REDISH is the deconstruction of the 1981 film, “Reds” focusing on the connection of Jack Reed, Louise Bryant, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mabel Dodge, Neith Boyce and others and how they intertwined with the political and sexual revolution of the early 20th century, Provincetown, and the birth of American Modern Theatre.
A discussion/panel will be hosted by Chris Faraone, a journalist and author in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the editorial director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) that he co-founded in 2015.
The film clocks in as a three hour and 15 minute epic with a short and sweet interlude dedicated to the love triangle of Reed, Bryant and Eugene O’Neill during the “The Great Provincetown Summer” of 1916. The rest of the story is even more fascinating. The film also features “Witnesses” who retell first hand narratives throughout the film. This includes the son of Mary Heaton Vorse.
Another important subplot with tentacles wrapped in Provincetown’s past is the story and staff of the legendary liberal magazine, The Masses, whose publishers would face federal charges for treason and sedition for standing up to President Woodrow Wilson for his betrayal when he led America into World War I.
In 2025, we once again arrive at a crossroad where the press is under attack by the powers that be in a time that will be remembered by “fake news” and the appropriation of liberalism.
“Reds” is the love story of Jack (John) Reed (WARREN BEATTY) and Louise Bryant (DIANE KEATON). They were controversial figures who shared an intricate intimacy with each other and with their times. People who knew them and who took part in the events that shaped their lives participate in the film, introducing us to the legacy they left behind and the turmoil of 1915 America.
FILM SYNOPSIS
Jack Reed was from Portland, Oregon, and had attended Harvard University. He was drawn into the fight for social justice when, as a reporter, he participated in the struggles of the International Workers of the World in Europe and resisted American entrance Into what he called a war of competition for economic markets. He joined the artistic and political radicals of Greenwich Village where he wrote for The Masses, the most radical magazine of the time.
In 1915 he returns to Portland where he meets Louise Bryant. Louise, artistic and rebellious, is engaged in a struggle of her own: for in dependence as a woman and recognition as a writer. Intrigued by Jack’s challenge to join him in Greenwich Village, she leaves her dentist husband to follow him to New York where they agree to give each other freedom and to live together without marriage or jealousy. Ih the Village they are surrounded by such friends as: Max Eastman (EDWARD HERMANN), the writer and editor of The Masses; Emma Goldman (MAUREEN STAPLETON), the radical anarchist/feminist; and Eugene O’Neill (JACK NICHOLSON), the playwright. Louise, unknown and unpublished, struggles for acceptance as a person and acknowledgement as a writer within this charmed circle. She is particularly in timidated by Emma Goldman, who is condescending toward her work and contemptuous of her opinions.
Jack becomes more and more involved in the effort to keep America out of the war. Louise’s insecurity and competitiveness and the separations caused by Jack’s ceaseless activism increase the friction in their relationship.
They attempt to remedy this and take refuge in “art” by leaving New York together and joining with others in an avant-garde theatrical group, the Provincetown (Massachusetts) Players. However, when Jack leaves again to continue his political militancy, Louise consoles her self with Eugene O’Neill. Her affair with O’Neill becomes a test of Lou ise and Jack’s avowals of freedom, of love without jealousy, of commit ment without constancy.
