David Loeb Weiss
David Loeb Weiss (c. 1911 - August 11, 2005) was a Polish-born American socialist activist, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Socialist Workers Party in 1938. Early life. David Loeb Weiss was born in Warsaw, Poland in either 1911 or 1912. Loeb Weiss' father was a Yiddish actor in Poland. Loeb Weiss' mother was a garment worker. In his youth Loeb Weiss received a scholarship from the National Academy of Design and a scholarship with the Arts Institute of Architecture and Sculpture. During World War II, Loeb Weiss worked as a radar man in the United States  Army. As a worker, Loeb Weiss held a variety of jobs throughout his life including: merchant marine, restaurant waiter, farmhand, shipyard worker, busboy, electrician, and "New York Times" proofreader. Many of his work experiences centered around labor organizing and striking, including as a leader during the Dura Steel strike in Los Angeles. Activism. David Loeb Weiss was a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party. David Loeb Weiss was the brother of socialist activist Murry Weiss. As a military veteran, Loeb Weiss frequently spoke at socialist events and gatherings: on October 6, 1946 in Lynn, Massachusetts to deliver, "The Veteran  Today--Promises and Realities,"; and, on May 5, 1951 in Boston to present, "Is America Heading Toward War or Peace?". In the 1954 New York State election, David Loeb Weiss (then, an electronics worker) was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Governor of New York, garnering 2,617 votes. In an October 4, 1954 campaign editorial for "The Militant", Loeb Weiss wrote: "If American Big Business in its drive to control the world for private profit sets off an atomic war, the human species may perish. [...] We can put a stop to it. We can end their scheme of world murder . Socialism, with its planned non-profit, cooperative economic system, alone can save us from H-bomb doom. We are in a race between socialism and annihilation." Education. David Loeb Weiss received a B.A. in economics from New York University and an M.A. in political science from the New School for Social Research. As a qualifying employee, the "New York Times" paid tuition costs for Loeb Weiss to complete his undergraduate degree. While completing his B.A. in economics in the mid-1960s, Loeb Weiss attended classes at New York University's film school, where he was a student of Shirley Clarke, Haig  Manoogian, Michael Wadleigh, and John Binder. Filmmaking career. David Loeb Weiss produced and directed several short and feature-length documentary films in his later life. After graduating from New York University, Loeb Weiss worked briefly as a film editor at the United Nations. In 1973 Loeb Weiss was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in Film. Section::::"Profile of a Peace Parade" (1967). "Profile of a Peace Parade" was filmed on August 6, 1966, the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima. According to the "New York Times", "six cameras were used to capture the mood of thousands of marchers  converging on Times Square. The film covers the march as it proceeds to a mass rally on Park Avenue and 48th Street, near the offices of Dow Chemical and other producers of napalm and defoliants." According to audio recordings from the 1968 Flaherty Film Seminar (where Weiss screened his documentary, "No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger"), his first short film "Profile of a Peace Parade" was awarded the 'absolute grand prize' (the "Golden Marzocco") at the Festival dei Popoli, a festival of ethnographic and sociological films held in Florence. Loeb Weiss spoke about the production of "Profile of a Peace  Parade" in a 1994 German-language publication, stating: “"No Vietnamese" was 1968 and the film before that I started to film in 1967. That was called "Profile of a Peace Parade", a parade that took place on the Hiroshima day, a protest against the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both of these instances I had no money. I was able, however, to get volunteers, prize-winning students, cinema teachers, some who worked in the industry. I was able to get equipment from the school, very little from the school, mostly from people who are in the industry where they  “borrowed” the equipment over the weekend when it wasn't being used.” The prize from the Florence-based Festival del Popoli for "Profile of a Peace Parade" was raw film stock, which Loeb Weiss used to shoot his next project, "No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger." Section::::"No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger" (1968). Loeb Weiss completed "No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger" in 1968. The film was produced and distributed by Paradigm Films. A promotional poster for the film was designed by Milton Glaser. The film won first prize at the Mannheim Film Festival. In an interview about the making  of the film, Loeb Weiss stated: "I made the film because of my very strong feelings and seeing this stuff on television where the truth was told sometimes only because it was most spectacular to get a large audience, and so on. But the basic truth was missing. So that's why I made it. I didn't wanna be a spokesman for the black people, I made "No Vietnamese" for the black people to be their own spokesmen." In 2018 Anthology Film Archives and the National Museum of African American History and Culture preserved the film. Section::::"'Ey Michelangelo" (1971 ). David Loeb Weiss and Philip F. Messina co-wrote an original screenplay for an unfinished film, with U.S. copyright registered as DU81289 on September 10, 1971. Section::::"To Make a Revolution" (1972). David Loeb Weiss completed a short documentary called "To Make a Revolution" about the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), a revolutionary Marxist youth group closely allied to the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. The film depicts the December 1970 YSA convention held in New York City and the massive 500,000 person protest against the war in Vietnam held in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 1971 (including footage of the speech given  by SWP member Andrew Pulley). An article in the YSA's bi-weekly publication, "The Organizer", describes the film's theme as, "the YSA's response to Hoover's attacks on the growing mass movements and the YSA." The film was intended as an "excellent recruitment tool" abetting "real possibilities for making money" through paid public admission to see the film and a speaker at YSA events. The film was originally intended to be fifteen minutes in length, however over nine hours of footage was shot and the final work was expanded to a 40 minute final duration. The film  was slated to have its premiere at the Socialist Activists and Educational Conference at Oberlin College, August 8–15, 1971 and was subsequently screened on January 1, 1972 during a national convention of the Young Socialist Alliance held in Houston, Texas. Socialist film critic Marty Jonas dismissed the film as having, "no enthusiasm, no vitality, no conflict, [...] no tautness, no tension, no unity..." and added that: "Clearly what matters to the YSA is not the construction of a Marxist leadership to bring the working class to power. What matters is that there is a section in the film of women's  libbers rapping, which the feminists will love; a section of Black nationalists rapping, which the nationalists will love; and a section of Peter Camejo rapping which every radical will love. It's done with that heavy and patronizing hand." Section::::"Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu" (1980). Loeb Weiss' 1980 half-hour documentary "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu" documents the transition of the "New York Times" from a traditional Linotype layout and printing process to a computer-based workflow in 1978. Carl Schlesinger, a veteran typesetter at the "Times", narrates the documentary and appears throughout the film. David Loeb Weiss worked as a proofreader at the  New York Times for 18 years. Among the 1981 accolades awarded to "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu" were: the Blue Ribbon in the Technology division of the American Film Festival, the Creative Excellence Award from the Industrial Film Festival, and the CINE Golden Eagle.