What It's About:

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was a group of approximately 2,800 Americans who went to Spain to fight Franco’s Fascist-backed insurgents in the late 1930s. That struggle was tragically lost, but the injustice was only beginning. The surviving heroes who took the first, bold stand against Fascism would face further trials back home, as they were blacklisted, shunned, and labeled Communists. The film revisits this outrage via newsreel footage and interviews with the eleven surviving members of the Brigades.

Why I Love It:

Ably narrated by author Studs Terkel, this important film brings to light a largely forgotten chapter of American history that richly deserves re-examination. The interviews with the Brigade’s surviving members alone make it a vital historical document, but the filmmakers go further, placing the Spanish Civil War in its proper context as a dress rehearsal for World War II, and providing fresh insight into factors and conditions that made the wider conflict inevitable. Don’t miss this smart but unheralded documentary- it’s a “must” for history buffs.