LaborFest Films: "Ballad of Joe Hill"(US) and "Land, Rain and Fire" (Mexico)

Labor Fest is all about carrying on the words of the famous song about Joe Hill, "I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you and me. What they forget to kill went on to organize."
LaborFest's Saturday afternoon films (followed by more this same night):
"The Ballad of Joe Hill" "This rarely seen Academy Award nominated film is about an ingenious immigrant labor organizer, Joe Hill (1879-1915), who is framed on a murder charge in a highly sensationalized trial with little evidence. Despite worldwide appeals by the King of Sweden and the President of the USA, Hill is martyred after being shot by a Utah firing squad after one of the most controversial capital punishment trials of the 20th Century. He also was here during the San Francisco 1906 earthquake and wrote about this experience."
"Land, Rain and Fire": "What began as a teachers’ strike on May 22, 2006 for better wages and more resources for students has erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. This film tells the story of the police attack on the morning of June 14th when more than fifty thousand teachers were camped out with their children. The attack backfired as public anger transformed the strike into an unprecedented democratic insurgency, demanding the resignation of the Governor and the creation of a new constitution."