UCLA Film & Television Archive - "Anna's Sin" (1952)

A unique film for its time, "Anna’s Sin" is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello set in Rome of the early 1950s. In particular, "Anna’s Sin" stages an interracial relationship at the moment of the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, Pan-Africanism and anticolonial struggle. Originally debuting in Italy in 1952, "Anna’s Sin" was released in the U.S. in 1954, and later re-released in 1961 as an interracial exploitation film. For many years, "Anna’s Sin" was an out-of-circulation, “lost” film, with The Wisconsin Historical Society Archives in Madison, Wisconsin holding a rare English-dubbed version. In 2017, the UCLA Film & Television Archives digitized a 35mm print of the film held by the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research and are pleased to organize a virtual screening of this rarely seen work.

Post-screening conversation with UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television associate professor Shelleen Greene and researcher Melanie Masterton Sherazi, Ph.D. Film note co-authored by Greene and Sherazi.