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Documentary Film Screening, Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, A film by Ivy Meeropol, grandaugher of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

October 27

6:00pm - 8:00pm

Modern Theatre

525 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111

Speakers
Ivy Meeropol, grandaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Nina Silber, Professor Emerita, Boston University

 After the screening, filmmaker  Meeropol,  will be in conversation with award-winning author and historian Nina Silber. 

 This gripping documentary offers a penetrating look at the life and legacy of Roy Cohn—one of the most notorious and influential figures in 20th-century American politics. As a young prosecutor, Cohn helped convict Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at the height of the Red Scare. He rose to national fame as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s ruthless chief counsel during the anti-communist hearings of the 1950s. He later became a fixer, power broker, and mentor to Donald Trump. 

Told through archival footage, rare interviews, and the personal lens of director Ivy Meeropol—the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—the film explores Cohn’s complicated legacy: a man who built his career by attacking others while concealing his own vulnerabilities. Both a historical reckoning and a deeply personal journey, Bully. Coward. Victim. reveals how Cohn’s tactics and influence continue to shape American politics today. 

This program is part of two consecutive events featuring film and conversation that explore history, justice, and the dangers we face today. The second program – Red Baiting Then and Now – The Danger of Fascism Today will take place on October 28, 2025, with a talk by Michael Meeropol, son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Ivy Meeropol, grandaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Ivy Meeropol is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose work examines the personal and political forces that shape American life. Her films—Heir to an Execution, Indian Point, and Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn have premiered at major festivals and aired on HBO, earning critical praise for their insight and emotional depth.
Nina Silber, Professor Emerita, Boston University. Nina Silber is Professor Emerita from the Boston University History Department.  Her teaching has covered courses in History, as well as American Studies, with an emphasis on historical memory, gender, and the US Civil War. A recipient of numerous awards – including fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Harvard University’s Warren Center – Professor Silber’s published scholarship includes The Romance of Reunion: Northerners and the South, 1865-1900 (1993); Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War (1992); Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War (2005); Gender and the Sectional Conflict (2008); and This War Ain’t Over: Fighting the Civil War in New Deal America (2018) Aside from her teaching and research, Professor Silber has also worked on numerous public history projects, ranging from museum exhibitions at the Gettysburg National Military Park to film projects on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.  Her current project takes a new turn into the mid-twentieth century American folk revival, the Red Scare, and left-wing politics, with a focus on her father, Irwin Silber, a Communist, a target of HUAC, and the editor of one of the folk revival’s most important publications.

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