Noel King's Recent Political Documentary

The article Noel King has written looks at how the film Union Maids can be viewed and interpreted. A claim she provides delves into how Union Maids could be a useful tool in order to get people to see the struggles that women were often faced with and how those similar struggles still exist. The film can be critiqued because of its content or because of how it is actually created as a film. A point that King makes, using sources to back up these claims, suggests that the three women in the film could have possibly been members of the Communist Party. This could be true, but the film was careful not to mention these women as socialists, but as radicals. This point suggests that a film can be completely changed by leaving out one single detail about its characters. If in fact these women were Communists, political activists would most likely not want to use this film to inform people. People in the U.S. have many negative feelings about Communists and using a film who celebrates the achievements of Communists would cause much controversy. A film can be as true as a person wants it to be, but there may be some things that the filmmaker specifically chooses not to tell. Politically, this film is very strong and contains a message that many people should understand, but the film could also be seen as very unpatriotic if these women were actually discussed as being Socialists. The meaning of a documentary film can be changed completely if minor details about its characters are left out, which can allow the viewer to be more sympathetic to the film's characters.