Jun
16
12:00am
Struggles in Steel presented by City of Asylum and the Sabira Cole Film Festival
By Show Must Go Online
(run time: 75 minutes)
On March 9, 2020 City of Asylum partnered with Sembène – The Film & Arts Festival to screen Struggles in Steel and a post-show talkback. We’re rebroadcasting the film and discussion in partnership with the Sabira Cole Film Festival. Filmmaker Tony Buba will introduce the film, give a live talkback, and lead the audience in a Q&A after the screening.
When a local television station did a program about the closing of the major steel mills in the Pittsburgh region, Ray Henderson, a former mill worker who had worked in the mills for 18 years, couldn’t help but notice that not one black worker was shown. This despite the fact that African-American workers had formed a critical part of the labor force in western Pennsylvania for 125 years.
With his old friend and independent filmmaker Tony Buba, Henderson set out to collaborate on a history of African-Americans and their contributions not just to the steel industry, but to the labor movement itself. Through eloquent living witnesses and revelatory archival footage, Struggles In Steel presents a striking counterpoint to the stereotypical black male image. Struggles In Steel premiered at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, has played in major festivals in the United States, and screened at FESPACO in Burkina Faso in West Africa – the largest African film festival in the world. In addition, Struggles In Steel was awarded a 1999 Silver Baton, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. Featuring interviews with over 70 African-American workers, Struggles In Steel: A Story of African-American Steel Workers documents the shameful history of discrimination against black workers and one heroic campaign where they won equality on the job.
TONY BUBA has been producing documentaries since 1972 in both long and short formats. He has worked on several feature films, including George Romero’s Martin and Dawn of the Dead. Tony founded Braddock Films in 1992 to continue creating award-winning documentaries in the Pittsburgh area. Tony’s awards include fellowships from the NEA, AFI, and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
The Show Must Go On(line) is made possible thanks to generous support from the Benter Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Opportunity Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and an Anonymous Foundation.
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