Film
Salt of the Earth + A Crime to Fit the Punishment
- 7PM
Appearance by filmmakers Barbara Moss and Stephen Mack
Dir. Herbert Biberman
With Rosaura Revueltas, Juan Chacón, Will Geer
1954, 94min, 35mm
Made by a group of blacklisted filmmakers working with a largely nonprofessional cast, this extraordinary work of American neorealism charts the struggle of Mexican-American miners—and their wives, who form the backbone of the fight—as they strike for rights equal to their white counterparts. As a defiantly communist, feminist, anti-racist film produced at the height of the Red Scare, it was denounced by Congress and promptly suppressed—only to re-emerge as relevant and bracingly modern as ever.
Print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Dir. Stephen Mack & Barbara A. Moss
1982, 46min, 16mm
This fascinating making-of documentary investigates the controversy and political atmosphere surrounding the production of Salt of the Earth, movingly chronicling the filmmakers' defiance of the blacklist.
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