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The Great Sit-Down
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The Great Sit-Down
IDFA 1993

The Great Sit-Down

Stephen Peet
England
1976
50 min
n.a.
Festival history
Between 1969 and 1980 the BBC broadcast eighty films in the 'Yesterday's Witness' series, devised and produced by Stephen Peet. Peet himself made about half of the films, and THE GREAT SIT-DOWN is one of them. The film deals with the famous strike action in the General Motors factory in Flint, Michigan, in 1937. The story is told by several participants in the strike. They succeeded in winning recognition for their new union, the United Automobile Workers, which went ahead to become the strongest union in the world. This victory is sometimes described as "the most important event in the history of American labour." The contribution by the Women's Emergency Brigade, led by the 23-year-old Genora Johnson, has long remained underestimated. Forty years later she tells her story for the first time for this film.
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Screening copy
Cinematography