Saturday, October 5
Nuestro Legado/Our Legacy Series: Featuring Richard Peña
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
J.E. Dunn Construction Theater
Pay What You Can. Space is Limited. RSVP Required
Click here to purchase your seat
Richard Peña Discusses the film, The Salt of the Earth
In 1952, three black-listed American filmmakers, together with a largely Mexican American community, recreated the story of the successful strike the community waged against a major mining company. The community helped write the script, and most of the actors in the film were the miners themselves. Yet, when they tried to release The Salt of the Earth, they found only 12 cinemas in the whole country willing to play the film. Accused of being “communist propaganda,” the film faced the wrath of the Church, members of Congress, veterans’ groups and many Hollywood studios. Fortunately, later generations discovered the film. Now it’s hailed as a classic of American independent cinema, with a challenging approach to ethnic, labor, and gender issues that are still very much with us today.
Emeritus Professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University and Director Emeritus of the New York Film Festival, Richard Peña, will discuss the film within the context of American film history, as well as trace its production history and the movement to suppress it.
This is event is sponsored by UMKC Cockefair Chair Committee and UMKC School of Humanities
