With the role of a free press under attack, who better than Humphrey Bogart to tell us about fake news, real news, and the importance of a free, open, honest, and fearless press?

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library, collaborating with The Commons, the Brooks Memorial Library, and Latchis Arts, are beginning a journalism film discussion series based on the importance of a free and impartial press and the role it plays in a democratic society.

The first film in the series is “Deadline-U.S.A.”, a fast-moving and hard-hitting 1952 black-and-white film starring film legend Humphrey Bogart as a big-city newspaper editor whose paper is going under. He has to decide whether or not to go out with a bang and expose a dangerous criminal gang leader. The film also stars Ethel Barrymore and Kim Hunter.

A discussion will be held after the film, led by Randy Holhut, deputy editor of The Commons.

This program, free and open to the public, will be held on Sunday, May 21, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre. Donations will be accepted.

Following a summer hiatus, the festival will resume again in the fall with other classic journalism films telling the story of the good, the bad and the ugly in American journalism.

For more information, visit latchisarts.org.