FOGCUTTER FILM SERIES VOLUME 14
MATEWAN (1987)
The Fogcutter Film Series
hosted by Robert Mailer Anderson
6:00 PM: “Happy Hour Gramophone Concert” by DJ GrampaPhone spinning 78 shellacs on his 1906 gramophone including rare tracks from
The Carter Family, Rose Maddox, Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and more!
with FREE Fogcutter Rye Whiskey
while supplies last!
7:00 PM: MATEWAN (1987) - Directed by John Sayles (Lone Star, Passion Fish, 8 Men Out) and cinematography by Haskel Wexler (two time Oscar winner for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, 5-time nominee) nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for best cinematography. This may be the greatest indie epic ever - a "documentary-real” historical fiction account of “The Matewan Massacre” of 1920— a deadly confrontation in West Virginia between local miners and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency that resulted in the deaths of ten people. A cautionary tale about capitalism, coal mining, labor, racism, immigration, union-building and union-busting, with great performances by Oscar-winner Chris Cooper (Adaption), Oscar-nominee David Strathairn (Good Night, And Good Luck), twice Oscar-nominated Mary McDonnell (Passion Fish, Dances With Wolves), the legendary James Earl Jones, one of the most hissable villains ever, Kevin Tighe as Bill Hickey, a young Will Oldham (aka musician Bonnie "Prince" Billy) and a slice of America’s dark history so forgotten, and so very important, it’s probably already banned in Florida. Matewan is a powerful, wholly American film that has been overlooked by too many, for too long… “You think this man is the enemy? Huh? This man is a worker!"
ROBERT MAILER ANDERSON: Anderson is a native San Franciscan, 9th generation Californian, writer, producer, filmmaker (Windows on The World, Pig Hunt) activist, author of the bestselling novel Boonville, and nominated for 3 Grammys as a music producer. His most recent work is the graphic novel My Fairy Godfather (Fantagraphics) - dedicated to The Castro Theater. He is also known as "DJ GrampaPhone” - spinning 78 records on his 120-year-old gramophone.