General Strike film attracts new attention in era of unrest

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/06/2020 (1952 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

wfpyoutube:https://youtu.be/dUmyoOoviiA:wfpyoutube

Stand!, the film version of the Danny Schur-Rick Chafe stage musical Strike! got a limited release last year, the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike.

But 2020 is turning out to be an appropriate time to see the musical based on the strike, which lasted from May 15 to June 26 in 1919, given the stew of racism, police violence, activism and economic inequality the world is currently enduring.

Writer-composer Schur is keenly aware how the timing of the story clicks into the current zeitgeist. To that end, he has released a video from the film, Saturday in June, to be released this Saturday, June 20, as a timely commemoration.

“During this 150th anniversary year of Manitoba, the 101st anniversary of ‘Bloody Saturday’ occurs during a moment in history where some protests are being met with violent suppression,” Schur says in an email interview. “This video is presented in honour of the past, and as an act of solidarity with the present.

“I’d planned to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the ‘Bloody Saturday’ with a special screening of the Stand! movie at the Park Theatre. With the advent of COVID, that door closed and the production of the Saturday in June video became the best COVID-friendly way to honour the day.”

The video, which will be uploaded to YouTube tonight, lifts footage directly from the film, especially from the climactic moment when striker Mike Sokolowski (Gregg Henry) is felled by a gunshot as his son, Stefan (Marshall Williams), and Stefan’s lover, Rebecca (Laura Slade Wiggins), look on in anguish.

But unlike the movie, the film adds historical documents, including photographs by L.B. Foote.

“In the movie, we specifically decided against historical photos during the narrative because it would have taken the audience out of the moment,” Schur says. “But the music video doesn’t have the same context as the movie, and the historic photos just seemed right. They lend an air of documentary reality that grounds the song in history.”

Stand! has not yet received a substantial release in the United States, and because of the pandemic, Schur says the timing may benefit the film, especially since most Hollywood studio product is being delayed to the autumn and beyond.

“When COVID decimated the film industry, it turned out that a finished movie was the industry’s most valuable asset,” Schur says. “With so many movie premières delayed until 2021, the U.S. calendar opened up such that we are entertaining streaming and theatrical deals that would otherwise not have presented themselves to us.

“We hope to announce U.S. and/or worldwide deals before the end of the summer,” Schur says.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing