The killing floor
Type
Label
The killing floor
Language
eng
Characteristic
videorecording
Intended audience
Not rated
Main title
The killing floor
Medium
electronic resource
Runtime
118
Series statement
Film Movement classics
Summary
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 by Obie Award-winner Leslie Lee, 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 director Bill Duke, The Killing Floor premiered on PBS' American Playhouse series in 1984 to rave reviews. In 1985, the film was invited to Cannes and won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award. It has been showcased at Lincoln Center and festivals around the world
Target audience
adult
Technique
live action
Contributor
Subject
- Riots -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Racism -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Packing-house workers + Labor unions + Organizing -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Working class -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century
- Packing-houses -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Video recordings for the hearing impaired
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Race relations -- History -- Drama
- African American labor union members -- Drama
- Race discrimination -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Chicago (Ill.) -- History -- 1875-
Content
resource.adapter
Author
resource.directorofphotography
Is Part Of
composerexpression
resource.screenwriter
resource.televisiondirector
resource.televisionproducer
Incoming Resources
- Has instance1
Outgoing Resources
- Contributor12
- Genre1
- Subject10
- Riots -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Racism -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Packing-house workers + Labor unions + Organizing -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Working class -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century
- Packing-houses -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Video recordings for the hearing impaired
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Race relations -- History -- Drama
- African American labor union members -- Drama
- Race discrimination -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Drama
- Chicago (Ill.) -- History -- 1875-
- Content1
- Actor4
- resource.adapter1
- Author1
- resource.directorofphotography1
- Is Part Of1
- composerexpression1
- resource.screenwriter1
- resource.televisiondirector1
- resource.televisionproducer2