Best Worst Movie
Staff Favorite / 2009
Screened Saturday, October 10, 2009Synopsis
In 1876, a Civil War soldier’s memoir caused an uproar. Confederate Lieutenant Harry Buford fought at Bull Run, was wounded in Shiloh, and served as a secret agent, but harbored a secret – his real name was Loreta Janeta Velazquez. Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a Cuban woman raised in New Orleans, served as a soldier and secret agent during the American Civil War. Loreta chafed against the restrictions of her time, criticized the Confederacy and revealed the corruptions of wartime society. For over a century critics have dismissed her as a hoax, but contemporary historians have uncovered evidence that she did exist, along with almost 1000 other women soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies. Rebel is a historical feature length documentary detective story about a woman, a myth, and the politics of national memory.
