Product Review

Spain, 1936: right-wing military officers led by General Francisco Franco attempt to overthrow the newly elected, democratic government. Both Hitler and Mussolini quickly lend support to the uprising. In response, nearly eighty American women join over 2,700 of their countrymen in "The Good Fight"-- volunteering, in defiance of the US government, to help fight the Fascists in what would become the Spanish Civil War.

The women were part of the International Bridgade's 40,000 volunteers from fifty countries who came to fight for democracy in Spain. In this enthralling, meticulously researched documentary by Julia Newman, sixteen of these brave and idealistic nurses, writers and journalists share stories of courage and commitment to a just cause.

Most of the women were previously uninvolved in politics, and some of the nurses "had never done more than put a band-aid on a cut." Nevertheless, they quickly demonstrated their courage and resolve, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into "La Causa." Back at home, their efforts were largely unacknowledged, and Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War vividly reveals this forgotten history. Weaving archival materials with words from the likes of Dorothy Parker and Eleanor Roosevelt, this moving film "leaves Hemingway's romantic notions of this war in the dust" (High Falls Film Festival).