Dolores
Description
Dolores Huerta wanted to be a dancer. Instead, as Angela Davis marvels in Peter Bratt’s essential historical documentary, she became “a dancer on the stage of justice.” A talented and tireless community organizer, Huerta discovered her purpose among the perennially exploited Latins laboring for Northern California agribusinesses. She founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962 and directed the decisive national boycott of Delano grapes that impelled the growers to sign labor contracts. Despite her remarkable record of success, however, she encountered resistance as the lone woman on the UFW board. Still, nothing could slow Huerta’s war on poverty, pesticides, injustice, and racism—until a San Francisco cop badly injured her during a Union Square protest of then Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988. Bratt deploys remarkable and little-seen archival footage along with highly emotional interviews with many of Huerta’s 11 children. Their sacrifices, along with hers, are shown as heartbreaking but necessary elements of this major, often overlooked, chapter in California history. —Michael Fox
San Francisco native Peter Bratt (Essential SF 2016) made his feature debut with the acclaimed road movie Follow Me Home (Festival 1996), featuring Alfre Woodard, Jesse Borrego, and Salma Hayek. His powerful follow-up, La Mission (Festival 2009), was filmed in the Mission District and starred his brother, Benjamin. The siblings were instilled with the mettle of activism at an early age by accompanying their mother, a registered nurse and political organizer, in the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
Film Details
Language English, Spanish
Year 2017
Runtime 98
Country USA
Director Peter Bratt
Producer Peter Bratt, Brian Benson
Writer Peter Bratt, Jessica Congdon
Editor Jessica Congdon
Cinematographer Jesse Dana
Music Mark Kilian