Let's Talk Solutions
Salt of the Earth
A movie so thoroughly suppressed on its release in 1954 that
some film historians call it the only blacklisted American movie”
Lee Hockstader, Washington Post
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) presents a
free screening of
SALT OF THE EARTH
Directed by Herbert J. Biberman
Date: Tuesday, November 3
Time: Doors open at 6:30 p.m., film starts at 7: 00 p.m.
Place: Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto, 2 Sussex
Avenue, Toronto. A five-minute walk south of St. George subway station.
Panel discussion to follow film. Free coffee, tea and snacks.
This OPSEU event is open to the public and is a lead-in
event to the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF).
Panelists will answer the question: How is this film
relevant to today’s social, political and economic environment?
Dr. Nic Sammond, Associate Professor, Cinema Studies
Institute, Innis College, University of Toronto
John Humphrey, manager, Steelworker Toronto Area
Council, organizing solidarity for the Vale Inco strike
Sima Zerehi, Immigrant and Refugee Rights Organizer
John Cartwright, President, Toronto and York Region
Labour Council
Denounced on the floor of the United States House of
Representatives.
Investigated by the FB.
And decades ahead of its time
They could not break our lines. They could not break our
lines.” So says Esperanza the female protagonist of this landmark 1954 film
made by members of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten. Touching on issues of race,
sex and class, the film powerfully recreates the events of the 1950 strike by
the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers against the Empire
Zinc Corporation in New Mexico. The strike is ultimately won by the miners’
wives who take over the picket lines when a court injunction prevents the miners
from picketing. The Chicano miners are successful in their fight for equity in
wages. Set against the backdrop of McCarthyism, the miners and their wives
struggle against not only racism from their bosses, but sexism within their
ranks.
The makers of the film went to the gritty New Mexican mining
town, Silver City, during the strike to write the script. They cast miners and
their families in the film. As a result, the film is a powerful and realistic
account of a long and difficult strike..
For more information on Salt of the Earth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_of_the_Earth
Download a PDF of the poster
For more about CLiFF, visit
http://labourfilms.ca/cliff/
|
