On Thurs., May 28, the Behind the Slate Podcast and Mainline will present a special screening of The Marriage of Maria Braun as part of the ongoing year-long Films Against Fascism screening series.
Founded by Atlanta filmmaker Aaron Strand, the Behind the Slate Podcast hosts monthly film events across Georgia at the Plaza Theatre, Tara Theatre, and Ciné with a mission to make “the greatest films ever made accessible to all.” Launched in November 2023, BTS’ live screenings, curated by Strand, feature entertaining and in-depth historical presentations designed to make landmark films feel alive and urgent for both first-time viewers and longtime cinephiles alike. Screenings are followed by audience discussions featuring artists, activists, organizers, and community leaders.
In 2026, in the midst of more and more political upheaval, Strand began questioning the purpose of film culture in an increasingly unstable, authoritarian climate.
“With everything going on in the world, I was asking myself: What’s the point of watching a movie?” Strand said about the beginning of the Films Against Fascism series. “Is it just to bury my head in the sand?”
That question became the foundation for the year-long Films Against Fascism series in Atlanta. For Strand, while cinema may not be able to save the world, it can still serve three vital purposes: providing space to process contemporary events, helping audiences draw strength from stories of resistance and survival, and connecting people who want to push back against the spread of fascist ideology.
The series has previously screened films including Battle Royale, The Battle of Algiers, The Conformist, and A Man Escaped. Past discussions and partnerships have featured March For Our Lives co-founder, Delaney Tarr, veteran/musician/activist Dusty Gannon, Atlanta Board of Education candidate Royce Mann, Women on the Rise GA, and Indivisible ATL.
Each month, a portion of merchandise sales is donated to an anti-fascist organizations, while screenings also provide resources for local organizing efforts, mutual aid networks, and anti-capitalist community groups.
This month’s screening, presented in partnership with Atlanta-based independent magazine and production company Mainline, will spotlight Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s landmark 1979 film The Marriage of Maria Braun. A landmark of the New German Cinema post-war cinematic movement, the film follows a woman navigating the collapse and reconstruction of a nation devastated by fascism, tracing how ambition, survival, and fascism survive in the capitalist post-war boom of West Germany.
The screening will feature a post-film discussion with Mainline’s founder Aja Arnold, who was on the front lines reporting on the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta for Mainline and national news. The conversation will explore the film’s themes of authoritarianism, complicity, capitalism, and resistance, while drawing connections between historical fascism and contemporary political movements in the United States.
“It is not lost on us that the journalism crisis has only worsened across the board and left us all vulnerable to the rise of a fascist government,” says Mainline founder and longtime journalist Aja Arnold. “After spending years covering the Stop Cop City movement, Mainline has become acutely aware of the challenges independent media and our greater culture face. Mainline was founded on the basis to fill voids created by media consolidation and mass conglomeration—and that work continues in our partnership with Behind the Slate, adding to our ongoing mission to create a sustainable creative culture that can stand up against authoritarianism in any medium.”
The screening will take place Thurs., May 28, at 7:30pm at the Plaza Theatre and will include an introduction, post-film discussion, and community resources connected to the series’ ongoing mission of political engagement through cinema.
