Screening: SALT OF THE EARTH, as part of the Reel Stories: Labor in Film Series

Screening: SALT OF THE EARTH

This film will be screened for free as part of our Reel Stories:

Labor in Film series, presented in collaboration with East Side Freedom Library and the ESFL Labor Advisory Committee.

February 19th, 6:00pm

East Side Freedom Library

1105 Greenbrier Street, St Paul

“Proudly, deeply, defiantly humanistic,”

-Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy

Salt of the Earth is an extraordinary film — extraordinary in the story it tells of Mexican zinc miners and their families who engage in an historic strike in post-WWII Arizona, and extraordinary in its very making, with a creative team consisting of blacklisted Hollywood writers, directors, and actors, and a cast in which many of the characters are played by actual participants in the strike.

The film is so extraordinary that we will have TWO terrific scholar-activists introduce it and lead our discussion afterwards. Both of them have conducted research and published studies that center communities of color here in the Twin Cities. One is Rahsaan Mahadeo, Assistant Professor of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of “Funk the Clock,” a study of race and time, which upends what we think we know and offers new ways to think about the production of knowledge. The other is Jimmy Patiño, Associate Professor of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota. While his first book, “Raza Si, Migra No” focused on Chicano struggles in San Diego, his current work explores solidarity among Chicanos, African Americans, and American Indians here in Minnesota.

Their work, and this film, could not be more timely. Join us to explore how Mexican miners and their families wrote a new chapter in American labor history, and how their story speaks to the challenges we face today.

Synopsis

At New Mexico’s Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacon) helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

This film is not rated. Parents or guardians are encouraged to consult the IMDB Parents Guide.

This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.