Native Land is a 1942 docudrama film directed by Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand.Grant, Barry Keith and Jim Hillier. BFI Screen Guides: 100 Documentary Films, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. pp. 147–148.
Synopsis A combination of a documentary format and staged reenactments (influenced by the cinematic works of Sergei Eisenstein and Aleksandr Dovzhenko), the independently produced film depicted the struggle of trade unions against union-busting corporations, their spies and contractors. It was based on the 1938 report of the La Follette Committee's investigation of the repression of labor organizing.The Criterion CollectionLeo Hurwitz
Famous African-American singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson participated as an off-screen narrator and vocalist.Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (Criterion) – Senses of CinemaPaul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist - Criterion Collection - DVD Talk
Cast Paul Robeson as Narrator and vocalist (voice) Fred Johnson as Fred Hill, a farmer Mary George as Hill's wife John Rennick as Hill's son Amelia Romano as Window scrubber Houseley Stevenson as White sharecropper Louis Grant as Black sharecropper James Hanney as Mack, Union president Howard Da Silva as Jim, an informer Art Smith as Harry Carlyle John Marley as Thug with crowbar
Legacy
Restoration and re-release A restored version of the film was released in 2011. The film was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, funded by the Packard Humanities Institute.
The new print was made “from the original 35mm nitrate picture negative, a 35mm safety duplicate negative, and a 35mm safety up-and-down track negative.”
The restoration premiered at the UCLA Festival of Preservation on March 26, 2011 and was screened at other North American cities in 2011, including Vancouver.
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