Heroes

A Labor Day Screening Program

Program (3pm-9pm):

3PM Union Maids (51 min)
4PM Vanishing Pearls (80 min)
5:30PM Open Screen, New Orleans
7PM American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (82 min)

Labor Day is a chance to reflect on the spirit of America’s workforce and acknowledge the importance that each worker has to the well being of this nation. For that reason, the second annual Labor Day screening program is titled Heroes. From revolutionaries like Grace Lee Boggs to small town workers like Byron Encalade in Pointe à la Hache, the program presents three documentaries that portray a diverse array of working heroes and invites the public to screen their own films on Labor Day heroes for the fifth installment of Open Screen, New Orleans, a regular event that invites filmmakers to screen material 10-minutes or less in length.

Heroes will begin at 3PM with Union Maids (1976, 51 min), the oral histories of three women activists in Chicago’s labor movement, and continue with Vanishing Pearls (2014, 80 min), the story of a Louisiana community’s struggle for justice after the BP oil spill. The Labor Day Heroes edition of Open Screen, New Orleans will begin at 5:30PM. Everyone is invited to bring original material 10-minutes or less, first come first screened. Heroes concludes with American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013, 82 min), an award winning film chronicling the life of Grace Lee-Boggs, a Chinese American activist with a 75-year history in social movements working in Detroit.

The program is presented by Press Street’s Antenna Gallery, Blake Bertuccelli and Cinema Reset. Curated by Amanda Hass. Visit http://cinemareset.com/labor for more information and program updates, or email curator@cinemareset.com.

Union Maids (1976, 51 min)

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary, Oscars in 1978

Winner “Critic’s Award” for Best Short, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics in 1978

A personal look at working-class history, Union Maids bring together three women labor organizers active in the Chicago worker’s movements in the early 1930s: Kate Hyndman (Croatia), Stella Nowicki (Michigan), and Sylvia Woods (New Orleans).

Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache (2014, 80 min)

In the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon spill, Vanishing Pearls follows the African American community of Pointe à la Hache, Louisiana whose residents band together to fight for justice and save their devastated oyster industry.

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013, 82 min)

Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival.

This new documentary offers the gained wisdom of Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American activist in Detroit with a 75-year history in social movements, by detailing her history, emphasizing how she creates new ideas of revolution and inspiring a new generation to affect change.

Open Screen, New Orleans

Open Screens invite filmmakers of all kinds to screen and get feedback on their material. For our Open Screen, we ask that works are no longer than 10-minutes. Before each screening, the work’s creator can address the audience with a short introduction. Audiences can then discuss the work after each screening. We encourage audiences to keep their discussion respectful, and we ask that filmmakers hold their response to audience feedback until after the Open Screen program is complete.

Facebook Event Page: http://on.fb.me/1npz5e1

Poster image: Portrait of Grace Lee Bogs Robert Shetterly/Americans Who Tell The Truth