By RAY KELLY
At the start of the documentary New Deal for Artists, Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel — who got his start in the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project — laments that the contribution the New Deal and WPA made to the arts is not taught in schools and has been lost to history.
The WPA’s impact on the arts during the Great Depression is recounted in this seldom-seen film from West German writer-director Wieland Schulz-Keil. First broadcast in the U.S. by PBS in 1981, New Deal for Artists has been remastered from the original 16mm negative and given a re-release for Virtual Cinema Screenings by Corinth Films (It begins streaming May 21 at lightboxfilmcenter.org, afterhoursfilmsociety.com, chicagofilmcritics.org, cia.edu, afisilver.afi.com and other websites.
New Deal for Artists is narrated by Orson Welles, himself a beneficiary of the Federal Theater Project. In addition to Welles and Terkel, the WPA aided thousands including writers Richard Wright, Margaret Walker and Ralph Ellison; painters Diego Rivera, Jackson Pollock and James Brooks; and actors Will Geer, John Houseman and Howard Da Silva.
In his narration, Welles states that any artist born between 1900 and 1915 was impacted in some way by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which provided economic relief and jobs for artists.
Two Welles-directed plays for the Federal Theatre Project are given special attention: His all-Black production of “Voodoo” Macbeth staged in Harlem and the pro-labor musical The Cradle Will Rock, which was targeted by conservative critics of the New Deal. Houseman and Geer provide insight into the productions.
The Federal Theatre Project and other components soon fell victim to a clash between left-wing artists and right-wing congressmen, notably Martin Dies Jr.,
the first chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities.
The resurrection of Schulz-Keil’s documentary comes as the entertainment industry is emerging from a pandemic that has left artists out of work and venues shuttered. In a move similar to the New Deal, New York City has launched the City Artist Corps to give $25 million to artists, musicians and other performers to create various works throughout the Big Apple.
New Deal for Artists schools us on the highs and lows of government support of the arts. The federal arts, writing and theatre projects existed for a relatively brief period. It ended, as Terkel noted, “when the primitives, the Neanderthals, took over.”
Related content:
WPA doc ‘New Deal for Artists,’ narrated by Orson Welles, to be released
‘Voodoo Macbeth’ recounts landmark stage play (review)
FDR last campaign rally 75 years ago with Orson Welles
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