Judith and George Interview 2

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Okay.

GEORGE STONEY: When we went back to Newnan for The Old Acquaintance Reunion, we went into town, we were in the motel, and Judy read in the local paper a story about some young people being taken to Washington, by there teacher because they had won a contest.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss their fears when they were filming the "Uprising of '34".

Keywords: Eula McGill; legacy of the strike; newsreels

Subjects: History--Study and teaching; Newnan (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Which lead me to wonder, George, I'm this Jewish girl from New York, and you're bringing me down here.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how their status and Yankee and a Southerner helped them to create this film, and how it shaped their perspectives.

Keywords: legacy of the strike; women mill workers

Subjects: Antisemitism; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers; Working class women

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Also I knew, and I've known this ever since I've made films, and wrote stories and so forth and so on, is that when you get people involved in telling a story which is going to be socially questioned you're endangering them.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss Judy's reactions to being in the South,

Subjects: Documentary films

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: But George, but do-- were our fears founded?

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how they found their interview subjects and some of the people and institutions that helped them.

Keywords: newspapers

Subjects: Charlotte (N.C.); Documentary films; Gastonia (N.C.); Letters

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: It was really clear, we are not going to have scholars as interlocutors in this movie.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss when and why they chose not use scholars as narrators in the "Uprising of '34".

Subjects: Documentary films

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: It was the Gaston Observer, it was the Gaston section of the Observer.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how an article and 1-800 number in the Charlotte Observer and how it lead them to Ernest Moore.

Keywords: Ernest Moore; Honea Path funeral; Loray Mill strike; newspapers; newsreels

Subjects: Gaston County (N.C.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Just showing them their names on documents or showing their relative's names on documents meant so much to these people.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss the importance of archival documents and local institutions to gain the trust of former strikers.

Subjects: Documentary films; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: That first of all that we had to make a film that was gonna be useful to young people and to contemporary workers.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand talk about how they used footage of interviews to help more people connect the present with the past.

Keywords: legacy of the strike

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers; labor union

Partial Transcript: F1: When did that conception change?

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Judith Helfand discuss how their ideas around the film changed and how they realized they needed to bring African American voices into the story.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; aftermath of the strike; legacy of the strike

Subjects: History; Labor Unions; Working class African Americans