Irving Lerner

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Irving Lerner 7 March 1909 New York City 25 December 1976 Los Angeles Before becoming a filmmaker Lerner was a research editor for Columbia Universitys Encyclopedia of Social Sciences getting his start in film by making documentaries for the anthropology department He then made films for the Rockefeller Foundation and other academic institutions later becoming a film editor and secondunit director involved with the emerging American documentary movement of the late 30s Lerner produced two documentaries for the Office of War Information during WW II and after the war became the head of New York Universitys Educational Film Institute In 1948 Lerner and Joseph Strick shared directorial chores on a short documentary Muscle Beach Lerner then turned to lowbudget quickly filmed features When not hastily making his own thrillers Lerner worked as a technical advisor a secondunit director a coeditor and an editor Lerner was cinematographer director or assistant director on documentary films such as One Third of a Nation 1939 Valley Town 1940 The Land 1942 directed by Robert Flaherty and Suicide Attack 1950 Lerner was also producer of the OWI documentary Hymn of the Nations 1944 directed by Alexander Hammid and featuring Arturo Toscanini and codirector with Joseph Strick of the short documentary Muscle Beach 1948 Irving Lerner was also an important director and film editor with directing credits such as Studs Lonigan 1960 and editing credits such as Stanley Kubricks Spartacus 1960 and Martin Scorseses New York New York 1977 Lerner died during the cutting of New York New York and the film was dedicated to him The Blacklist Irving Lerner was an American citizen and an employee of the United States Office of War Information during World War II who worked in the Motion Picture Division Lerner was allegedly involved in espionage on behalf of Soviet Military Intelligence GRU Arthur Adams was Lerners key contact In the winter of 1944 a counterintelligence officer caught Lerner attempting to photograph the cyclotron at the University of California Berkeley Radiation Laboratory which was part of the Manhattan Project The cyclotron had been used in the creation of plutonium and Lerner was acting without authorization Lerner resigned and went to work for Keynote Recordings owned by Eric Bernay another Soviet intelligence contact Arthur Adams also worked at Keynote Description above from the Wikipedia article Irving Lerner licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia