“Rich and revealing, a cry of historical dimensions.”
— Variety
“A truly compelling, blistering, and vital historical document.”
— Jen Johans, Film Intuition
“As compelling dramatically as its historical analysis is fascinating…
Surprising that a film from the U.S. can be so frank and explicit
in its exposure of the class struggle.”
— Sight & Sound
“Thrillingly watchable, profoundly stirring and perennially relevant.”
— David Bax, Battleship Pretension
THIS NOVEMBER, FILM MOVEMENT CLASSICS PROUDLY RELEASES AN ESSENTIAL PIECE OF BLACK, LABOR AND CINEMATIC HISTORY, STARRING DAMIEN LEAKE AND
OSCAR® NOMINEE ALFRE WOODARD IN
A STUNNING NEW 4K RESTORATION BY UCLA
THE KILLING FLOOR
Street Date: November 24, 2020
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital: $29.95/$19.95
Available on Blu-ray and DVD for the First Time Ever in North America,
This Official Selection at Cannes and Winner of the 1985 Special Jury Prize at Sundance, Produced by Elsa Rassbach, Directed by Bill Duke and Co-Starring Clarence Felder, Moses Gunn and Dennis Farina, Also Features Numerous Extras Including
“The Making of The Killing Floor”, a Booklet with New Essays, and More
SYNOPSIS
Praised by The New Yorker as “a revelatory historical drama” and by The Village Voice as the most “clear-eyed account of union organizing on film,” THE KILLING FLOOR (1984/1985) is the first feature film directed by Bill Duke and explores a little-known true story of an African American migrant in his struggle to help build an interracial union in the Chicago Stockyards. The screenplay by Obie Award-winner Leslie Lee is from an original story by producer Elsa Rassbach and is based on actual characters and events, tracing ethnic and class conflicts seething in the city’s giant slaughterhouses, when management efforts to divide the workforce fuel racial tensions that erupt in the deadly Chicago Race Riot of 1919.
Damien Leake stars as Frank Custer, a young black sharecropper from Mississippi who lands a job on “the killing floor” of a meatpacking plant — one of tens of thousands of southern blacks who journeyed to the industrial north during World War One, hoping for more racial equality. Frank finally succeeds in bringing his wife Mattie (Alfre Woodard) and family up north, but when he decides to support the union cause, his best friends from the South, distrustful of the white-led union, turn against him.
The film was shot in Chicago in 1983 by a small indie production firm in the midst of the union-busting Reagan Era just as Chicago’s first African-American mayor, Harold Washington, was elected. The filmmakers were advised by a team of prominent scholars led by renowned labor historian David Brody. The filmmakers drew on the immense talent of local Chicago union crews and guild actors and enjoyed an outpouring of community support. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, foundations, corporations and dozens of national and local unions, THE KILLING FLOOR premiered on PBS’ American Playhouse series in 1984 to rave reviews. In 1985 it was invited as a theatrical film to many festivals, including Cannes, and won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize. THE KILLING FLOOR, is a “classic study in class hate, greed and stubborn idealism. You won’t forget it” (Newsday).
CAST
- Damien Leake (“Good Girls”, “The Baxters”, Highlander, Serpico)
- Alfre Woodard (The Lion King, Clemency, 12 Years a Slave, Cross Creek)
- Clarence Felder (Ruthless People, The Last Boy Scout)
- Moses Gunn (Heartbreak Ridge, Ragtime, Shaft)
- Dennis Farina (“Luck”, “Law & Order” Get Shorty, Midnight Run)
BONUS FEATURES
- Introduction by director Bill Duke; Q&A with Damien Leake and Elsa Rassbach
- Pandemic Era Conversations with Damien Leake, Clarence Felder and Bill Duke
- The Making of The Killing Floor: Interview with producer-writer Elsa Rassbach
- Booklet with new essays by Professor James R. Barrett, University of Illinois and Professor Joe William Trotter, Jr., Carnegie Mellon University
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Type: Blu-ray/DVD/Digital (New 4K Digital Restoration)
Running Time: 118 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Audio: Mono
