Film
THE KILLING FLOOR (1984) 4K Restoration
Mon, May 9, 6:30 p.m.
AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Tickets: bit.ly/DCLaborFilmFest2022
AFI Member passes accepted. AFI Member discount available for union members (must present union card).
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
Praised by The Village Voice as the most "clear-eyed account of union organizing on film," THE KILLING FLOOR tells the little-known true story of the struggle to build an interracial labor union in the Chicago stockyards. The screenplay, written by Obie Award winner Leslie Lee and based on an original story by producer Elsa Rassbach, traces the racial and class conflicts seething in the city's giant slaughterhouses and the brutal efforts of management to divide the workforce along ethnic lines, which eventually boiled over in the Chicago race riot of 1919. The first feature film by actor/director (and AFI Alum) Bill Duke, THE KILLING FLOOR premiered on PBS' American Playhouse series in 1984 to rave reviews and stars Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Farina, Ernest Rayford and Moses Gunn. In 1985, the film was invited to Cannes and won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award. DIR Bill Duke; SCR Leslie Lee, from a story by Elsa Rassbach; PROD George Manasse. U.S., 1984, color, 118 min. RATED PG
Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive, laboratory services and DCP by UCLA Film & Television Archive Digital Media Lab. Special thanks to Elsa Rassbach, Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA Film & Television Archive.
