ABOUT THE AUTHOR
REVIEWS
Solidarity Forever (book)
This study of the Wobblies is a vital part of our history that has never appeared in the traditional chronicles. It's time – high time – we knew of this indigenous American movement. An excellent book.
- Studs Terkel
The Wobblies (film)
"'The Wobblies'" is a history of the IWW, researched lovingly and corroborated by the reminiscences of some of the union's former members, who are now in their 80's and 90's. Along with filming interviews with these stalwarts, the directors have collected songs, posters, portraits and animated and live-action footage of the period. When the facts are presented as fully as they have been here, the feelings that accompany them aren't difficult to imagine."
- Janet Maslin
The New York Times
"In this heart-warming, brain-stirring compilation mixing personal testimony with archive material, we are shown America's first mass movement, the Industrial Workers of the World fighting against mounting odds for the bare minimum needed to keep body and soul apart. Instead of saving the world by turning inward for their own spiritual improvement, they set out to change it, regardless of anything that was inflicted upon them – beatings, assassinations, exile, imprisonment, insults, blacklisting. It is an illuminating history of democracy which deserves the widest audience."
- Alan Brien
The Sunday Times (London)
Building the American Dream: Levittown, NY (film)
In its way, "Building the American Dream: Levittown, N.Y." a new documentary by Hofstra University Prof. Stewart Bird and a team of student assistants, looks at both ends of America's archetypal suburb. Through interviews, old photos and home moves, Bird manages both to provide a touching portrait of Levittown's creation and to suggest that young people may never again have as easy a time financially in reaching the American Dream.
Beyond the great social achievement of Levittown was the story of Levitt himself. As it happened, Levitt gave his last interview to Bird. It was a poignant moment, the old builder talking about the future, after years of failed projects had ruined his business. "Now we're in a peculiar position," he tells Bird. "I'm incapacitated. My father and my brother, both dead. We're just marking time. But I have a regular organization ready to plunge in full-time. I need another six months. I'm just now beginning to walk." A few weeks later, the father of suburbia was dead.
- Jack Sirica
Newsday
Mighty Pawns (film)
Chess is not your everyday, Super Bowl-type of game, but it serves as the fascinating backdrop of "Mighty Pawns," an excellent and inspirational story about the salvation of so-called "problem" students in an inner-city school. This is not one of those sterile, preachy message dramas, the soap-box approach. It's a realistic story about a new teacher in a tough environment, the students there bored and disliking their lot. Determined to arouse their interest, the teacher persuades them to try the game of chess eventually, but not easily, winning them over. By now the school team has been winning, and is going to the national championships. It's a happy ending, which avoids the peril of contrivance to get there. And, incidentally, this is based on real-life happenings at a school in Philly. The case is uniformly topnotch, the best of them being Terence Knox, as the dedicated teacher; Paul Winfield the principal, and Alfonso Ribeiro, the whiz kid at chess. Direction by Eric Laneuville and script by Stewart Bird are very good.
- Daku
Variety
The Wobblies: U.S. vs. William D. Haywood et. al. (play)
"There is humor in the proceedings; I was constantly absorbed and because the tone of the show, despite its serious subject and implications was generally light, it proved enjoyable theater."
- Harold Clurman
The Nation
"…The Wobblies is essentially a moving and fascinating document of our early bloody labor history."
- Arthur Sainer,
The Village Voice
Coming Home (film)
"The most accurate portrayal of Vietnam veterans I've ever seen."
- Dr. Robert J. Lifton,
Author of Home from the War
Finally Got The News (film)
"Its portrayal of men and conditions in Detroit makes Goddard's auto workers' discussion in BRITISH SOUNDS look like high tea…the film's off-hand coverage of life in the auto industry, and its effective presentation of a black militant position make it a very startling document to white middle-class audiences, radical or otherwise."
- Ernest Callenbach,
Film Quarterly
Home Free All (Feature Film)
Stewart Bird has benefited from his years of winning awards as the docu helmer of socially conscious pics like "The Wobblies," and "Coming Home," a docu about Vietnam vets that preceded the Hollywood production. He knows and develops his characters with tolerance and a great deal of humor, and displays a gift for straightforward story-telling about psychological complexity. Central to each of the principal's like is his experience in Vietnam, confessed to a montage of black-and-white flashbacks. The device does not interfere and slowly develops Barry's worst fears about conformity.
- Kaja,
Variety