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An Injury To One

"It's the Economy, Stupid!" • 52m

Directed by Travis Wilkerson • Documentary • 2003 • 53 minutes

AN INJURY TO ONE provides a corrective-and absolutely compelling-glimpse of a particularly volatile moment in early 20th century American labor history: the rise and fall of Butte, Montana. Specifically, it chronicles the mysterious death of Wobbly organizer Frank Little, a story whose grisly details have taken on a legendary status in the state. Much of the extant evidence is inscribed upon the landscape of Butte and its surroundings. Thus, a connection is drawn between the unsolved murder of Little, and the attempted murder of the town itself.

The murder provides AN INJURY TO ONE with a taut, suspenseful narrative, but it isn't the only story. Butte's history is bound with the entire history of the American left, the rise of McCarthyism, the destruction of the environment, and even the birth of the detective novel. 

"One of American independent cinema's great achievements of the past decade." —Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times

Tags
1917, 3'-7'-77', agitator, american (u.s.) studies, american left, american studies, americas, an injury to one, anaconda mining company, anarchism, area studies, art and architecture, biology, business, butte, citizenship, communication and media studies, copper, dashiell hammett, detective novel, documentary, ecology, econjustice, environment, expository, film, film and video studies, frank little, geography, gilded age and progressive era, history, human rights, icarus films, industrial workers of the world, iww, labor, labor and economics, labor history, labor studies, low, lynch, mccarthyism, mccarty, mine, miner, montana, music, north american studies, one big union, organizing, ovid, ovid_ca, performing arts, pinkerton, political philosophy, politics and political science, red, red harvest, s_0041, s_0079, s_0090, s_0108, s_0122, s_0124, s_0150, s_0165, s_0203, s_0231, s_0306, s_0563, s_0642, science and technology, social issues, social movements and activism, strike, the, title_i, title_ijklm, travis, u.s. history, union, united states, usa, video, wage system, wilkerson, william oldham, wobblies, wobbly, world regions, world war i, wwi

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