“Muscle Beach” (1948, Preserved by the Academy Film Archive)
Enigmatic director Joseph Strick has created a unique body of work starting with the Los Angeles-based short subject “Muscle Beach,” made with Irving Lerner in 1948. Strick subsequently directed two James Joyce adaptations, “Ulysses” (1967) and “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (1977), in addition to other intellectually challenging work. Strick’s film “Interviews with My Lai Veterans” won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1971. The Strick Collection arrived at the Academy Film Archive in 2001; the over 100 items in the collection consist of negative and print material, as well as video tape elements.