Salt of the Earth

Mar 14, 1954

1h 34m

★ 7.0

Overview

At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza, with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

Genres

Drama

History

Production Companies

Independent Production Company (IPC)

Salt of the Earth Trailers

Cast

Esperanza Quintero

Rosaura Revueltas

Ramon Quintero

Juan Chacón

Sheriff

Will Geer

Barton

David Bauer

Hartwell

Mervin Williams

Alexander

David Sarvis

Frank Barnes

Clinton Jencks

Ruth Barnes

Virginia Jencks

Teresa Vidal

Henrietta Williams

Charley Vidal

Ernesto Velázquez

Consuelo Ruiz

Ángela Sánchez

Sal Ruiz

Joe T. Morales

Suburbanite Ron is spoiled, young and not overly worried about the marijuana charges leveled against him. But, after being made out to be a drug dealer, he faces a five-year jail sentence in San Quentin State Prison. Physically frail and unaccustomed to his rough surroundings, Ron is primed to fall victim to sexual predators and bullying guards – that is, until he's befriended by Earl, a veteran inmate who finds meaning in protecting the vulnerable new kid.

6.9

Silkwood

Dec 14, 1983

Like most of the people in her town, Karen Silkwood works at the local nuclear plant producing highly radioactive plutonium. Exposed one day to a lethal dose of radiation, Karen faces the blank walls of corporate indifference and denial. As her illness increases, her protest grows louder and she becomes an obvious danger to the powers that be.

7.0

Man of Iron

Jul 27, 1981

In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends disgruntled radio reporter Winkel to Gdańsk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers - particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an independent labour union leader whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.

7.6

Billy Elliot

Sep 28, 2000

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

7.6

Gandhi

Dec 1, 1982

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

6.6

Absence of Malice

Nov 19, 1981

Megan Carter is a reporter duped into running an untrue story on Michael Gallagher, a suspected racketeer. He has an alibi for the time his crime was allegedly committed—but it involves an innocent party. When he tells Carter the truth and the newspaper runs it, tragedy follows, forcing Carter to face up to the responsibilities of her job when she is confronted by Gallagher.

7.0

Maria Montessori

Nov 5, 2023

Set in 1900, Lili d’Alengy, a Parisian cocotte at the height of her fame, flees Paris to hide her “idiot” daughter. There she meets Maria Montessori, who is pioneering a teaching method that may help the child.

6.7

The Funeral

Jan 26, 1996

After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.

7.6

Güeros

Apr 17, 2014

Set amidst the 1999 student strikes in Mexico City, this coming-of-age tale finds two brothers venturing through the city in a sentimental search for an aging legendary musician. Shot in black-and-white, Güeros brims with youthful exuberance.

No Image Available

0.0

The River Ran Red

Sep 11, 1993

Blair Brown narrates this gripping account of a community's struggle to preserve its way of life. In the summer of 1892, a bitter conflict erupted at the Carnegie Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The nation's largest steel maker took on its most militant union with devastating consequences for American workers.

7.0

De Charles de Gaulle à Emmanuel Macron, les gardiens de l'empire

Mar 9, 2022

No overview available.

0.0

Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War

May 1, 2009

In the winter of 2002-'03, as the US was building its case to attack Iraq, people around the world responded with a series fo the largest peace protests in history. Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War, is an action-packed documentary chronicling how DASW successfully organized to shut down a major US city and how they failed to effectively maintain the organization to fight the war machine and end the occupation of Iraq. Created by organizers involved with DASW, Shutdown combines detailed information on organizing for a mass action, critical interviews on organizing pitfalls, and the wisdom of hindsight. It is a must-see film for those engaged in the continuous struggle toward social justice.

7.5

A Matter of Sex

Jan 1, 1984

Dramatization of the true story of the so-called Willmar Eight, a group of Minnesota bank workers who braved freezing conditions whilst picketing their branch in a struggle for union rights.

5.3

Lady Caliph

Dec 31, 1970

La Califfa's husband was killed during the strikes so she takes the side of the strikers. Her conflict with the plant owner Doverdo gradually turns into a love relationship.

7.4

Happiness

Oct 11, 1998

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

6.4

A Room in Town

Oct 27, 1982

Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.

6.6

Tout Va Bien

Apr 28, 1972

A strike at a French sausage factory contributes to the estrangement of a married filmmaker and his reporter wife.

6.4

The Shanghai Drama

Sep 23, 1938

A Russian emigrant sings in a Shanghai nightclub under the assumed name of Kay Murphy. All she dreams of is a peaceful life with her daughter Vera. But this is only a pipe dream as she has been forced by her former lover Ivan to work for a secret criminal organization, "The Black Dragon". Vera, who studies in a Hong Kong boarding-school, knows nothing about her mother's past. When Ivan, who is also Vera's father, resurfaces and blackmails Kay, the young woman is determined to fight back...

0.0

Women in Christ

Sep 12, 2025

More than a documentary—Women in Christ is a call to every woman who’s ever wondered if her story matters. It does. Because when we see these women, we see the Savior.

7.4

Matewan

Aug 28, 1987

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.