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PODCAST

Cold War Cinema

Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, & Paul T. Klein

Cold War Cinema is a podcast about movies made during the first few decades of the Cold War (1947–1991). Each episode primarily focuses on one film, and the hosts, Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas, discuss the director"s life and work, the historical context of the film, and examine its themes that relate to the turbulent politics of the era. Theme music and editing on the first 14 episodes by Tim Jones; theme music from then on by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt), and editing by Jason

tv & film film history

All Episodes

01:51:55

BONUS: Tribute to Peter Watkins (1935–2025)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/11/19

In this bonus episode of Cold War Cinema, Jason Christian is joined by the independent filmmakers Eric Marsh and Christopher Jason Bell, to discuss the films and legacy of the British filmmaker and media theorist Peter Watkins, who died on October 30, 2025, one day after his nintieth birthday. Watkins stands apart in film history for his bold cinematic vision, his innovations of the pseudo-documentary, and for his unflinching cinematic attacks on the mass media and authoritarian states. For these

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01:35:05

S2 Ep. 8: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/11/17

"They're here already! You're next! You're next! You're next!" The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss the 1956 sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Something is off in the sleepy little town of Santa Mira, California. As residents begin worrying that their family and friends no longer seem to be who they say they are, Dr. Miles Bennell and his former flame Becky Driscoll slowly uncover an alien plot to replace every person on earth with otherworldly duplicates. Directed by Don Siegel

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01:22:27

S2 Ep. 7: Poet (Boris Barnet, 1956)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/10/27

This week on Cold War Cinema, we look at Boris Barnet's Poet (sometimes refered to as The Poet), a 1956 feature about the role of art and literature in war and revolution. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein for a broad-ranging conversation about the film and the politics of form and style. Throughout, we consider: The challenges of context-dependent domestic filmmaking and international spectatorship How film narrative and aesthetic modes like Socialist Realism

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01:14:54

S2 Ep. 6: Pickup on South Street (1953; dir. Samuel...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/09/04

“Are you waving the flag at me?” The Cold War Cinema team returns to look at Samuel Fuller’s 1954 noir masterpiece, Pickup on South Street, with special guest Stephen Gillespie, film critic and cohost of The STACKS and I’m Thinking of Spoiling Things. When small-time thief Skip McCoy picks the wrong pocket on a busy subway car, he quickly becomes the most popular lowlife in town, trailed by crooked cops, the feds, and a Communist spy ring. Join Stephen and hosts Jason Christian and Paul T. Klein as

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01:06:57

BONUS: Interview with Christopher Jason Bell

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/08/28

In this bonus episode, cohost Jason Christian interviews the independent filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell. Besides being a filmmaker, Bell is a board of director of the streaming co-op MeansTV. Bell’s archival doc series about George W. Bush’s presidency, Miss Me Yet, can be watched on MeansTV and received praise from numerous outlets such as The Baffler, AV Club, and Filmmaker magazine. His third feature Failed State premiered at Torino Film Festival and is continuing to screen across the world

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01:38:13

S2 Ep. 5: Silvery Dust (Abram Room & Pavel Armand, 1953)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/08/14

This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss the 1953 Soviet science-fiction drama, Silvery Dust, directed by Abram Room and Pavel Armand, a film once again set in the United States. The film concerns an American scientist who has developed a powerful new weapon of mass destruction designed to wipe out populations within a large area while leaving no harmful radioactive residues or traces. In the film, the scientist colludes with a Nazi colleague and various private interests, who all conspire with the

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01:35:31

BONUS: The Phoenician Scheme (w/ guest Matthew Ellis)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/07/29

“Normal people want the basic human rights that accompany citizenship in any sovereign nation. I don't… I don't live anywhere; I'm not a citizen at all. I don't need my human rights.” The Cold War Cinema team is back with special guest Matthew Ellis, a researcher, artist, and cohost of the Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Movie Film Podcast, for a special bonus episode covering Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. Recently released on home video and streaming, the film follows the cunning,

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01:43:24

S2 Ep. 4: I Married a Communist A.K.A. The Woman on...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/07/24

This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss Robert Stevenson’s 1949 drama, I Married a Communist, also known as Woman on Pier 13. This Hollywood production is one of the most storied—and notorious—anti-communist films of the early Cold War era. The movie revolves around a San Francisco shipping exective who worked his way up from the docks, as a stevedore, only to find himself embroiled in a Communist plot to sabotage a labor contract. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we

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01:40:19

S2 Ep. 3: The Russian Question (Mikhail Romm, 1948)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/07/03

“I used to think there was one America, but there are two. There's no place for me in McPherson's and Hearst's America, but there is in Lincoln's and Roosevelts!” This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss Mikhaill Romm’s 1948 drama, The Russian Question. In this Soviet production, winner of the 1948 Stalin Prize and based on a play of the same name by Konstantin Siminov, a mendacious newspaper editor sends columnist Harry Smith to the Soviet Union to write a book critical of socialism. But when the

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01:08:31

BONUS: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (crossover episode...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/06/20

In this crossover episode with Rakeem Shabazz of Wise the Dome TV, Cold War Cinema co-host Anthony Ballas discusses the recent documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (dir. Johan Grimonprez 2024). The documentary explores the weaponization of jazz music during the Cold War, the contradictions of using Black art to mask American imperialism, and the legacy of artists like Louis Armstrong, Max Roach, and Nina Simone. Ballas breaks down how the film links Cold War coups and cultural propaganda to

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01:16:33

BONUS: Resistance Cinema (repost from The Socialist...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/06/11

Our co-host Jason was invited on The Socialist Shelf podcast, along with his wife, Ankita, the co-host of the The Desi Gaze, a podcast about overlooked Hindi cinema. So, we thought we'd change things up and add the episode to our feed as a bonus. In this episode, Jason and Ankita dicuss a radical cinema educational project they run in Atlanta called Resistance Cinema, as well as the role that radical cinema plays in social movemets historically. We hope you enjoy this episode. Don't forget to

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59:24

S2 Ep. 2: The Iron Curtain (1948; dir. William A....

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/05/02

Join hosts Jason and Paul for a discussion of William A. Wellman's 1948 spy thriller The Iron Curtain, starring Dana Andrews and Jean Tierney. Regarded as an anti-communist propaganda film, The Iron Curtain was the first major Hollywood studio production to engage directly with the Cold War. The story is based on the memoirs of the Russian spy Igor Gouzenko, who stole documents from the Soviet embasy in Ottawa, where he worked, and defected to Canada. This act of espionage led to the dismantling of

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01:41:35

S2 Ep. 1: Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 & 2 (1945/1958;...

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/03/19

Join hosts Jason, Tony, and our new co-host, Paul, on Episode One of Season Two! On this episode we discuss Sergei Eisenstein's epic two-part Soviet masterpiece Ivan the Terrible, released in 1945 and 1958 respectively. The films were commissioned by Joseph Stalin in 1941 as a means to rehabilitate Ivan the Terrible's image for a contemporary Soviet audience. Stalin celebrated Part 1, but the state banned Part 2. A third part had been in the works, but was abandoned by Eisenstein after the

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01:16:02

S1 Ep. 14: Cry, the Beloved Country (1951; dir....

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/02/21

Join hosts Jason and Tony, as well as a new guest, Felicia Maroni, for the finale of Season One. On this episode we discuss Zoltán Korda's 1951 drama Cry, the Beloved Country, a film shot on location in South Africa, starring Canada Lee and Sidney Poitier, which aimed to critique the brutal apartheid system just three years after it was codified into law. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Alan Paton, a white South African, and adapted to the screen by Paton and the blacklisted

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01:13:19

S1 Ep. 13: Spartacus (1960; dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Cold War Cinema ·

2025/01/31

Grab your sandals and sword and get philosophical with Jason, Tony, and our guest Paul Klein, as we unpack the wonders of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960). The film was adapted from Howard Fast's novel of the same title by Dalton Trumbo, and it is considered a major step in the end of the notorious Hollywood blacklist. The film is also read as an allegory for civil rights stuggles, the HUAC hearings, and "Third World" struggles. All of this and more is discussed in the episode. Books and articles

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01:11:09

12. Monsieur Verdoux (1947) – Charlie Chaplin

Cold War Cinema ·

2024/12/05

Join hosts Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas, as well as a new guest, Paul Klein, as they discuss the iconic actor and director Charlie Chaplin and his late talkie masterpiece Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Paul is a film scholar who writes at the intersection of film and history. His research focuses on the cultural, political, and technological aspects of Hollywood and American filmgoing practices. He also write about how and why movies matter at Reading Movies (howtoreadmovies.com) As for Chaplin, he

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01:18:39

11. Martin Ritt, friend of the working class

Cold War Cinema ·

2024/11/25

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss the celebrated socially conscious Hollywood director, Martin Ritt (1914–1990). Ritt is known for a number of critically aclaimed movies, among them Paris Blues (1961), Hud (1963), and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965). In this episode, we focus on four of Ritt's explicitly pro-worker films: The Molly Maguires (1970), Sounder (1972), The Front (1976), and Norma Rae (1979). Ritt was never brought before HUAC, but he

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01:25:48

BONUS EPISODE: Interview with Andrew Nette

Cold War Cinema ·

2024/10/16

Join us for our first ever interview with the Australian writer and scholar, Andrew Nette, who, along with the film historian Samm Deighan, co-edited the new book Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990, published by PM Press. Nette is an author of fiction and nonfiction. He is coeditor of three previous books for PM Press, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980; Sticking It to

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01:16:07

10. Salt of the Earth (1954) - Herbert J. Biberman

Cold War Cinema ·

2024/08/14

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Herbert J. Biberman's iconic independent masterpiece Salt of the Earth (1954). The film is based on the real-life Empire Zinc strike in 1951 in Grant County, New Mexico, and was self-financed and made entirely outside the studio system using mostly non-professional actors, many of them actual miners playing versions of themselves. Jason compares the the film to Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 masterpiece The Battle of Algiers in terms

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01:22:49

9. Quicksand (1950) - Irving Pichel

Cold War Cinema ·

2024/07/23

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Irving Pichel's 1950 crime thriller Quicksand, starring Mickey Rooney, Peter Lorre, Jeanne Cagney, and Barbara Bates. The film's plot revolves around Rooney's character making one bad decision after another, shattering his moral compass along the way. The implicit message, heavy-handed in its delivery, is that poverty breeds crime. Pichel was one of the so-called "unfriendly nineteen" brought before HUAC hearings in 1947

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29 results

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