SALT OF THE EARTH

The bravest film ever to be lensed in American history, the quintessential labor-rights tale SALT OF THE EARTH was the joint effort of three blacklisted filmmakers from “The Hollywood Ten”: director Herbert J. Biberman, producer Paul Jarrico, and writer Michael Wilson.

Using a non-professional cast to depict the struggle of Chicano workers in a courageous story of solidarity and dignity, the film’s troubled production is the definition of guerilla filmmaking. The set was frequently under attack by authorities and vigilantes, who periodically buzzed the sets with low-flying planes and fired guns at the filmmakers. Main actor Rosaura Revueltas was deported during the shoot, never to return to the States. That a crew made up of people who’d been jailed and banned from their industry, making a film without a distributor, in the middle of hostile territory, is one of the great miracles of cinema.