Tea at Trianon: The Anti-Communist Film Festival

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

The Anti-Communist Film Festival - Official Dates Announced!

From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

The 2026 Anti-Communist Film Festival will take place October 1-4 at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C. The headline film will be The Lives of Others, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. Other films will be announced shortly. I’m hard at work promoting the festival, corresponding with filmmakers, and talking to would-be donors and friends.
  I would, however, like to take a brief moment to acknowledge the ground troops and Hot Air readers who helped get this thing off the ground. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you a story about it.
  Over a year ago I was taking a shower (as we all know this is where ideas happen) when I was hit with a thunderbolt: the Anti-Communist Film Festival. I worked in a movie theater in college and have long been a fan of film festivals (although maybe not all of them). Over the course of time, I began to accumulate a mental list of great anti-communist movies - On the Waterfront, Trial, Night People. Then God gave it to me: Why not show these great films all together? Why not have a film festival?
  This is where grassroots people, many of them reading these words, helped make this happen. I launched a GoFundMe for the festival with the idea that if it did not gain traction, I would shut it down. It gained traction, and quickly. A major breakthrough came last November when I got a call from Eric Patterson at the Victims of Communism Foundation. They were offering to host the event. It was the breakthrough I needed. There can be no better people and no better place to have this party. (Read more.)