May Week film night

two films by Rosemary Feurer and Laura Vazquez

Special guest speakers to be announced.

Mother Jones - Americas Most Dangerous Woman

USA, 2007, 20 min.

the following write up is from the filmmakers' press release

Mother Jones: America's Most Dangerous Woman is a new 22 minute documentary about the amazing labor heroine, Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones. The documentary shows how Mother Jones' organizing career influenced the history of early 20th century United States. Featuring historian Elliott Gorn, leading biographer of Mother Jones, it shows how Mother Jones used class and gender boundaries to shape an identity that allowed her to become an effective labor organizer in the early 20th century. Mother Jones transformed personal and political grief and rage into an effective persona that led workers into battles that changed the course of history. The documentary evokes the terrible conditions and labor oppression that motivated her to traverse the country, mobilizing thousands to fight back. A moving "music video" of the "Ludlow massacre," and her role in those events brings to life a forgotten vista of brutalities that faced immigrant laborers in the United States in the previous century. The film uses authentic photographs and live footage, including the only known film of Mother Jones on her deathbed, proclaiming that she is still a "radical" and "longs for the day when labor will have the destination of the nation in her own hands."

The documentary was produced and directed by Rosemary Feurer and Laura Vazquez, and edited by Vazquez. They developed it in conjunction with their documentary, Remember Virden, which is about the class and race conflict in Virden and other Illinois mining communities in 1898. Mother Jones sought to be buried with the "Virden martyrs" in Mt. Olive, Illinois Union Miners' Cemetery, in an effort to remind us of the role of ordinary workers in the struggles for labor justice.

Lockout 484

USA, 2005, 20 min.

Lockout 484 is an 18 minute documentary that profiles the struggle of workers in Meredosia, Illinois, USA against a global conglomerate, Celanese corporation,in 2005. Workers were locked out when they refused to take 33% wage cuts and eliminate whole divisions. In the video, workers speak about the fact that their union means safe working conditions, but also a better community. They show how their union means the survival of a decent life in their small community. Meanwhile, locked out, they face attempts by Celanese's goon-squad private labor agency, Special Response Corporation, to engage in provocative private surveillance, in order to provoke violence and to tarnish their reputation in the community. The documentary suggests that police power is aligned with corporate power, making it impossible for workers to develop their counterstrategies. In one provocative set of commentaries, workers ironically compare their loss of freedom to speak out effectively to the vision of the United States as a freedom-promoting democracy. "We don't have democracy here," says one worker. Drawing connections between the historic struggles a century ago in a nearby town, the documentary reminds us that power comes from remembering the present's connection to the past struggles of workers.

The documentary was produced and directed by Laura Vazquez and Rosemary Feurer. They developed it in conjunction with their documentary, Remember Virden, which is about the historic class and race conflict in Virden and other Illinois mining communities in 1898. Researching on location in the area, Feurer was told of the struggle by a union official, who told her to go see a "modern day Virden" where barbed wire and goon squad was the response to workers' challenges to corporate power. Feurer was arrested after the local sheriff's department hunted her down after she had crossed the picket line to give the goon squads a piece of her mind and expressed support for the workers.

Feurer is a labor historian who teaches at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950 (2006) In the 1990s she produced the cable TV show LaborVision and the award-winning 1995 documentary Struggle in the Heartland, concerning the Decatur, Illinois fight against the global conglomerate, Tate and Lyle's effort to reinstitute 12 hour day rotating shifts.

Vazquez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, where she teaches media theory and production courses, courses on gender and communication. Vazquez completed her Ph.D. in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University. She is currently working on a number of documentary projects, including a film about homeless children. Her award-winning 2004 production, Ruth Weisberg: On the Journey, explored the dynamic breadth of Weisberg's art.

Painting of Mother Jones by Robert Shetterly

Robert Shetterly has painted many portraits of prominent socially active Americans and has published a book containing over 50 portraits. Global Visions recommends that you visit Americans Who Tell the Truth and support Robert Shetterly and his art.