Frank Peregrini’s The Scar of Shame
Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 7pm
Light Industry, 361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn

Presented with Alfreda’s Cinema

The Scar of Shame, Frank Peregrini, 1929, 16mm, 85 mins
Live accompaniment by Kamau Amu Patton

“Got you in a close-up, professor,” says the student, as he frames Seret Scott in Losing Ground (1982). “You look just like Pearl McCormack in Scar of Shame, Philadelphia Colored Players, 1927.” The earlier work, one of the most celebrated race films of the silent era, had been revived in the 1970s, and here its independent ambitions seem to have proved inspiring, at a moment when a new generation of Black filmmakers were discovering their own ways of working beyond the confines of Hollywood. The scenario concerns a doomed love—between pianist Alvin (Harry Henderson, veteran of many Oscar Micheaux productions) and washerwoman Louise (theater star Lucia Lynn Moses, stunning in her sole screen credit). The pair marry after Alvin rescues Louise from the abuses of her drunken father (William E. Pettus), but she eventually falls prey to the promises of a showbiz racketeer (Norman Johnstone).

An elegant study of class conflict across Black society, shot with a nod to German Expressionism, The Scar of Shamewas the crowning achievement of the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia, an atypically integrated studio composed of Black performers, Italian-American filmmakers, and Black and Jewish producers. Distinguished from other race films by their production values, Colored Players’ movies were so popular in the 1920s that Micheaux considered them his main rivals. The Scar of Shame was enthusiastically embraced by the Black press of the time. The Amsterdam News called it a “gorgeous production with a vital story” that “sets a new standard of excellence for picture features with colored talent;” the Baltimore Afro-American hailed it as simply “one of the greatest race pictures ever produced.”

Like the genre’s very name suggests, no melodrama would be complete without music, and this evening we’ll be presenting The Scar of Shame with a live score by sound artist Kamau Amu Patton, newly composed for the occasion.

Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door.

Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served, except for members subscribed at $8/month or more, who may reserve a seat by emailing information@lightindustry.org at least two hours prior to showtime. Box office opens at 6:30pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.

Lars Lambert & Olle Sjögren’s Deserter USA
Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 7pm
Light Industry, 361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn

Deserter USA, Lars Lambert & Olle Sjögren, 1969, 16mm, 104 mins

During the height of the war in Vietnam, hundreds of young American men sought political asylum in Sweden, which, alone among Western nations, offered safe harbor to draft dodgers and AWOL conscripts, much to the displeasure of the US government. Virtually unseen for decades, Deserter USA centers around a small, scruffy group of erstwhile soldiers as they acclimate themselves to their new Scandinavian home, settle in with welcoming local girlfriends, endure harassment from American intelligence, and defy the wary Swedish establishment by continuing their anti-war activism. Real-life radicals Bill Jones, John Ashley, and Mark Shapiro—formative members of the American Deserters Committee in Stockholm—play lightly fictionalized versions of themselves in a scripted narrative, shot in actual locations, that teeters on the edge of documentary. Their portrayal is that of idealistic young strangers set adrift in a strange land; through their eyes, we visit bucolic country homes, groovy nightclubs, and an underground printing press, all the while following their struggle against a low-key counterinsurgency from both local and American authorities.

Though the movie was backed by a major Swedish studio, Lambert and Sjögren display no interest in producing pro-Swedish propaganda. The directors touted their film as “the most radically left-wing movie produced commercially in this country,” and only twelve days after the film’s Stockholm premiere Lambert was sentenced to prison for defying his own country’s military obligations. The result of this unlikely pairing, between the Scandinavian film industry and the movement against US imperialism, is at once slick and shabby, rich in atmosphere if occasionally awkward in execution.

When Deserter USA’s American distributor held a screening for potential theaters, according to reports from the radical press, they were met with “the unexpected appearance of some representatives of the Defense Department who sat through the showing in stony-faced fashion. None of the theater people present were anxious to obtain bookings.” One representative of a large urban chain denounced the film’s protagonists as nothing but “half-baked punks.”

We cannot agree with our 20th-century predecessors in the exhibition trade: the film fascinates, whatever its imperfections. Here is an image from the past—a rare portrait of American leftists living in political exile abroad—that suggests a possible future.

Print courtesy of Jake Perlin.

Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door.

Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served, except for members subscribed at $8/month or more, who may reserve a seat by emailing information@lightindustry.org at least two hours prior to showtime. Box office opens at 6:30pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.

Members’ Night
Tuesday, June 2, 2026, from 6-10pm
Light Industry, 361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn

This event is free, and for members only. Not yet a member? You can join anytime on Patreon for as little as $2/month.

After the success of our first Members’ Night, we were eager to host another: a low-key evening that will feature an open bar (help yourself to beer, seltzer, popcorn, Junior Mints, maybe a shot of Chris Marker’s favorite vodka) and a surprise screening at 7pm. It will feature a suite of 16mm prints, approximately one hour in length; we will say no more about it.

Anyone who chips in at least $2 a month is welcome at Members’ Night, but there are still other benefits to becoming a member. All paying members receive 20% off everything in our online store. At $8/month, you also get complimentary admission for one to all shows and, a recent development, the ability to reserve a seat at any event (for $16/month, enjoy free admission for two and the perk of reserving two seats).

These evenings are a small show of appreciation for our most loyal supporters. Two dollars a month might seem insignificant, but if everyone reading this contributed a regular couple of bucks or more, those donations alone would be enough to keep Light Industry running indefinitely. At a moment when private foundations are increasingly unreliable, and public funding dependent on political whim, we appeal to you, the moviegoer. In the final analysis you’re all we’ve got and, potentially, all we need.

Light Industry is supported by our members and, in part, by the Mellon Foundation through the Coalition of Small Arts New York. Public assistance is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.