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…
Fred Hellerman, 1927-2016
Fred Hellerman, the last surviving member of The Weavers, died on Thursday at 89. The New York Times obituary does not discuss Hellerman’s relationship with Woody Guthrie (except indirectly, where it notes that Fred produced Arlo’s first two albums). Hellerman nevertheless played an important part in the musical story of…
Woody’s “Old Man Trump” Recorded by Harvey, DiFranco, Morello
Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello have collaborated on a recording of Woody Guthrie’s “Old Man Trump.” I wrote about “Old Man Trump” and the bigotry it denounces here, back in January; but I didn’t know about this recording until yesterday, when my friend David Goddy sent along an…
Touch That Dial!
We started shooting 1913 Massacre before High Definition video and the 16:9 aspect ratio were widely used, and we kept shooting Standard Definition video and producing in a fullscreen 4:3 ratio even after HD and widescreen 16:9 became the default format. I once endured a screening of the entire film…
Bloodpot and Melting Pot: Woody Guthrie and “Old Man Trump”
In 1950, Woody Guthrie leased an apartment from Donald Trump’s father, Fred, in the Beach Haven complex, near Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. As Woody’s biographer Will Kaufman writes in an article published today on The Conversation, it didn’t take too long before Woody “was already lamenting the bigotry that pervaded his new, lily-white…
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…
A Long Postscript
Ever since Ken and I finished 1913 Massacre, I’ve been watching and learning about the resurgence of mining around Lake Superior. I’ve done some research, talked to some good people, and made a few informal scouting trips to the Lake Superior region, to see if I might perhaps produce a…
Labor Day – Enjoy Responsibly
Have a great Labor Day. And don’t forget what it’s all about.
Can Films Still Make A Difference?
(cross posted from my personal blog): What filmmaker wouldn’t be pleased with a critic like Joan Gibb Engel? Here’s what she writes about 1913 Massacre. We were treated to a complex story, excellently told, replete with black and white stills from the period depicting the miners, the strikers, the town,…