John Sayles, writer and director (Cinecom Entertainment, 1987)

A small town in 1920’s West Virginia explodes when newly-unionized miners clash with the owners of a tyrannical coal company. Itinerant organizer Joe Kenehan arrives in Matewan to try and better the lives of the men and women of this company town, virtually owed by the Stone Mountain Coal Company, and touches off one of the most violent incidents in the struggle of American labor.

John Sayles, independent filmmaker and Walter Licht, University of Pennsylvania, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.