Leon Botstein and Filmmaker Jeff Bieber in Conversation About Hannah Arendt

Bard College President Leon Botstein and filmmaker Jeff Bieber were interviewed by Dalton Delan on the Berkshire Eagle’s Eagle Reels video podcast in advance of Beiber’s documentary film, Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny, which brings to vivid life the work and story of political philosopher Hannah Arendt. The film features Botstein, who met Hannah Arendt as a 16-year-old first-year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago and kept in contact with her throughout her lifetime, including during his early years at Bard as a young college president. In this video podcast, Bieber and Botstein reflect on Arendt’s ideas about how totalitarianism develops and what constitutes freedom, as well as the timeliness of her analyses in today’s political climate. Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny premieres as part of PBS’s American Masters series on June 27.

Post Date: 06-03-2025