Exploring the underworld of New York City's skid row, Lionel Rogosin developed his signature style. After months drinking with men he met on the Bowery, Rogosin worked with his buddies to write a screenplay that reflected their lives--and then cast them as themselves. On the Bowery (65 mins.) chronicles three days in the drinking life of Ray Salyer, a part-time railroad worker adrift on skid row. When the film opened it 1956, it exploded on the screen, burning away years of Hollywood artifice, jump-starting the post-war American independent film movement, and earning an Oscar nomination. Good Times, Wonderful Times (1964, 69 mins.) was Rogosin's powerful response to militarism, fascism, and the Vietnam conflict. For two years, Rogosin traveled to 12 countries, amassing footage of war atrocities from national archives. He then interspersed these harrowing images with scenes of a London cocktail party's inane chatter. The juxtaposition satirizes the tragic irresponsibility of modern man. Out (1957, 25 mins.), a documentary by Rogosin made for the United Nations, tells the plight of Hungarian refugees fleeing to Austria in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Lionel Rogosin---USA---1956-1964---159 mins.

• Oscilloscope
• Release date: 02/07/2012