"Cesar Chavez" Opens This Weekend!
Friday, March 28, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
"Cesar
Chavez,"
the first major movie in years to show the
labor movement in apositive light, opens in area
theaters tonight. “Go
see it!” urges Metro Washington Council –
and DC Labor FilmFest Co-Chair – Jos
Williams. “Cesar Chavez
tells a monumental story about an incredible
union leader and the workers he
helped lead to victory,” said Williams.
“Chavez and the farmworkers are an
essential part of our country’s history, and
we are proud to be supporting this
film.”
Click here for Washington-area
show-times and tickets this
weekend.
Director Diego
Luna’s new film shows Chavez battling
generations of injustice and mistreatment in
the fields by leading farm workers
in the historic 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike.
It portrays Filipino and Latino
workers joining together in solidarity on the
same picket lines where they
endured violence from growers. It highlights
how Chavez was the first to apply
boycotts to large-scale disputes between
employers and unions. And it concludes
with farm workers winning the first union
contracts in agriculture after five
years of relentless struggle and
sacrifice.
Cesar
Chavez –
which is rated PG-13 -- stars Michael Pena as
Chavez, America Ferrera as
Chavez’s wife, Helen, Rosario Dawson as
Dolores Huerta and John Malkovich as
the patriarch of a
huge grape-growing empire. From the beginning
of the movie, Chavez makes it clear that only
with a union can farm workers
overcome the abuse and poverty that plagues
their lives. It is a message that
is as relevant today as during the events of
the 1960s that the film
chronicles.
Movies such as
Cesar Chavez are judged by how well they do
at the box office the first weekend they’re
released. “It’s vital to get as
many people as possible into the movie theaters
this first weekend to make sure
Cesar Chavez stays on the big screen and
expands to more theaters throughout
the country,” says Williams. “Most
important, if this film succeeds, then more
pictures like it will also be
made.”