Recent & rediscovered WV labor films
Poster for Kelley Thompson’s Widen Film Project
West Virginia has a dramatic history, especially in the area of labor. Since 1978 I have been fairly obsessed with purchasing, promoting, and exhibiting all known films about WV labor history. When I flew from Minneapolis to Charleston in September 1978 there was a new 16 mm print of “Harlan County, USA” sitting in my office. A few months earlier I had met Barbara Kopple, the director, at the American Film and Video Festival in NYC. I had also seen the film, staggering out of the Minnesota movie house after watching what hell Appalachians had to endure just to get a shred of dignity working as virtual slaves in its coal mines. I was a member of two unions in Minnesota - one for Minnesota Highway Department employees, another for nursing assistants in nursing homes.
KEN HECHLER – IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE
2008 120 mins. Marshall University Libraries Barbara Winters, dean of Marshall University Libraries, Russ Barbour and Chip Hitchcock , well-known WVPBS filmmakers worked for several years producing the first official documentary about one of theMountain
State’s most influential citizens. As a Congressman and WV Secretary of State, professor/teacher, author, and environmental activist, Hechler changed the face of WV and national politics from 1958 when he was first elected to Congress. Interviews with many celebrities including George McGovern, Robert Dole show how devoted Hechler was to helping the common citizens of the state and country, not himself or powerful corporations. Hechler is the author of the first federal legislation aimed at controlling black lung - Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. He was inducted into the WV Labor Hall of Honor in 2006 along with Bill Blizzard, the leader of the Battle of Blair Mountain. Official Ken Hechler website – www.kenhechler.us. Access: A copy will be given to each public library in West Virginia. To purchase a DVD - Marshall University Libraries. wintersb@marshall.edu WIDEN FILM PROJECT2008 55 mins. Killer Productions
Charleston filmmaker Kelley Thompson was hired in 2006 by the Central Appalachia Empowerment Zone to interview Clay Countians, filming their memories. He found that many recalled life in Widen, the famous company town built by J.G. Bradley who was a national and state coal mining leader. He also learned about the 1952 U.M.W.A. strike at Widen. He interviewed William C. Blizzard, son of the union leader Bill Blizzard, Gordon Simmons, president of the WV Labor History Assn. and others about the strike. (Julia Baker wrote “Up Molasses Mountain” based on her father’s memories of the time.) The film covers other areas including the Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad, and sports history with legendary coach Bobby Stover. The world premiere of the film took place at The South Charleston Museum May 10 @ 7 PM co-sponsored by SCM and the WV Labor History Association. Access – Kelley Thompson, killer64@suddenlink.net, 304-344-1990 (home)
MOTHER JONES – THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN IN
AMERICA 2007 23 mins. Mother
Jones
Museum Rosemary Feurer and Laura Vazquez, two professors at Northern Illinois University, directed this first complete film about one of
America’s greatest leaders. The 23 minute film includes the only film footage of her, speaking on her “100th birthday.” Elliot Gorn, author of the definitive biography on Mother Jones, “Mother Jones—The Most Dangerous Woman in
America,” talks about her amazing life. The West Virginia Labor History Assn. inducted her into its WV Labor Hall of Honor in 1980, only second to native son Walter Reuther. She was active in
West Virginia, being arrested several times. The film won
MONONGAH REMEMBERED 2008 30 mins. Peter Argentine Productions Inc.
30 DAYS – WORKING IN A COAL MINE 2008 55 mins. FX Cable
First Place in the Documentary Division at the Geneva Cultural Arts Commission Film Festival. Access - http://motherjonesmuseum.org/
Pittsburgh filmmaker Peter Argentine directed this film about the greatest loss of life as the result of a coal mine disaster in American history. On December 6, 1907, the Monongah Mine Disaster took place in the small
Harrison
County town outside
Fairmont. He includes information about a visit by two Italian delegations from two regions in Italy, Calabria and
Molise, where many of the miners who were killed grew up. Argentine is trying to raise funds to expand the film to an hour. If you are interested, visit his website at - www.argentineproductions.com. Website for the film - http://www.monongahmovie.com/ Access for DVD: Website.
West Virginia native son and famous filmmaker Morgan Spurlock stars in the opening episode of his FX Cable series, “30 Days” that premiered on June 3, 2008. He returned to
Southern West Virginia where he stayed with an underground mine supervisor, working the regular day shift for 30 days as a “red hat.” He also takes a little time to socialize with the miners and their families, and briefly explores the problems of mountaintop removal mining and the destruction of both the environment and the coal miners’ health. Morgan goes to Bolt,
West Virginia and lives with Dale and Sandy Lusk. Dale, the supervisor of the mine where Morgan works, has mined coal for 35 years and introduces Morgan to a miner’s way of life. Morgan gains an understanding of the financial benefits that draw people to coal mining, but also learns, first hand, the dangerous conditions that miners must face every day. As a new miner, Morgan is assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment. On his days off, Morgan leaves the mine to examine some of the bigger issues surrounding the coal industry. He meets with Peggy Cohen, 36, the daughter of a miner killed in 2006 in a Sago,
West Virginia mine explosion. Morgan also talks to both coal industry executives and environmentalists about surface mining and mountain-top removal to gain perspective on the pros and cons of an industry that provides the
U.S. with the raw materials for 50% of our electricity. From FX website - http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/episodeguide.phpAccess: Spurlock screened the film at the Tamarack Theater in
Beckley, WV, on June 2, the night before the episode was shown on TV. He invited the miners he worked with, his family which lives in
Beckley, and several WV filmmakers including Daniel Boyd and Terry Lively. Season One and Season Two of 30 Days was release June 2008.
A COAL TRAIL2007 53 min. Cadiz/Hicks Production Five parts. 1. A slide show with music of the National Coal Heritage Area. 2. Gordon Simmons 25 minute interview with Mr. Hicks on Simmons’ cable show, “WV Author”.3. A few scenes from his proposed feature film, “A Flaming Rock.” 4. Mining Reflections. 5. A slide show of Caretta and other coal camps around War,McDowell
County. Access: More info on the DVD “A Coal Trail” and the coming feature, “A Flaming Rock” can be found at the film’s website - www.aflamingrock.com. ContactMr. Hicks for a personal visit, etc. at - enie31@aol.com 937-258-2306 A FLAMING ROCK! COAL2007 61 mins. Cadiz/Hicks Productions This is a second film made by Enoch Hicks and Ellery E. Cadiz. Hicks grew up in War,McDowell
County where this film had its world premiere at its annual Fall Festival. The film has 15 chapters that cover everything from the origin of coal to a tribute for a miner’s family servicemen. Additional short films cover a history of mining safety, a history of mining machinery, a simulated mine explosion, and a portrait of War, WV. Access: www.aflamingrock.com Contact Mr. Hicks for a personal visit, etc. at - enie31@aol.com 937-258-2306
HILLBILLY – THE REAL STORY 2007 120 mins.
Moore Huntley Productions The original title of this film was “Appalachia –
America’s First Frontier.” The staff at The History Channel renamed it. It premiered on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 8 PM on The History Channel. Wess Harris, publisher of William C. Blizzard’s landmark book, “When Miners March,” and Ross Ballard III, who produced the audiobook version of the book, provided research for this film. William C. Blizzard is interviewed about the role his father played in the Battle ofBlair
Mountain and Ballard explains some of its meaning. It takes the viewer on a 300-year journey from the violent border wars of the Scottish lowlands to the rough and tumble Appalachian stock car races of the 1950s. BillyRay Cyrus hosts the program. It tells stories about the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, Tennessee when a small army of mountain men beat the British Army and turned the tide of the American Revolution; the saga of the Appalachian moonshiners’ deadly war with the Federal revenuers and the dramatic tale of the most famous American folk hero of whom you’ve probably never heard –moonshining outlaw Lewis Redmond; the building of the epic Clinchfield Railroad into the Appalachian mountains - one of the costliest railroads in dollars and lives ever built; the largest civil insurrection since the Civil War — the Battle for Blair Mountain in the violent West Virginia coalfields in 1921, when a self proclaimed Redneck Army of 10,000 coal miners fought for their right to organize; the First Family of stock car racing — the Fabulous Flocks, 3 outlaw bootlegging brothers from a hell-raising family who went on to pioneer modern stock car racing; the century-long fight of the snake handling churches of Appalachia for the right to practice their deeply-held religious beliefs; the TVA Fontana Dam, whose construction by the hard working and patriotic hillfolk in 1942 helped win a World War half the world away; and Popcorn Sutton, the legendary moonshiner and mountain man who, at age 74, keeps defying the law by producing his centuries-old recipe for homemade whiskey in clandestine stills in the mountains…. and who, after 60 years of moonshining, is still paying the price for his convictions with new criminal convictions. Access: The History Channel http://store.aetv.com/html/home/index_branded.jhtml. MONONGAH HEROINE2007 25 mins. Lower 40 Films Gina Martino Dahlia of Fairmont, the acting chairwoman of the broadcast news sequence and a senior lecturer at West Virginia
University’s Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, produced the half-hour film about her home community where she presently lives. She remembers and honors the widows and children who were left following the disaster. Access –WVU
School of Journalism - gmartino@mix.wvu.edu , 304-293-3505 ext. 5407
STORIES FROM THE MINES
57 mins. 2004 United Studios of
AmericaThis film dramatizes and documents Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal miner’s role in influencing the relationship between organized labor, organized wealth and the
United States government. The program shows how American labor policies and practices were permanently affected by the volatile relationship between immigrant coal miners of
Northeastern Pennsylvania and the industrialists who employed them. Re-enactments and historical footage are combined. Filmed on historical locations. Website - http://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/GenreLookup/A561F47E25B2B94885256C440059138E.Historical characters include Clarence Darrow, Access – Appalachian Book Store - http://www.frogcreekbookswv.com/
THEM THAT WORK – How Matewan Inspired a State
2008-09 ? mins. Pewter Productions Jason Brown, a
West Virginia filmmaker now living and teaching at UNC Greensboro, decided to make a documentary about the making and importance of John Sayles’ 1987 labor epic, “Matewan.” He interviewed Sayles and some of the stars of the film including Chris Cooper, a recent Oscar winner, and David Straithairn, nominated for his role in “Good Night and Good Luck” as Edward R. Morrow. He also visited the annual reenactment held every May in the actual town of Matewan, and talked to many people whose lives were influence either by helping make the film or afterwards. Access – this film is still not completed as of 7.10.08.
AFFILIATED CONSTRUCTION TRADES FOUNDATION A Division of theWest Virginia
State
Building and Construction Trades Council – AFL-CIO“West Virginia’s Underground Economy” (30 mins., 2006) about companies importing employees from out of the state, paying cash to employees to avoid taxes, etc. - http://www.actwv.org/commercials.mx.Also seventeen TV commercials about the WV Jobs Act, 40 hour work week, outsourcing, clean water, business development and other themes. Access: http://actwvvideo.merlix.com/
A NEW BEGINNING
2007 5 Mins. Lively Heart ProductionsA short film on the West Virginia Public Workers Union – United Electrical Workers Local 170. State, county, and municipal workers in
West Virginia brought the only union controlled by the rank and file to the state in spring 2007, marking a new chapter in organizing blue and white collar government workers. Terry Lively, a member of UE Local 170, and president of the West Virginia Filmmakers Guild, began a new film about contemporary unions in the state.
ASTURIAN-US 2006 52 MINS. The town of Arnao (Asturias province, northern
Spain) grew under the wing of the Royal Mining Company. After the closure of its mine and the limitations of its factory at the beginning of the 20th century, many of its employees immigrated to similar factories located far from the sea, at the foot of the mountains of
West Virginia. Several new towns were created: Spelter and Anmoore. 90% of their population was Asturians. Luis Argeo traveled from
Spain in spring 2006 to document these people with the assistance of Chip Hitchcock of WBPBS. You can watch a documentary on the making of the film at this website, produced by WVPBS - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Luis+Argeo&search=Search.Access: WVPBS TV Luis Argeo” <argeol@hotmail.com>
THE BATTLE OF LOCAL 5668
2007 54 mins. Shawn Bennett Shawn Bennett grew up in
Parkersburg, studying film at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and studying under Julia Reichert (“Union Maids.”) His father Joe worked at The Ravenswood Aluminum plant for years, and was part of the famous lock-out that took place for almost two years starting in 1990. Using historic footage, TV news broadcasts, and interviews with people who took part in one of the most important labor struggles in recent American history, he presents a compelling story of global capitalism vs. devoted workers. The United Steelworkers and fellow union members traveled around the country and world, protesting the inhumanity of the corporate leaders in a model campaign for justice. Marc Rich, an international criminal pardoned by President Clinton during his last day in office, was the man at the top. The film’s website is at - www.battleoflocal5668.com. Access: shawn@shawnbennett.net Barbara Kopple, double Oscar winner for “
Harlan
County, U.S.A” and “American Dream,” made a short film about the same labor struggle, “Locked Out in
America.” See also the book, “Ravenswood: The Steelworkers’ Victory and the Revival of American Labor by Tom Juravich and Kate
Bronfenbrenner
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. $29.95 The West Virginia Labor History Associated inducted the entire local into its Hall of Honor in 1993. Bethel Purkey, a UMWA member, who was active in the event, was also inducted for his lifetime of organizing in 2005. His wife, Elaine Purkey, sang one of the songs used in Kopple’s film.
THE CC BOYS: A WEST VIRGINIA LEGACY
2006 30 mins. Historic Beverly Preservation Inc. Robert C. Whetsell and Gerald Milnes, who first worked together on “The Cliff-Scaling Soldiers of West Virginia” (2005), have produced another film about lost WV history. During the 1930s, thousands of “boys in green” worked on projects all over the state for the Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC) They built state parks, planted trees, and did many other things that made the state a much better place to live. Mr. Whetsell was made a “WV History Hero” in March 2006 at The Cultural Center. Mr. Milnes was chosen as 2006 WV Filmmaker of the Year. Access:
Augusta Heritage http://www.augustaheritage.com/store.html CoalCamp Memories2006 78 mins. WV Enterprises Well-known West Virginia actress Karen Vuranch has been performing her one-person play about the lives of women who grew up in
Appalachia’s coal camps during the first part of the twentieth century around the state, country, and world. In 2006 she filmed her performance at the Hulett C. Smith Theater at The Tamarack Center in
Beckley, WV. Using photos from the George Bragg Collection and music by live performers, she presents the viewer with the life of Hallie Marie, first as an exuberant ten-year-old, demure teenager, young wife, and finally an old woman. Vuranch also has done presentations as novelist Pearl S. Buck, labor activist Mother Jones, humanitarian Clara Barton, Indian captive Mary Draper Ingles, Civil War soldier and spy Emma Edmunds, Irish pirate Grace O’Malley and Wild West outlaw Belle Starr. The WV Labor History Association sponsored the world premiere of the film on Feb. 3, 2007 at The La Belle Theater in
South Charleston. Teacher’s website at - http://www.coalcampmemories.com/ Access – WV Enterprises at http://www.wventerprises.com/ THE KINGMAKER- DON BLANKENSHIP
2005 30 mins. WVPBSPosted March 2007Reporter Anna Sale narrates this investigation of Don Blankenship, the president of Massey Energy. Blankenship told the
Charleston press he considered the report to be balanced. Others think that it is not accurate because the damage he has done to the environment and workers’ health is minimized. He is famous for buying union mines, closing them, and reopening them as non-union. He is best known for financing the campaign against Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw in fall 2004, spending millions of dollars. ( This is shown in detail in Wayne Ewing’s film,” The Last Campaign.”) Appalshop footage of his early days is used, and various supporters present positive opinions about this management style and contributions to southern WV communities. Various reporters and detractors are also interviewed. The fact that he even threatened to sue WVPBS is noted. Access: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kingmaker+don+blankenshipFive parts
MORRISTOWN 2007 55 Mins. Appalshop In this hour-long documentary, director Ann Lewis chronicles nearly a decade of change in Morristown, Tennessee, through interviews with displaced or low-wage Southern workers, Mexican immigrants, and workers and families impacted by globalization. The film shows how working-class people in Mexico and eastern
Tennessee are caught in the throes of massive economic change, challenging their assumptions about work, family, nation and community. “
Morristown” is in Spanish and English with subtitles. Access: Appalshop at http://appalshop.org/store2/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=100
Moving Mountains
2006 30 mins. Virginia Bendl Moore
Virginia Bendl Moore was a communications student at the
University of
Virginia when she created this new documentary on the effects of mountaintop removal mining, mainly in southern
West Virginia. Funding to produce it came from UVA media grants and was made at the Digital Media Lab on campus.She uses several classic film clips including ones from “Harlan County, USA” and “That High Lonesome Sound.” They counterpoise the scenes of destruction and denial that take place on camera. The film opens with WV politicians including Earl Ray Tomlin and Senator Rockefeller talking about the importance of coal to the state. Gov. Manchin’s speech about “
West Virginia – Open for Business” along with his statements about “moving WV to the forefront of the coal industry” are also shown. President of the WV Coal Association Bill Raney is interviewed, talking about the coal industry being “the real environmentalists,” echoing what Warren Hylton, president of Patents Coal, says. There is nothing in the film about the many coal mine deaths that took place last year. The “usual suspects” are interviewed on the anti-MTR side – Larry
Gibson, Ed Wiley, and Maria Gunnoe. Also interviewed is Lenny Kohn from
Appalachian Voices and Sam Cook, Appalachian studies prof at Virginia Tech,
Kenny fromLogan
County about the bad water, and others.
Access: E-mail filmmaker at movingmountains@virginia.edu UP THE RIDGE 55 mins. 2007 Appalshop In 1999 Szuberla and Kirby were volunteer DJ’s for the Appalachian region’s only hip-hop radio program in
Whitesburg, KY when they received hundreds of letters from inmates transferred into nearby Wallens Ridge, the region’s newest prison built to prop up the shrinking coal economy. The letters described human rights violations and racial tension between staff and inmates. Filming began that year and, though the lens of Wallens Ridge State Prison, the program offers viewers an in-depth look at the
United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts. The film explores competing political agendas that align government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences. Connections exist, in both practice and ideology, between human rights violations in Abu Ghraib and physical and sexual abuse recorded in American prisons. Access: Appalshop at http://www.appalshop.org/h2h/film/
WEST VIRGINIA AUTHOR – SHAWN BENNETT 2007 25 mins. WVLC Host Gordon Simmons interviews Shawn Bennett, the director of the new WV labor documentary, “The Battle of Local 5668.” Bennett talks about his father and family in
Parkersburg. His father worked for years at the Ravenswood Aluminum plant including during the lock-out shown in his film. He also talks about spending several years making the film, commuting from his
Hollywood job where he is currently trying to organize members of his profession. Access: Steve Fesenmaier WHEN MINERS MARCH2006 7 discs Mountain Whispers.comWilliam C. Blizzard, the son of Bill Blizzard, the “general” of the Battle of Blair Mountain, with the assistance of Wess Harris, compiled his many accounts of the West Virginia Mine Wars in his book, “When Miners March.” He had written most of the book for various labor publications anonymously in the 1950s. In 2005 Ross Ballard took the book and turned it into a monumental “audio movie,” complete with sound effects and original music. Songs on the special CD are by T. Paige Dalporto, Elaine Purkey, Hazel Dickens, Mike Morningstar, John Lilly and the Irish duo of Enda Cullen and Ian Smith. Access: http://www.mountainwhispers.com/MWGiftShop.htm.
Harlan County, USA
1976 (2006, DVD) 103 mins. CriterionBarbara Kopple came to Appalachia to study at
Morris
Harvey
College –now theUniversity of
Charleston. While starting a film about Arnold Miller and the Miners for Democracy Movement a strike became very intense at the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June 1973. Kopple shows the history of coal mining – the many deaths, the conflicts, and for the first time in this film – the role women played in a strike. Dave Morris, Hazel Dickens, and other Appalachian musicians provide the music for the film. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1977 and has become a landmark film, influencing the entire field of filmmaking. A docu-drama version starring Holly Hunter was made in 2000 called “ Harlan
County
War.” The film was restored and premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Extras on the DVD include an update,”The Making of Harlan County USA,” out-takes, and interviews with Hazel Dickens and John Sayles. Access: Amazon.com, general distribution.
Labor in the Mountains
2005 55 mins. WVU Institute for Labor Studies and Research This film tells the history of labor in
West Virginia from the viewpoint of a retired worker who lived through much of that history. A grandfather answers questions about labor unions from his teen-age granddaughter. The video is divided into two parts of roughly the same length. The first part is introduced by the grandfather as he attempts to explain what labor unions are, and how they came into being in
West Virginia. This part begins with the role of union workers in support of the formation of the state during the Civil War, goes through the Great Uprising and General Strike in 1877, and into the story of coal miners and their struggles for justice and fair treatment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the rise of the United Mine Workers of America. It then shifts to the challenges faced by workers in other industries in the state as they also organized. The second part involves interviews from a range of current labor leaders who comment on how organized labor essentially built the middle-class in
West Virginia through organizing and collective bargaining, in coal and other basic industries. They discuss how workers achieved both economic and political power through their unions. With the arrival of deindustrialization and the considerable loss of industrial jobs in
West Virginia, organized labor has shifted much of its base into service-providing jobs and into the public sector at the state and local government levels. The interviewed leaders discuss these trends and end with comments on their concerns about the challenges facing working families in
West Virginia in the immediate future. Harry E, Lester, recently retired director of United Steel Workers of America District 2 and who is originally from
Bud, WV, in the state’s southern coalfields, plays the grandfather. His real life granddaughter, Elizabeth Lester, plays herself in the video. It may be the first history of labor for children ever put on film. Access: Available as VHS or DVD, $5 from Labor in the Mountains Foundation, ILSR/WVU, 719 Knapp Hall,
Morgantown WV
26506.
THE LAST CAMPAIGN
2005 107 minutes Wayne Ewing Productions A unique documentary that combines footage from Mr. Ewing’s first film, “If Elected” (1972) that profiled WV politician Warren McGraw’s Raleigh County race against coalmine owner Tracy Hylton with footage of McGraw’s primary and general election races in 2004. The overwhelming power of corporate money in contemporary elections is shown. McGraw beat Hylton when he was outspent 10 to 1. In 2004 he lost when he was outspent 100 to 1. These funds were spent airing the meanest attack ads in American political history. Access: http://www.thelastcampaign.com/
Three older films not often shown in WV
WEST VIRGINIA
STATE ARCHIVES LABOR FILMS – 5 mins. each
Audio/Video Files from theWest Virginia
State Archives.
Access: http://www.wvculture.org/history/av.html
Kaiser Aluminum, 1957 Walter Reuther at the West Virginia Centennial Celebration, 1963 Hominy Falls Mine Disaster, 1968 Farmington Mine Explosion, 1968 Black Lung Rally, 1969 UMWA Presidential Candidate Arnold Miller at Miners’ Rally, 1972 Dedication of the Mine Health and Safety Academy, 1976
EVEN THE HEAVENS WEEP 1985 55 mins. WV PBS-TV
The story of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest armed labor conflict in American history. TV star Mike Connors narrates this classic story about the long and bloody history of coal in
Appalachia. Access: WVPBS TV. Debbie Oleksa
West Virginia Public Broadcasting,
Morgantown, 1- 888-596-9729.
ORGANIZING AMERICA - A HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONS
1994 38 minutes Cambridge Educational Using interviews, personal accounts, and archival footage, this program investigates the major events in the history of American trade unions, from the formation of the first “friendly societies” in the 18th century, to the challenges posed by new technologies in the 1980s and 90s. Important issues such as minimum wages, health and safety conditions, discrimination, benefits, job security, and strikes are addressed. Veterans of labor struggles, labor historians, and business and government officials reveal fascinating personal insights into labor’s sometimes violent origins, and how its influences have changed the workplace over the past 200 years. Made in
Charleston, WV. Interviews including WV labor scholars including Dr. Fred Barkey. Access: Cambridge Educational, http://cambridge.films.com/id/10010/Organizing_America_The_History_of_Trade_Unions.htm
Sit Down And Fight — Walter Reuther & The Rise Of The Auto Workers Union
1992 55 mins. PBS
In 1936, Walter Reuther, a native of
Wheeling, WV, led one of the bitterest, bloodiest battles fought in the history of the American labor movement.
By sitting down and stopping the machinery of factory production, auto workers forced the Big Three to recognize their union. GM tried turning off the heat and blocking food deliveries and Ford sent members of their private security force to beat up UAW officials, but workers stood their ground. Access: WVLC has a VHS copy
Pulp Fiction, Poison Promises
1995 14 min. Mimi Pickering of Appalshop was hired to direct a film about the proposed pulp mill to be built at Apple Grove,Mason
County. The Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation paid for the film that explores the dangers that the pulp mill would present – to the workers and the local environment including dumping dioxin into the
Ohio River. Many groups, both labor and environmental, opposed the mill, supported by Gov. Caperton and the Legislature. Eventually, the mill was not built. The film also examines the impact that the company’s pulp mill had in the area around
Monroe, AL. The film was broadcast on WV television several times. See Doug Hawes-Davis’ film,”Green Rolling Hills” and “Southbound” from High Plains Films. Access: Steve Fesenmaier, WVLC
November 22nd, 2008 at
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