‘The Blacklist Was a Plague’ — Locarno Retrospective Curator Ehsan Khoshbakht Talks About What We Can Learn From the Intolerance of the Past
What's happening
The Locarno Film Festival is mounting a retrospective called Red & Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist to examine one of Hollywood's darkest historical episodes. Curator Ehsan Khoshbakht is discussing what the industry and public can learn from this era of intolerance.
Who's involved
Ehsan Khoshbakht is the curator of the retrospective at the Locarno International Film Festival, a major annual film festival held in Locarno, Switzerland, founded in 1946 and known for screening diverse cinema including retrospective programs.
Why it matters
The retrospective draws attention to a crucial historical reckoning with systemic censorship and persecution that shaped Hollywood and American culture. Understanding this period of intolerance offers lessons about the dangers of political blacklisting and the importance of protecting creative freedom and due process in any industry.
The story
The Locarno Film Festival is bringing renewed scrutiny to one of Hollywood's most painful historical chapters through a new retrospective titled Red & Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist. The program, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, aims to examine the era when suspected Communists and those perceived to sympathize with communist ideology were systematically barred from working in the entertainment industry.
The Hollywood blacklist emerged in the mid-20th century during the onset of the Cold War and Red Scare, affecting entertainment production not only in Hollywood but also in New York and beyond. Actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals found themselves unable to secure work based on their present or past membership in, alleged membership in, or mere perceived sympathy with the Communist Party USA. The blacklist became a tool of fear and control that devastated careers and lives, leaving deep scars on the industry's conscience.
According to Variety, Khoshbakht is using the retrospective as an opportunity to explore what contemporary audiences and industry professionals can learn from this shameful period. By screening films connected to the blacklist era and its victims, the curator is inviting reflection on how institutions can succumb to intolerance and the long-term consequences of allowing political pressure to override principles of artistic freedom and employment rights.
The retrospective's timing reflects a broader cultural moment in which historical injustices are being reexamined and contextualized for new generations. The Locarno Film Festival, founded in 1946 and renowned for its diverse programming across feature narratives, documentaries, shorts, and avant-garde works, provides an international platform for this critical reassessment. By dedicating space to this retrospective, the festival signals that reckoning with Hollywood's past is essential to building a more equitable creative industry.
The blacklist era serves as a cautionary tale about the fragility of professional protections and the speed with which institutional power can be weaponized against individuals based on ideology or association. The retrospective invites viewers to consider how vigilance against such abuses remains relevant, and how the entertainment industry and society at large might prevent similar episodes of systematic exclusion from occurring again.