The Bootleg Files: The Red Detachment of Women

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Phil Hall

BOOTLEG FILES 932: “The Red Detachment of Women” (1970 Communist Chinese ballet film).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It was never theatrically released in the United States.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is possible that someday it would appear on a US label.

I need to prefix this review by admitting that I am not a big fan of the ballet and I have even less enthusiasm for Chinese Communist propaganda. Thus, having me review “The Red Detachment of Women,” a feature-length ballet film produced during the Chinese Communist era known as the Cultural Revolution, might run the risk of ingrained bias.
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Red Gringo (2016)

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Phil Hall

During the early 1960s, singer Dean Reed tried and failed to achieve stardom in the U.S. music scene. But he found a surprising level of popularity in South America, particularly in Chile, and for most of the 1960s he was a ubiquitous figure in the continent’s entertainment industry. Miguel Angel Viduarre’s documentary traces Reed’s unlikely stellar rise in South America, with rare recordings and film and television appearances that show the handsome performer perfectly at ease with Spanish-language lyrics.

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