RochesterLabor.org

2011 Labor Film Special Events

Films shown at the Eastman House Dryden Theater, 900 East Avenue.

Tuesday, September 20 8 p.m. Two early silent films
examining the relationship between labor and capital. Shot on location in actual factories, both realistically portray working conditions to call attention to them.

THE WHISTLE (Lambert Hillyer, US 1921, 70 min.) The life of a New England textile mill worker is tragically redirected after a violent accident. The film is a shocking and powerful indictment of unsafe working conditions in American factories of the early 1900s.

THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN (George O. Nichols, US 1912, 29 min.) Structured on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's social protest poem of 1843 and produced during the great Lawrence textile strike of 1912, this impassioned plea against child labor furthered debate and helped pave the way for reform. Live piano accompaniment by Philip C. Carli.

Saturday, November 5, 8 p.m.
Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1307 (Ben Niles, US 2007, 81 min.) This documentary follows the making of a Steinway piano at this 150-year-old company, one of the last outposts of hand craftsmanship in a machine-dominated industry. It takes 450 union craftsmen nearly a year to make and assemble the 12,000 parts of this concert grand piano — Steinway L1307. Director Niles will participate in the post-screening Q&A.