Bisbee '17 - True/False Film Fest

Bisbee ’17

Robert Greene creatively reimagines a dark chapter in labor history when organizing miners were sent packing.
Director: Robert Greene
Runtime: 1:58
In-person: director Robert Greene
Fest Year: 2018
In this most unconventional accounting of history, five-time True/False filmmaker Robert Greene continues to reveal (and revel in) his obsession with the many ways of exposing a truth. Bisbee ’17, Greene’s most classically narrative work to date, pulls from a bag of cinematic strategies (too subtle and well-considered to merely be “tricks”) to tell the story of the fateful events surrounding an infamous miners’ strike in a small southern Arizona town. Greene uses actors, monologues, dramatic re-creations, and even songs, but these mechanics quickly fade as the storytelling takes hold. A century after this confrontation between owners and workers, Bisbee continues to grapple with competing histories and communities still struggling to find true healing. If it all seems like a microcosm of America in 2018, well, that’s no accident. (DW)