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Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EST; 19:00 Palestine; 17:00 UK.; 18:00 Europe. Duration: 45 minutes. Subtitled in English, 2026. The film screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Robbie Leppzer.
About the Film
AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR is a new documentary film, directed by Robbie Leppzer, that chronicles Bread & Puppet Theater's founder Peter Schumann's use of paintings, puppets and theater productions to protest war from the Vietnam War in the 1960s to the current genocide in Gaza.
Born in Nazi Germany and shaped by the brutal reality of war via the aerial bombardments he experienced as a child, Schumann channeled this trauma into one of the most boundary-breaking landmark theater companies in the world.
Bread & Puppet is an iconic theater group that has helped to redefine political theater and public art in the U.S. for over 60 years. Founded in New York City in the early 1960s, the troupe revolutionized street protests against the Vietnam War by utilizing gigantic paper maché puppets.
Between 2006 and 2014, Peter Schumann and members of the Bread & Puppet Theater traveled five times to the West Bank in Palestine to conduct theater workshops at the invitation of local Palestinian community groups.
In response to the Israeli military's ongoing bombardments of civilians in Gaza, Peter Schumann paints over 100 paintings and directs several new theater productions in protest to this continuing genocide.
Through Schumann’s evocative imagery, we see the brutality of the war machine and the complicity the United States as seen through the eyes of this artist.
In an age desperate for hopeful figures of cultural resistance and resilience, this film is a testament to the radical, enduring idea that art is not a retreat from the world — it is a way of fighting for it
Filmmaker Bio
Robbie Leppzer is a longtime independent documentary filmmaker who has chronicled grassroots activist social justice, environmental and global peace movements since the 1970s.
Robbie Leppzer
His critically acclaimed feature-length and short documentaries, as well as commissioned television news magazine segments, about contemporary social issues, grassroots activism, and multicultural themes have been broadcast by CNN International, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO/Cinemax, PBS, CNN, Sundance Channel, HDNet, Free Speech TV, Link TV, National Public Radio, and Pacifica Radio.
Since 1985, Leppzer has been director of Turning Tide Films, an independent documentary video production company located in North Bennington, Vermont.