Happy Birthday, Herbert J. Biberman! Born today in 1900, this American screenwriter and film director was one of the Hollywood Ten. His membership in the Directors Guild of America was posthumously restored in 1997; he had been expelled in 1950.
The Hollywood Ten were a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy-era'Red scare'.
Biberman is best known for directing the 1954 American black and white drama film 'Salt of the Earth'. Unfortunately, the film was barely released in the United States.
'Salt of the Earth' tells about how, at New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts.
Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacón) helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), with a similar unfairness.
When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.
When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.
In 1992, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film is also preserved by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, New York.
Biberman had been active from 1935–1969.
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