My review (a shortened version here) was written in September 1981 after a New York Film Festival screening:
"Resurgence" is a dynamic and alarming documentary film, dealing with the buildup in ultra-right organizations, as well as the efforts of union and civil rights activists in the South to protect civil rights and improve their working conditions. Directors Pamela Yates and Thomas Sigel have struck a balance between presenting the ultra-right folks' sentiments and documenting the activists' work, and the results are exciting and thought-provoking.
Picture focuses on a lengthy strike in Laurel, Mississippi by chicken processing plant workers led by local union topper Gloria Jordan. These efforts, as well as those by organizers such as Ted Quant and Anne Braden present a positive approach to solving problems.
Using cross-cutting, the filmmakers contrast these scenes with chilling footage of the leaders of a coalition of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. Culled from four tv stations' video coverage is frightening footage of KKK men shooting down protestors in Greensboro, North Carolina, followed by an interview with one of the identified (but found innocent at a local trial where the videotapes were shown as evidence) on-screen gun wielders who calmly presents his extremist arguments. Pictures of the neo-Nazis practicing guerrilla warfare and burning crosses complete a picture of a scary group of people, still limited in numbers but growing.
Yates and Sigel have concocted a model "call to action" film, while preparing a shorter (approx. 27 minute) version for tv usage. There is even comedy relief in the form of a very funny simulated chamber of commerce mini-documentary exhorting northern businessmen to relocate in the idyllic South, stressing its right to work laws and other inducements.
"Resurgence" is a dynamic and alarming documentary film, dealing with the buildup in ultra-right organizations, as well as the efforts of union and civil rights activists in the South to protect civil rights and improve their working conditions. Directors Pamela Yates and Thomas Sigel have struck a balance between presenting the ultra-right folks' sentiments and documenting the activists' work, and the results are exciting and thought-provoking.
Picture focuses on a lengthy strike in Laurel, Mississippi by chicken processing plant workers led by local union topper Gloria Jordan. These efforts, as well as those by organizers such as Ted Quant and Anne Braden present a positive approach to solving problems.
Using cross-cutting, the filmmakers contrast these scenes with chilling footage of the leaders of a coalition of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. Culled from four tv stations' video coverage is frightening footage of KKK men shooting down protestors in Greensboro, North Carolina, followed by an interview with one of the identified (but found innocent at a local trial where the videotapes were shown as evidence) on-screen gun wielders who calmly presents his extremist arguments. Pictures of the neo-Nazis practicing guerrilla warfare and burning crosses complete a picture of a scary group of people, still limited in numbers but growing.
Yates and Sigel have concocted a model "call to action" film, while preparing a shorter (approx. 27 minute) version for tv usage. There is even comedy relief in the form of a very funny simulated chamber of commerce mini-documentary exhorting northern businessmen to relocate in the idyllic South, stressing its right to work laws and other inducements.