Woodcutters of the Deep South / Working Together

Down in the lush backwoods of Mississippi and Alabama, history is being made. Poor Black and White working people are trying to overcome the forces of racism among themselves to organize into cooperative associations to dispel the bonds of their economic captors—the paper and pulpwood companies. In his unique Woodcutters of the Deep South (1973), Lionel Rogosin (On the Bowery) allows the people in the film to tell and live their own story. We see them in their homes, with their families, in the forests, which provide them the things that make them woodcutters— trees and freedom. Interviews with the men directly involved in the formation of the group—The Gulf-Coast Pulpwood Association—reveals the intricacies of this venture, an inspiring depiction of unity among workers of all races. Michael A. Rogosin’s Working Together (2022) examines the consequences and questions that were implied in Woodcutters. Inherent in the original film is not only the question of Black and White folks working together, but what happened to the Civil Rights movement in the ’70s. By revisiting the film with Bob Zellner, who was in the original film, and other major Civil Rights workers, Lionel’s son Michael helps to understand what happened and is happening in America today. Woodcutters of the Deep South was restored by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna from the original 16mm reversal film and optical soundtrack, preserved and made available by Anthology Film Archives. The restoration is part of a project launched by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Rogosin Heritage to restore and promote all the films made by Lionel Rogosin.