Educational Media Reviews Online

The Memorial Day Massacre is a short documentary film on the massacre of steel workers by policemen during a strike in 1937, and on the coverup and suppression of the footage of that event by Paramount. The film is a piece of advocacy, making a strong case that journalists have a responsibility to seek and publish the truth, rather than suppressing it in service of societal peace. The writers draw a direct line to the resurgent labor movement of the modern era, warning modern union activists of what companies, the police, and the media have been willing to do in the past to suppress workers.

Structurally, the film lays out a methodical timeline of events, showing the leadup to the strike, the personalities involved, the amount of weapons supplied by the company to the police, the events of the strike and massacre, and the reporting and investigations that followed. The Memorial Day Massacre makes extensive use of footage, both the suppressed film of the actual killings and of the hearings and other newsreels following the event. There are also select interviews with activists who survived the massacre, both at the time and in the modern era.

Overall the film is short and sweet; it lays out the facts of the events, showcases the amount of cooperation between the media, police, and company to vilify and suppress the workers, and goes over the footage enough to let its message sink in. The Memorial Day Massacre is an effective piece of advocacy in support of the labor movement.

From a classroom perspective, the 33-minute runtime of the film allows it to be used as part of instruction rather than replacing a whole class period, and the straightforward chronological order means that it can be segmented more easily for shorter clips. It is an effective window into the history of the labor movement and the level of violence that used to be openly deployed against it. This would be a useful addition to middle and high school collections, college libraries (especially programs covering labor relations or labor history), and public libraries looking to edify their patrons.

Awards:
SoCal Journalism Awards, National Reporting

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