Bisbee '17 (2018)

Bisbee ’17: Directed by Robert Greene. With Mike Anderson, Charles Bethea, Ken Boe, Benjamin Joel Caron. An old mining town on the Arizona-Mexico border finally reckons with its darkest day: the deportation of 1200 immigrant miners exactly 100 years ago. Locals collaborate to stage recreations of their controversial past.

“BISBEE u0026#39;17 (2018) – Part Documentary, Part Performance Art, Robert Greeneu0026#39;s movie tells the tale of an Arizona mining town which, in 1917, forcibly expelled over 1,300 striking miners. The mining company, Phelps Dodge, conspired with local law enforcement to deputize hundreds upon hundreds of the local citizenry to enforce the deportation at gunpoint, threatening the workers with death should they ever return.nTo commemorate the centennial, Greene and his filmmakers staged a reenactment of the events and filmed it using locals as the u0026#39;castu0026#39;. From the very first shot of a school custodian directing his co-workers to get out of his shot, BISBEE u0026#39;17 makes no secret of blurring the lines between filmmaker and subjects. The current occupants of the dying town (the mines have been shut for decades) range from relative newcomers, to direct descendants of the events of 1917 (in one case a family where one brother arrested his own sibling) to a retired exec of Phelps Dodge, who, unsurprisingly still defends the companyu0026#39;s actions. As many of the workers who were deported were minorities, the symbolism with present day immigration struggles are never far from the surface – Arizona being a particular hotspot.nAs the u0026#39;actorsu0026#39; are being cast as specific individuals for the re-enactment, we garner details of what happened to not only those persons, but, in the town itself. The format is sure to offend Documentary purists, but it does make for an engrossing movie. Still, its overlong and one can certainly question how effective it is in truly bringing out the facts of what happened a century prior. Further, when do finally get to the re-enactment, it isnu0026#39;t nearly as forceful as one would like, what with the Documentary crew being visible during the crowd scenes, and the somewhat scattershot editing.nBISBEE u0026#39;17 is an effective history lesson, if unorthodox. It calls to mind the even more powerful AN ACT OF KILLING (the 2012 Doc about Indonesia) and the more u0026#39;pureu0026#39; 2017 SPETTACOLO (by the Director of MARWENCOL) which was about a town in Italy which has bee putting on annual plays with its locals for decades. Greeneu0026#39;s Documentary puts the spotlight on a little known historical event, even if one has to struggle with its POV.”