NEW: Anti-Communist Film Festival Arrives at Perfect Time
'Lives of Others' gives frightening context to Left's embrace of socialism, Mamdani
Few people know the power of pop culture as well as Mark Judge.
The indefatigable journalist has been covering the arts for decades. His work explores the intersection between art and politics, pushing past “hot takes” and knee-jerk criticism. He continues the Andrew Breitbart legacy, providing the heartland with a forum for exploring the arts.
He also got dragged into one of the most jaw-dropping scandals of the modern era – the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. He’s written about that personal nightmare via “The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs. the New American Stasi.”
Now, he’s leading the charge to create a one-of-a-kind film festival that couldn’t be more urgently needed.
Help us rent a theater for the Anti-Communist Film Festival!!! https://t.co/49Y8jjKIvi @HollywoodInToto @RealJamesWoods @megynkelly @LeeSmithDC @EdDriscoll @walterkirn @TomBevanRCP @kathleenparker @mirandadevine @JackPosobiec @JDVance @ChrisLoesch @DLoesch @AnnCoulter @amuse
— Mark Judge (@markgjudge) August 12, 2025
Socialism is on the rise, courtesy of today’s Democratic Party. Look no further than Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in New York City’s mayoral race. Party officials are rushing to kiss Mamdani’s ring.
That’s no accident.
Enter Judge’s Anti-Communist Film Festival. The 2026 event will let DC-area residents see what happens when the far-Left ideology holds sway over the populace.
It’s not pretty.
And while there are key differences between socialism and communism, both assail Western capitalism, boost Big Government and too often lead to hardship and chaos. Just ask any historian worth his or her salt.
That’s where Hollywood enters the frame. Not often enough, alas.
The 2006 modern classic “The Lives of Others” may be the finest film to cover Communism in its ugliest form. The story follows a Stasi officer (Ulrich Mühe) who spies on a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his lover (Martina Gedeck) only to develop conflicted feelings about the assignment.
It’s part of the festival lineup.
Judge notes other possible selections include the 1951 thriller “I Was a Communist for the FBI” starring Frank Lovejoy and 1952’s “My Son John” with Helen Hayes and Van Heflin. Both films hit theaters during the McCarthy era.
The current GoFundMe campaign allows Judge to rent a theater for a week next Fall and cover licensing fees for the selected films.
Judge shares a personal note about the festival on the GoFundMe page.
Conservatives have been complaining about Hollywood for decades, yet the right has struggled, through lack of will or lack of money, to make movies promoting freedom and revealing the evils of socialism. The answer? Hold an anti-Communist film festival.
He’s right. Now, will enough conservatives pony up for the cause?
UPDATE: Here is the festival’s official list of movies:
- “The Lives of Others”
- “My Son John”
- “The Year of Living Dangerously”
- “Red Dawn” (1984)
- “I Was a Communist for the FBI”
- “Freedom’s Fury”
- “Dreaming Against the World”
- “I Married a Communist”
- “America, Invaded”
- “Dr. Zhivago”
I would really like to discover the means of submitting our film Deconstruction to this festival.
The Death of Stalin is a black comedy with a feel-good message: Stalin is dead.
1984
I highly recommend A tanú (The Witness), a hilarious Hungarian political satire comedy from 1969.
The festival sparks debate, though its timing may be controversial.
For a feel-good emotional funny satire of the Soviet Union and communism, check out the French/Russian film ‘The Concert’.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320082/
To add some Asian flavor you could add China Cry. It covers the Chicom takeover through the eyes of a woman caught up in it.
Another possible addition to the festival would be the 2019 movie “Mr. Jones,” which told the story of journalist Gareth Jones’s witness to the Holodomor and how the New York Times reporter and full-time weasel, Walter Duranty, covered it up.
To add some black humor, “The Death of Stalin,” is in a class of its own.
You beat me to it. I was just about to type that in.
“The Sent Down Girl” would be a great addition to the lineup! There are filthy Chinese Commies out there too, least we forget . . .
A welcome and long-overdue follow-up to the Liberty Film Festival from far too many years ago
No anti communist film festival would be complete without Ronald Reagan’s speech “A Time For Choosing”, as well as his famous speech at the Berlin Wall challenging Gorby to “tear down this wall”.
I’m pleased to see Red Dawn on the lineup. They all don’t need to be critically acclaimed high cinema. Sometimes a good action film with a stellar cast can do the job. I was 13 when that movie premiered and I was living in West Germany with Soviet and East German tanks really not that far away. To say that us teenagers in the West loved that movie would be a profound understatement.
For the life of me, I can’t the near-total disappearance of one of the best anti-Communist films, The Prisoner, starring Alec Guinness as an imprisoned Catholic cardinal, and Jack Hawkins as his Communist interrogator. They used to show it on TV back when I was a kid, and I found it utterly riveting.
The cardinal, who’s been imprisoned and tortured by both Nazis and Communists, faces off against the interrogator who’s been ordered to break him. But not with torture this time. He must somehow talk this innocent man into a confession that can be used at a show trial. And that’s the movie. These two men jousting with words, as Hawkins forces Guinness to confront his own sins and failings in an attempt to wear him down, little by little.
Even as a child, I found it absolutely riveting. And the ending is an absolute stunner.
It’s disgraceful that this movie isn’t better known. It might be Guinness’ best performance. And it’s an anti-Communist classic.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048512/