Inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest, this vivid chapter in American labor and war history relates the traumatic events during the l917 Butte,Mont. miners strikes that involved the lynching of labor activist Frank Little. It’s also the story of America’s immigrant communities up against the national security state when the Finnish and Irish copper miners took on the corporate barons as the U.S. entered World War I. The story is told through the eyes of a young Pinkerton agent sent there to spy on its striking miners and report on the one big union, the notorious I.W.W., to the profiteering copper bosses at Ånaconda. Director Desmond Bell , who came upon the story during the making of his Hard Road to the Klondike (M-SPIFF,2000), masterfully weaves together this almost mythical picture of corruption with a mix, of documentary and fiction. He was fortunate in finding still-living confidantes who lend credence to the archival richness of the era. Minnesota’s Finnish history expert, the late Mike Karni, was on hand to footnote Bell’s account. Desmond Bell,55, now a professor of Media Studies in Belfast,N.Ireland. -Al Milgrom

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