'Salt of the Earth' Film Festival

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After the successful Sheffield Indymedia Documentary, Matilda Social Centre is hosting another big film event.

 

Salt of the Earth Film Festival: a series of films and documentaries about 20th C labour and community struggles around the world and at home. To be screened over the following few months....

 

It begins next Thursday, 1st December at 8pm: the initial film will be John Sayles masterpiece, Matewan, described as 'one of the finest films in American independent cinema.'

 

Matewan

John Sayles(1987)

 

'The bloody Matewan massacre was the Alamo of the

fierce struggle that raged in the coal fields of West

Virginia in the 1920's. Directed/screenwriter John

Sayles has told the tale of the bitter clash

between union and coal company with all the beauty,

simplicity and quiet power of the folk ballads that

still ring in those green hills. Matewan draws on the

same moral brawn that Steinback and Ford flexed in The

Grapes of Wrath and celebrates the same compelling

virtues.'

 

other films in the series

 

Roger and Me: (Michael Moore)

 

ROGER AND ME was Moores major first film is a feature-length documentary film chronicling the efforts of the world's largest corporation, General Motors,as it turns its hometown of Flint, Michigan, into a ghost town. In his quest to discover why GM would want to do such a thing, filmmaker Michael Moore, a Flint native, attempts to meet the chairman, Roger Smith, and invite him out fora few beers up in Flint to "talk things over". In between his efforts to see Smith, Moore, the son

of a Flint autoworker, takes us on a bizarre journey through Flint accompanied along the way by RonaldReagan, Miss America, Pat Boone, Bob "Newlywed Game"Eubanks,

and TV evangelist Robert Schuller--all of whom show up to save Flint from destruction.

 

 

others coming in the festival

 

Salt of the Earth:

'In the history of Hollywood there are few films with a

story behind its making as dramatically riveting asthat of Salt of the Earth Made during the height of the McCarthy era by a group of blacklisted filmmakers who were among the best and the brightest Hollywood talent of the day'

 

 

Radio Alice (111m, 2004, G Chiesa)

 

Revisiting the Italy of the radical Seventies and its obsessions

with class struggle, creative anarchy and macrame ponchos, Radio Alice provides a fascinating glimpse of a time of protest. In a working-class district on the outskirts of Bologna, Sgualo (Tommaso Ramenghi) and Pelo (Marco Luisi) hang out at the local cafe, allergic to gainful employment. They don’t mind the occasional shady job for local hood Marangon (Valerio Binasco), but they’re convinced there’s little future whichever way they turn. Then they discover Radio Alice – the poster child of the Italian free radio movement – and get in touch with a new

radical political consciousness that is spreading among the young.

 

Antonio Negri – a revolt that never ends

 

 

(52m, 2004, (A Weltz and A Pichler)

 

1 July, 1997. An elderly man arrives in Italy on a flight from

Paris where he is immediately arrested by special forces of the

Carabinieri. Antonio Negri had finally returned voluntarily to his home country after 15 years of exile. A Revolt That Never Ends profiles the controversial life and times of this university professor, philosopher, militant, prisoner, refugee, and so-called ‘enemy of the state.’ It traces Negri’s roots in the history of radical left-wing movements in Italy during the Sixties and Seventies, illustrated through archival

footage of workers’ strikes, factory occupations, terrorist actions, violent street confrontations, political repression, and government trials of dissidents. During these tumultuous decades, finding himself branded as an evil ideologue with alleged ties to the Red Brigades terrorist group, Negri spent ten years in prison and fourteen years in exile in Paris. His book Empire, coauthored with Michael Hardt, is an international bestseller.

 

 

Bound For Glory

Hal Ashby

 

Another US independent cinema classic, this is a brilliant biopic of the great Woody Guthrie: hobo, musician, activist...

 

'Speaking out for freedom, celebrating life, proclaiming the dignity and rights of the underdog — Woody Guthrie communicated through his folk songs. This crusty and creative wanderer was not afraid to express his opinions. Above all else, he was a humanist who never got out of touch with people.'

 

 

The Wobblies

(Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer, US, 1979, 89 minutes.)

 

an exhaustive but fascinating doc about the IWW, The Industrial Workers of The World (I.W.W.) nicknamed 'The Wobblies' were an very influential radical labor organization that was very active from the late 19th century up until the 1920’s, when they declined from prominence. Their political and ideological ideas made them unique from other labor organizations at the time. Essentially, they wanted to make workers more class-conscious and unite them in "One Big Union."

 

A Different World is Possible”

 

Directed in 2001 by

Massimo Sani together with 32 other directors -- including Francesco Maselli, Gillo Pontecorvo, (Battle of Algiers)

Ettore Scola, Gabriele Salvatores and Daniele Segre. [120 minutes]

 

This important, balanced and beautifully made documentary presents the events surrounding the G-8 summit in Genoa in July 2001. Citto Maselli, Mario Monicelli, Gillo Pontecorvo, Ettore Scola, Ricky Tognazzi, Francesca Comencini, Pasquale Scimeca, Daniele Segre and the Taviani brothers are among the many contributing directors.

 

"We have made a film to tell the extraordinary events during G8 day in Genoa.In particular the animated desire to contribute to give voice to millions of human beings to whom the right to participate in decisions about their future have been denied, the future of the world.

 

 

 

Panther( Mario Van Peebles)

 

A very Hollywood but exciting film about the rise

and fall of the Black Panther Movement in the US in the 60's

plus shorts

 

 

 

Get over It

(Jay Baker)

 

a documentary

 

 

Mush of the uk is booming, but it seems to have passed Rotherham by...

 

What the director says about his film ...

www,mediaactivist.com/documentaries/html

 

'I made Get Over It under SilenceBreaker Films to find answers to questions raised in the company's first film, the Rotherham community project Tales from Nowhere.

Rotherham is a town that's never quite been able to effectively recover from the local industry job losses of the Thatcher Years'

 

 

plus other films, docs, discussions and debates

check the matilda website for updates or to get involved.

 

Matilda is a new Social and Community Centre that has opened up in Sheffield's City Centre and is on the edge of the Cultural Industries Quarter. Matilda's aim is to bring grass roots creativity and a non-commercialised culture to the heart of Sheffield. We have Meetings every Monday from 7.30pm, Socials on Thursdays from 7 (with Food), Workdays the Same Day from 10am. See the events page for a full listing of upcoming things.

 

(google matilda social centre)

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