LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Workers Center and Hollywood Progressive co-present the revolutionary classic Strike.
Before there was Battleship Potemkin Sergei Eisenstein directed his first feature-length film, 1925’s Strike/Stachka. One of the most stunning cinematic debuts in movie history, the 82-minute Strike brought the radical stage techniques of Vsevolod Meyerhold and the Proletcult Theatre to the screen to tell the stirring story of a 1903 workers’ walkout at a Moscow factory. The striking proletarians’ demands include wage hikes, the 8-hour day—only 6 hours for children!—and more. Using powerful imagery and the “montage of associations,” Eisenstein vividly, viscerally depicts class struggle, pitting the collective mass hero against the capitalists, their spies and police. Using eye-popping movie metaphors, Eisenstein portrays the czarist regime’s savage brutality with a gripping grand finale that’s like getting punched in the face.
This screening of Strike is the fourth in a monthly film series “Ten Films That Shook the World: A Cinematic Centennial Celebration of the Russian Revolution,” running through November 2017 to commemorate and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the February and October 1917 Revolutions in Russia, and 1905’s mass uprisings. All ten films screened during these ten months are Soviet cinema classics, among the greatest political films ever made.
Strike will screen on Friday, May 26 at 7:30 pm at the Los Angeles Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, L.A. 90019.
Before each screening a speaker briefly introduces each film and filmmaker. After the movie the speaker will make additional remarks, followed by a Q&A. Light refreshments are served. These black and white, silent films, with English subtitles and musical soundtracks, are screened under imperfect conditions, although this is a chance to see them projected on a big screen. Admission is free, although donations and potluck contributions are accepted. Screenings start at 7:30 pm on the fourth Friday of each month, except the final film on Nov. 7. Film historian/critic Ed Rampell, author of Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States and a regular writer for People’s World, is the series’ programmer/co-presenter.
For further info please go to: laworkersedsoc@gmail.com.
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