Judith and George Interview 1

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now how does it sound?

JUDITH HELFAND: Okay,

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney discusses the origins of the "Uprising of '34" documentary.

Keywords: Eula McGill; Sol Stetin

Subjects: Documentary films; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: At that point there was no talk about race. We just assumed that it was not a, not a subject matter that had a racial overtone particularly.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney discusses how he became aware that they needed to include the stories of African American textile workers in the documentary, and why he chose to make the film in spite of his initial concerns.

Keywords: African-American mill workers

Subjects: Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: The first time we used documents to get people invovled was when?

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney discusses the reasons behind why people were scared to discuss the strike and how he and Judith Helfand used documents to help jog people's memories.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; legacy of the strike

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: F1: One second though, how did Judy get involved in the making of the film?

GEORGE STONEY: Oh.

F1: We haven't talked about that yet.

Segment Synopsis: Judith Helfand discusses how she became involved with the "Uprising of '34" project.

Subjects: Cancer--Treatment

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: You know the first time that we, that we, we -- the first time that we used any archival material to elict discussion was the very first summer in 1990.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss the first summer of shooting the "Uprising of '34" and the lessons they learned.

Keywords: Eula McGill; imprisonment of strikers; newsreels

Subjects: Newnan (Ga.)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So it was very very frustrating because, we knew who the big players were, but the big players weren't involved in the cotton mill communities anymore.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss the difficulties with finding mill workers to interview, and the beginning of the project in 1990.

Subjects: Documentary films

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: I would say that by the middle of 1990 we knew that for all of our wonderful cooperation we were getting from the scholars they weren't gonna do it either.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how the changed their minds about how the narrative of the documentary film was going to be told, the bitterness and anger they encountered when talking to people who participated in the strike and the way the strike divided communities.

Subjects: Honea Path (S.C.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: There was fear, there was uncertainty, they didn't quite remember which strike it was, it was a blip in their lives.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how they had to frame the story of the strike in lives of the strikers.

Keywords: Etta Mae Zimmerman; legacy of the strike

Subjects: Documentary films; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: We got Les Huff from the Georgia Labor Archives to come over, to represent us at The Old Acquaintance Reunion.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss the impact that The Old Acquaintance Reunion had on their filming in Newnan, Ga.

Keywords: Etta Mae Zimmerman; legacy of the strike; mill villages

Subjects: Newnan (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers