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# The European Avant-Garde in Hollywood, from Brecht to Eisenstein
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-world-redrawn-zoe-beloff/
- Published: 2018-04-02T18:15:50.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:39:26.000Z
- Description: Artist and filmmaker Zoe Beloff explores the Hollywood legacies of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, German playwright Bertolt Brecht, and other members of the European avant-garde.
- Author: Matt Stromberg
- Tags: Art, Bertolt Brecht, Events, Sergei Eisenstein, Velaslavasay Panorama, Zoe Beloff, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/04/twomarxistsinhollywood.jpg)

Zoe Beloff, “Two Marxists in Hollywood” (2015) (image courtesy the artist)

Hollywood is considered a uniquely American phenomenon, however — like most things “quintessentially American” — immigrants played a large part in its development. Several of those immigrants were members of the European avant-garde, including pioneering Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, who spent six months in Los Angeles in 1930 under a Paramount contract, and German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who arrived in 1941 fleeing the Nazis.

Artist and filmmaker Zoe Beloff explores their Hollywood legacies with [*A World Redrawn*](http://aworldredrawn.com/index.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* that incorporates a book, an exhibition, and three films based on their unrealized cinematic projects. [*Glass House*](http://aworldredrawn.com/glass.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) is based on notes Eisenstein made for a science-fiction film he pitched to Paramount, while [*A Model Family in a Model Home*](http://aworldredrawn.com/model.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) is inspired by Brecht’s notes for a film based on a *Life Magazine* article, that examines the theatrical roles that everyday people play in their domestic spaces. [*Two Marxists in Hollywood*](http://aworldredrawn.com/2marxists.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) features interviews with the two icons, played by boys, set in present-day LA. [Friday’s screening at the Velaslavasay Panorama ](http://www.panoramaonview.org/events/world-redrawn-eisenstein-and-brecht-hollywood?ref=hyperallergic.com)— where part of *Two Marxists* was shot — will include a discussion with Beloff.

Copies of [her book](http://www.christineburgin.com/projects/pp%5Fbeloff.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), which compiles previously unpublished drawings and writings by Brecht and Eistenstein, will also be available for purchase.

**When:** Friday, April 6, 8pm (Tickets: $15 general admission / $13 Panorama members)  
**Where:** Velaslavasay Panorama (1122 West 24th Street, University Park, Los Angeles)

*More info at* [*Velaslavasay Panorama*](http://www.panoramaonview.org/events/world-redrawn-eisenstein-and-brecht-hollywood?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*