A Letter to the Students at Lincoln Elementary School In Madison, Wisconsin

Hi! We are thrilled that you watched our film and so happy that you took the time to write letters to us and to Arlo and Nora Guthrie. A couple of weeks ago, Ken and I attended an event honoring Pete Seeger at Symphony Space, here in New York City.…

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Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

Ken emailed late last night with the news that Pete Seeger had died. I found out this morning. We both feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have spent time with Pete, talking about Woody, their time on the road, “1913 Massacre” and all sorts of musical and historical topics. There…

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Quick Holiday Round Up — 1913 in 2013

There was a ceremony in Calumet this past Tuesday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Italian Hall disaster, and all around the country there were news articles, blog posts, TV shows and radio programs about the trouble in Calumet on Christmas Eve, 1913. Our film came in for some…

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“Joins the Ranks of Great Progressive Movies”

Bill Meyer sums up his review of 1913 Massacre: Seamless editing, engrossing interviews and a stirring well-integrated music soundtrack make the film flow like long lost friends catching up on history. Arlo makes the point early on that it was folk songs where people learned about working class history, such…

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Newtown, Calumet and Dark Anniversaries

Sometimes during the Question & Answer periods after screenings of 1913 Massacre, people ask why the tragedy held the town of Calumet in its grip for so long. Why did the memory of the Italian Hall disaster last? Why did it take so long for the town to come to…

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Foreign Agitators!

A hundred years ago yesterday, on December 10th, 1913, the operators of the Calumet and Hecla Mine and members of the Citizens Alliance announced that all representatives of organized labor from outside the state had just “twenty four hours to leave. If they fail to do so they will be…

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Documentary As A Layer of Memory

Geoff Gimse saw our film last Thursday evening, at Michigan Tech. Here, Ken and I agree, he nails it, and we especially dig his last comment about the film as “another layer of…memory.” Since the actual facts of the tragedy are impossible to discern, the film instead focuses on how…

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“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…

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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…

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