1913 Massacre will screen at the Parchment Community Library in Parchment, MI, on Monday, January 31, as part of the Great Michigan Read program. Ken and I will join by Zoom for a discussion afterwards. We love to see the film showing at town libraries. If you’d like to schedule…
1913 Massacre Featured in Rivertown Film’s Artists From the Archives Series
All sorts of activities are relocating online during the coronavirus pandemic. Cinemas and film festivals, too, are experimenting with new online offerings. Last night, as part of its Artists from the Archives series, Rivertown Film posted the Q & A session we had after a screening of 1913 Massacre in…
People’s Stories and The Italian Hall Memorial
There’s a discussion underway in Calumet right now about the design of a new Italian Hall Memorial. We contributed the following thoughts to that discussion today. To the Italian Hall Memorial Group and The Village of Calumet, As producers of 1913 Massacre, the feature-length, 2012 documentary film about the Italian…
When Oscar Met Woody
Seeing Oscar Brand’s obituary in the New York Times earlier this week sent me back to the interview we did with Oscar for 1913 Massacre. Here’s a brief audio excerpt from that interview: the story of how Oscar and Woody Guthrie met in 1940, after Woody wrote a song about the gathering of the American…
Woody and the Seventh-Inning Stretch
As you read this short article from the Sports section of last Friday’s New York Times, bear in mind that Woody wrote “This Land Is Your Land” after he grew tired of hearing Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” every time he turned on the radio: In the middle of the…
A Stark Reminder of Mining’s Toxic Legacy
Ken and I sometimes present 1913 Massacre as a film about “mining’s toxic legacy.” Over the past week or so, that phrase has started to take on new meaning. On Wednesday, August 4th, an EPA crew working with heavy digging machinery to install a drain in the abandoned and flooded Gold King…
Labor Day – Enjoy Responsibly
Have a great Labor Day. And don’t forget what it’s all about.
“They Try to Create Despair Among the Miners”
One of the small treasures I brought back to New York from Lake Superior is Hannu Leppanen and Daniel Schneider’s 2013 letterpress edition of Tyomies, the Finnish workingman’s newspaper published during the strike of 1913. I’ve mentioned the project here before. Daniel set up his Chandler & Price Pilot Press…
Check Out This Performance of ‘1913 Massacre’
After seeing our film, composer Rob Garcia was so taken with Woody’s song that he developed this original setting of “1913 Massacre.” Here’s Rob Garcia’s Soap Box performing the song at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture last month. http://youtu.be/cAq6uSFxsGg&w=420&h=315 The Soap Box ensemble features: Jean Rohe – vocals Michel…
A Theme from Labor Day 1913
One hundred years ago today, in 1913, a crowd of almost 3000 people gathered in the sweltering heat at the municipal park in Hancock, Michigan for a Labor Day rally. It had been a difficult, violent summer, and there was no indication that the strike on the Copper Range was…