictorial review of the first year of Franklin D. Roosevelt
's presidency, The Roosevelt Year: 1933. Roosevelt was impressed with the articles and the book, and in 1936, as President of the United States, invited Lorentz to make a government-sponsored film about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl
. Despite not having any film credits, Lorentz was appointed to the Resettlement Administration
as a film consultant. He was given US$6,000 to make a film, which became The Plow That Broke the Plains
, a film that showed the natural and man-made devastation caused by the Dust Bowl. Though the tight budget and his inexperience occasionally showed through in the film, Lorentz's script, combined with Thomas Chalmers's
narration and Virgil Thomson's
score, made the 30-minute movie powerful and moving. The film, which had its first public showing on May 10, 1936 at Washington's Mayflower Hotel
, had a preview screening in March at the White House. Roosevelt was impressed and, after his re-election in 1936, gave Lorentz the opportunity to make a film about one of the President's favorite subjects--conservation. Lorentz made The River
, a film celebrating the exploits of the Tennessee Valley Authority
. The TVA mitigated flooding but, more importantly to Lorentz and to Roosevelt, it put a stop to the prodigious pillaging of the forests by providing cheap, readily-available hydro-electric power to a wide area. This film won the "best documentary" category at the Venice International Film Festival. The text of River appeared in book form, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
in poetry the same year. It is generally considered his most masterful work.
When Republicans gained seats in Congress in 1938, and the Congressional balance of power shifted in a more conservative direction, the pipeline of Federal commissions for projects like Lorentz's was abruptly halted. He made one more movie before the US involvement in World War II
, The Fight for Life (1940), a semi-documentary on the struggle to provide adequate natal care at the Chicago Maternity Center, based on a book by Paul de Kruif
. John Steinbeck
worked on the project with Lorentz.
, and filmed over 2,500 hours of bombing raids. In 1946, Lorentz made a federally-funded movie about the Nuremberg trials
which was intended to help educate the German people as to what had happened during the war. In the process of compiling material, Lorentz reviewed over a million hours of footage about the Nazis and their atrocities. The film that resulted, Nuremberg, played to "capacity audiences" in Germany for two years. However, it was not released in the United States until 1979.
and the United Nations
, but funding was not available from government or private sources. His final film was Rural Co-op, which he wrote and directed in 1947.
Lorentz seems to have lived a quiet life after this period, working as a film consultant and living 37 miles north of New York City in the quiet town of Armonk
until his death in 1992.
The International Documentary Association
named its Pare Lorentz Film Festival and its grand prize in honor of Lorentz, granted to individuals whose work best represents the "democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision" of Lorentz."
Several of these films are viewable online at the Pare Lorentz Center Film Library.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmmaker known for his movies about the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
. Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in Clarksburg, West Virginia
Clarksburg, West Virginia
Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, he was educated at Wesleyan College
Wesleyan College
Wesleyan College is a private, liberal arts women's college located in Macon, Georgia, United States.-History:The school was chartered on December 23, 1836 as the Georgia Female College, and opened its doors to students on January 7, 1839. The school was renamed Wesleyan Female College in 1843...
and West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
. As a young film critic in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Hollywood, Lorentz spoke out against censorship in the film industry. As the most influential documentary filmmaker of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Lorentz was the leading US advocate for government-sponsored documentary films. His service as a filmmaker for US Army Air Corps in WWII was formidable, including technical films, documentation of bombing raids, and synthesizing raw footage of Nazi atrocities for an educational film on the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
. Nonetheless, Lorentz will always be known best as "FDR's filmmaker."
New Deal documentary films
Lorentz left West Virginia after college in 1925, to begin a career as a writer and film critic in New York in 1925. He contributed articles to leading magazines such as Scribner’sScribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
, and Town and Country
Town & Country (magazine)
Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.-Early history:...
. and co-authored a 1929 book, Censored: the private life of the movie.
His work as a film critic led him to Hollywood, where he wrote several articles on censorship and a pictorial review of the first year of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's presidency, The Roosevelt Year: 1933. Roosevelt was impressed with the articles and the book, and in 1936, as President of the United States, invited Lorentz to make a government-sponsored film about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
. Despite not having any film credits, Lorentz was appointed to the Resettlement Administration
Resettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration was a U.S. federal agency that, between April 1935 and December 1936, relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government....
as a film consultant. He was given US$6,000 to make a film, which became The Plow That Broke the Plains
The Plow That Broke the Plains
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a short documentary film which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled agricultural farming led to the Dust Bowl...
, a film that showed the natural and man-made devastation caused by the Dust Bowl. Though the tight budget and his inexperience occasionally showed through in the film, Lorentz's script, combined with Thomas Chalmers's
Thomas Hardie Chalmers
Thomas Hardie Chalmers was an American opera singer, actor, and filmmaker.-Biography:Thomas Chalmers was born on October 20, 1884 in New York City, the son of Thomas Hardie and Sophia Amanda Chalmers...
narration and Virgil Thomson's
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
score, made the 30-minute movie powerful and moving. The film, which had its first public showing on May 10, 1936 at Washington's Mayflower Hotel
Mayflower Hotel
The Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, known locally as simply The Mayflower, is a historic hotel in downtown Washington, DC located on Connecticut Avenue NW, two blocks north of Farragut Square . It is the largest luxury hotel in the U.S. capital and the longest continuously operating hotel in the...
, had a preview screening in March at the White House. Roosevelt was impressed and, after his re-election in 1936, gave Lorentz the opportunity to make a film about one of the President's favorite subjects--conservation. Lorentz made The River
The River (1938 film)
The River is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico, leading to catastrophic floods and impoverishing farmers...
, a film celebrating the exploits of the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
. The TVA mitigated flooding but, more importantly to Lorentz and to Roosevelt, it put a stop to the prodigious pillaging of the forests by providing cheap, readily-available hydro-electric power to a wide area. This film won the "best documentary" category at the Venice International Film Festival. The text of River appeared in book form, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in poetry the same year. It is generally considered his most masterful work.
When Republicans gained seats in Congress in 1938, and the Congressional balance of power shifted in a more conservative direction, the pipeline of Federal commissions for projects like Lorentz's was abruptly halted. He made one more movie before the US involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, The Fight for Life (1940), a semi-documentary on the struggle to provide adequate natal care at the Chicago Maternity Center, based on a book by Paul de Kruif
Paul de Kruif
Paul Henry de Kruif was an American microbiologist and author of Dutch descent. Publishing as Paul de Kruif, he is most noted for his 1926 book, Microbe Hunters...
. John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
worked on the project with Lorentz.
US Army Air Corps WWII films
Lorentz went on to serve in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. He was promoted to the rank of colonel. While serving, he made 275 navigational films and minor documentaries for the Office of War Information and the US Information AgencyUnited States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
, and filmed over 2,500 hours of bombing raids. In 1946, Lorentz made a federally-funded movie about the Nuremberg trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
which was intended to help educate the German people as to what had happened during the war. In the process of compiling material, Lorentz reviewed over a million hours of footage about the Nazis and their atrocities. The film that resulted, Nuremberg, played to "capacity audiences" in Germany for two years. However, it was not released in the United States until 1979.
Later life and legacy
In the prosperity of the post-War period, there was no revival of partnerships with the Federal government. He had ambitious plans to make documentaries about the New DealNew Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, but funding was not available from government or private sources. His final film was Rural Co-op, which he wrote and directed in 1947.
Lorentz seems to have lived a quiet life after this period, working as a film consultant and living 37 miles north of New York City in the quiet town of Armonk
Armonk, New York
Armonk is a hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of North Castle in Westchester County, New York. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 4,330....
until his death in 1992.
The International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association , founded in 1982, is a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the...
named its Pare Lorentz Film Festival and its grand prize in honor of Lorentz, granted to individuals whose work best represents the "democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision" of Lorentz."
Selected filmography
- The Roosevelt Year (1933)
- The Plow That Broke the PlainsThe Plow That Broke the PlainsThe Plow That Broke the Plains is a short documentary film which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled agricultural farming led to the Dust Bowl...
(1936) - The RiverThe River (1938 film)The River is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico, leading to catastrophic floods and impoverishing farmers...
(1938) - The Fight for Life (1940)
- Nuremberg (1946)
- Rural Co-op (1947)
Several of these films are viewable online at the Pare Lorentz Center Film Library.
External links
- Pare Lorentz Papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript LibraryRare Book & Manuscript LibraryThe Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library is located on the 6th Floor of Columbia University's Butler Library. The library holds the special collections of Columbia University, as well as the Columbia University Archives. The range of the library's holdings spans more than 4,000...
at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... - Pare Lorentz Film Center, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and MuseumFranklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and MuseumThe Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York is the first presidential library built in the United States. It was conceived and built under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1939 to 1940.- History :...
- Pare Lorentz Film Festival of the International Documentary AssociationInternational Documentary AssociationInternational Documentary Association , founded in 1982, is a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the...
- The River, on You Tube posted by the FDR Presidential Library