Friends and neighbors are invited to a free event - Free Screening of Salt of the Earth
Salt of the Earth is a 1954 film which tells the story of a long, difficult strike by Mexican-American miners against the Empire Zinc Company in Bayard (near Silve City), New Mexico
The film was denounced on the floor of the United States House of Representatives for its supposed "Communist" sympathies, and the FBI investigated the film's financing. The American Legion called for a boycott. Film-processing labs were told not to handle it. Unionized projectionists were instructed not to show it. After its opening night in New York; the film languished for ten years as all but 12 additional theaters refused to screen it.
During the filming of Salt of the Earth, star Rosaura Revueltas was arrested by immigration officials on an alleged passport violation and was forced to return to Mexico. Revueltas once said that since the INS had no evidence to present of her "subversive" character, she concluded she was considered "dangerous" because she had been playing a role that gave status and dignity to the character of a Mexican-American woman.
Will Geer (known late in life for playing Grandpa Walton on TV) has a feature role in the film. Geer was a social activist touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie. In the 1950s he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. During that period, he built the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, California, which he and Herta Ware helped to found. He combined his acting and botanical careers at the Theatricum by making sure that every plant mentioned in Shakespeare was grown there. Geer also had an early romantic relationship with late noted gay activist Harry Hay.
Preceding Salt of the Earth will be a new short video documentary:
Together We Win:
The Fight to Organize Starbucks This 2006 film, directed by Diane Krauthamer, chronicles victories and struggles in the first two years of IWW organizing at Starbucks.
