Date of Award
Spring 5-1-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Studies
First Advisor
Christina Freeman
Second Advisor
David Briggs
Academic Program Adviser
Andrew Lund
Abstract
The Storyteller is an expressive documentary investigating the life of Francis Kalnay (1899–1992). A Jewish-Hungarian intellectual, Kalnay lived as a socialist, an X-2 Counter-espionage chief for the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, an architect in Mexico, and a celebrated children's book author. The film's central conflict lies in his hidden identities and exploring how, despite his position as a high-level spy, he failed to save his sister and mother from death at the hands of the Nazi-aligned Arrow Cross government. As a filmmaker investigating a lost part of my own Jewish-Hungarian heritage, I believe Kalnay chose political exile as a necessary, though devastating, survival mechanism. By framing his story through the intersections of historical trauma, architectural space, and analog preservation, I participate in the construction of a living archive and fulfill the modern scholar's duty to remember.
Recommended Citation
Hirsh, Dylan, "The Storyteller: Concealment, Memory, and the Architecture of Exile" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1544
