Based on the real 1920 labor uprising by West Virginia coal miners, John Sayles’s MATEWAN spends much more time on the place than the battle it’s remembered for. Ten people died, including three private detectives hired to violently repress the ascendant labor unions.

Returning guest Louis Gagnon spent part of grad school learning about this period of labor history, so on this episode, we discuss MATEWAN as a movie and as a cultural time capsule, dramatizing a time when there was a more direct, vincible line between federal power, American capital, and the labor that grounded them both.

Find Louis…

• On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/PikedDogfish/
• On the Trylove episode about ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)

Give to these causes in need during ICE’s occupation of Minnesota:

• Support Minnesotans defending their communities from ICE: https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
• @sanctuarysupplydepot: Mutual aid group in Mpls getting basic necessities to our houseless neighbors https://linktr.ee/sanctuarysupplydepot
• @mplsmutualaid: Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors: https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid
• ISAIAH, an interfaith group fighting for racial and economic justice in MN: https://secure.everyaction.com/G8TCnxFlE0qd9zlUEYjjeg2
• Show love to North Minneapolis families in crisis: https://www.gofundme.com/f/show-love-to-north-minneapolis-families-in-crisis

References:

• “On the Road to Matewan” by Nate Logsdon for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog

#BadCompany19FilmsFeaturingEvilCorporations #35mm

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!

Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Fire in the Hole” by Mason Daring and Hazel Dickens from the MATEWAN soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 375: MATEWAN (1987) with Louis Gagnon

3:02 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:00 - The history of labor conflict in the US and Louis’s grad school work

8:38 - The coolest movie you could’ve been shown in high school history class

24:23 - The Battle of Matewan, the Coal Wars, and American labor post-World War I

32:53 - Violence vs. pacifism

38:06 - The ending

48:08 - Bridey May Tolliver

1:07:48 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1987

1:11:50 - Cody’s Noteys: My Mate, Wan (James Wan trivia)