The Dryden will screen Emergency Ward (Fons Iannelli, Leo Hurwitz, U.S. 1952, 16 min., 16mm), The Young Fighter, (Leo Hurwitz, U.S. 1953, 29 min., 16mm), and Dancing James Berry, (Leo Hurwitz, U.S. 1954, 17 min., 16mm) as part of the Leo Hurwitz series.

Life magazine photographer Fons Iannelli developed a prototype portable, sync-sound film camera and recorder to make documentaries that would have the same kind of immediacy as the best photojournalism. He collaborated with Leo Hurwitz in filming Emergency Ward in Manhattan's St. Vincent Hospital to create what would be the antecedent of the direct cinema (or cinema verité) movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The film was shown to Omnibus TV producer Robert Saudek, who hired Hurwitz (using Iannelli as his front) to make three films for the series, of which The Young Fighter was the first. Considered the first cinema verité film, it depicts the life of an aspiring boxer trying to balance his responsibilities to his family and his sport. Dancer James Berry (1915—1969) was part of a vaudeville act with his brothers and the subject of the first (and best known) of several films Hurwitz directed about dance. Dancing James Berry played in cinematheques, museums, and universities around the world to rave reviews.

[source: George Eastman Museum calendar, 2018-Nov-19]