Woodcutters of the Deep South

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 to organize into cooperative associations and dispel the bonds of their economic captors—the paper and pulpwood companies. In his final feature-length work, director Lionel Rogosin allows his subjects to tell and live their own story. We see them in their homes, with their families, and 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—reveal the intricacies of this venture, an inspiring depiction of unity among workers across racial lines.