Chicago Stockyards Killing Floor

To the true story of black and white slaughterhouse workers trying to build an interracial union for the first time in chicago s stockyards.

Chicago stockyards killing floor. Don t pass up the killing floor on the mistaken notion that the film is a western shoot em up or cop drama. The killing floor is a 1984 american award winning made for television drama film directed by bill duke which highlights the plights of workers fighting to build an interracial labor union in the meatpacking industry in the years leading up to the chicago race riot of 1919 the film debuted on pbs via the american playhouse series on april 10 1984 and was produced by public forum productions. Filmed in chicago in 1983 12 years after the demise of the union stock yards an ambitious independent drama called the killing floor traveled a long slippery road to completion. The screenplay by obie award winner leslie lee based on an original story by producer elsa rassbach traces the racial and class conflicts seething in the city s giant.

The killing floor re released. Now showing as part of film forum s pandemic induced virtual cinema program the killing floor is a striking illustration of the need to synthesize class and race based on the experience of trying to build a trade union in chicago s stockyards during wwi it is an object lesson on the need to abandon white privilege. The screenplay by obie award winner leslie lee based on an original story by producer elsa rassbach traces the racial. But those in.