The Real Story:
On January 1, 1912, a Massachusetts law went into effect, reducing the 56-hour work week to 54 hours, supposedly to ease deplorable labor conditions. However, the mill owners sped up production and reduced pay in order to compensate for this change, prompting workers who were already unable to feed and clothe their families, to go on strike. The strike broke new ground in several ways. More than half of the workers in the Lawrence textile mills were women and children, many were immigrants who did not speak English. These women played a major role in one of the most important events in American labor history. After two months of holding out, mill owners finally met the strikers' demands and workers returned to work. But the strike in Lawrence was felt around the world, as workers everywhere read about the plight, poor conditions, and solidarity of strikers. Traditionally voiceless groups had won a monstrous battle that would have ripple effects for labor laws for many years to come. (Excerpts from Mass Moments) Though the "Bread & Roses" label now accepted as the title of this strike was not associated with it until *after* it ended, the enduring myth of these strikers carrying "We want bread and roses, too!" signs continues to inspire songs, art, people, and stories such as Millies.
The Film Inspired by The Real Story:
Once a textile industry mecca, Lawrence, Massachusetts now looks like many other mill towns: jobs are non-existent, abandoned factories wear graffiti, and stacks that once gushed smoke now gush empty promises. Evidence of the city’s renowned Bread & Roses Strike has been demolished or ignored. Descendants of those pioneering mill workers fled Lawrence’s demise, discreetly or directly attributing its downfall to the persistent influx of Latinos.
Among these descendants is thirtysomething DANIELLE, a reluctant-to-admit-it former resident returning home after her father’s death. Already at the end of her own financial rope, and long at odds with her father, Danielle is horrified to learn he has left her his tenantless, dilapidated, headache-inducing mill. In their family since the Strike, the mill has been nothing but a money pit in the eyes of Danielle and her lawyer-brother RAY. But their father took great pains to keep it going and neither Danielle nor Ray understand why he willed it to her. With money running out, the only chance for Danielle to avoid total ruin is to get the mill in good enough condition to sell it.
Surveying the mile-long brick behemoth, Danielle is overwhelmed by the rehab she must do in short order: decades-old factory leftovers, broken windows and the same relentless graffiti tags plaguing the city. She dives in only to be met by VICTOR, a Latino teen court-ordered to clean the mill after getting caught tagging it. She resents babysitting this Spanish kid, and he’s not thrilled working for this “Millie” – his gang’s nickname for heyday people who worship every freakin’ old mill. Danielle accepts the free labor to make a dent in the workload, otherwise directing her frustration at Victor or dismissing him, not even asking his name.
Danielle learns her father offered a theater group free rehearsal space. When Danielle encounters a handful of women in her mill -- complete with period mill girl costumes, heavy accents, and picket signs - she concludes this troupe must be re-enacting the Bread & Roses Strike, a history chestnut her father droned on about. Led by CORA, these Millies question Danielle about the Strike while she and Victor fix the mill.
Victor startles Danielle one night, hiding from the gang leader he’s angered. In that instant, the leader shows up with a gun, shooting at them before taking off. Though Danielle places herself directly in the bullet’s path, both she and Victor are unharmed. Victor bolts down a stairwell as Cora and the Millies step from the darkness into the moonlight streaming from the giant windows. Cora stands by Danielle, holding the bullet in her hand. Danielle faints as she states rhetorically, “You’re not actors, are you…”
Danielle and the women learn their fates intertwine and the Millies have been sent from 1912 to smooth some wrinkle with the Strike, but their recollections are vague. Danielle gathers Strike research to jump-start their memories, but the women seem more inclined to bicker over their differences than solve their problems. Danielle relates as Victor’s situation escalates, but circumstances force her to question her assumptions on him.
At last, Ray hooks a potential buyer, but informs Danielle the company plans to demolish the mill. Danielle realizes the closer she gets to selling her father’s mill, the less significant the Strike becomes in history. Danielle knows if she keeps the place, she’ll be broke. But she finally discovers the power she holds over the Millies and history itself: if Danielle sells the mill, the Bread & Roses Strike will never have happened...
About The Film Inspired by The Real Story:
Millies is a fictional feature film inspired by true events;
it is *not* a documentary.
Millies is unique in its storyline, crafted by a professional writer whose previous work has won national recognition for its powerful writing, “excellent and unpredictable ideas, wholly unique voices and dynamic character interaction with an engaging journey.” Challenging the more common independent film genres while still maintaining its commercial viability,
Millies is an ambitious film debut that supports the production team’s mission of creating entertaining media that matters.
The X-factor in
Millies’ distinct favor is the fact that the writer-director, Lorre Fritchy, grew up in the region with a deep affection for it that she combines with her expertise to incorporate into the richness and layers of the film itself. Her great-grandparents and aunts and uncles were weavers, menders, and piece workers in the shoe mills and textile mills that put Lawrence on the industrial map worldwide. She is a Millie.
America’s poet Robert Frost was a lamp-lighter in these mills, Golden Age film star Thelma Todd hailed from Lawrence, “West Side Story” composer Leonard Bernstein was born in the shadows of these brick walls, and crooner Robert Goulet achieved the Impossible Dream years after singing as a boy at St. Anne’s Church on Franklin Street.
There is a proud heritage of this city that seems to have been forgotten or abandoned in recent years, and the same could be said of many mill cities across America. Some may point fingers at why this has happened, but the truth is we have only ourselves to blame if we allow history to disappear. Tapping into this American heritage solidifies
Millies’ connection to people past and present.
With the outstanding cooperation of the residents and businesses in the Lawrence region -- many of these people descendants of the mill workers who inspired this film --
Millies complements its original storyline with visually stunning riverfront factories and long-dormant smokestacks just waiting for their close-ups.
Millies is an indie film with an epic heart.
Millies is a personal story, a universal story, a story of the melting pot of people who came to America to better themselves and their new country. This is a story of the continuing struggles of race, class, time, and progress. This is America’s story.
