Film Forum

BISBEE ’17 has been called “a ghost story by way of a documentary” (Vox). One hundred years ago in the little town of Bisbee, Arizona – home to the Copper Queen Mine – a murderous ethnic cleansing took place: nearly 2,000 striking miners (mostly Mexican and Eastern European immigrants) were rounded up at gunpoint, herded into cattle cars, and abandoned in the desert. Robert Greene, known for his provocative melding of documentary and fictive elements, records the town’s centenary re-enactment of the event – eerily starring descendants of key figures in this little-known, mindboggling history.

Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries

USA   2018    112 MINS.      4TH ROW FILMS

Union Discount Offer!
Union members can see BISBEE ’17 for $11 (a $4 discount) during all Mon-Fri shows throughout the run. Present your active union card at the box office to redeem this discount.

Reviews

“Critic’s Pick. Clearighted and gratifyingly complicated. A profoundly haunted and haunting film. Every important thing this movie is about is still alive.”
– A.O.Scott, The New York Times

“A staggeringly ambitious way to confront the sins of history. Greene’s stylistic choices reflect the imposition of narrative and symbolism onto a real-life tale. The film’s lush widescreen vistas and impeccably lit interiors clash with, and inform, its interviews and intimate moments. A documentarian whose work keeps finding new ways to probe the gray area between authenticity and performance. The true protagonist of BISBEE ‘17 is America as it plays itself, zigzagging in the treacherous and disputed frontier between past and present, fracture and community, victim and perpetrator, truth and lies.”
– Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice

“Unflinching and timely. Eye-opening.”
– Joshua Rothkopf, “The Best New Movie to See This Month,” Time Out NY

“Transforms practically the whole of Bisbee into a memorably uneasy amateur theatrical production. Description fails to capture the film’s sheer eeriness.”
– Mike D’Angelo, The A.V. Club

“Beautiful and haunting. Especially resonant given the way it addresses facing our dark pasts to achieve a more empathetic present... Greene’s aesthetics prove not only arresting, but in sync with his larger depiction of a community wracked by dissonance. A formally dexterous portrait. A lyrical, powerful piece of work. Among the best documentaries you’ll see this year.”
– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“[Robert] Greene peels the layers of oblivion off history like so many layers of paint. The film is a large-scale study of political psychology, an expedition of historical archeology, and a form of drama therapy for a community that, in crucial ways, reflects the pathologies and conflicts of the country at large. A passionately ambitious, patiently empathetic mapping of modern times.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker online

“A fascinating and dream-like mosaic. Greene threads the past into the present and vice-versa until it’s hard to parse the living from the dead, refashioning Bisbee into a living ghost town.”
- David Ehrlich, IndieWire