Under the Red Star Film Showing in Ottawa

Film Showing: Under the Red Star

Thursday, March 8, 7:00 PM

Avant Garde Bar and Gift Shop

135 ½ Besserer St. Ottawa

The Workers History Museum is pleased to co-sponsor, with Socialist Project, this feature length docu-drama chronicling the fascinating cultural and political ferment associated with the Finnish Labour Temple of Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay).

Opened in March 1910, it was the largest of Canadian labour centres and served as the heart of the activities of Finnish immigrants in the Lakehead area. This radical immigrant community is largely forgotten as part of the story of Canadian labour movement history. Yet these courageous women and men, often facing brutal repression from government, police and anti-union bosses, were critical in shaping events in the union, women’s suffrage and socialist movements in the early decades of the 20^th Century.

Under the Red Star combines fictionalized scenes with archival footage to vividly paint the moving personal lives and the struggles of these early activists.

Ian MacKay, one of Canada’s leading historians, describes Under the Red Star as “a beautifully crafted and utterly absorbing recreation of one of North America’s most extraordinary working class movements”.

The film’s producers and the director (Kelly Saxberg) will be in attendance to take questions from the audience.