American Experience: Triangle Fire (2011)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Another terrific documentary from the American Experience series takes a look at the tragic fire that broke out at a sewing factory on March 25, 1911 that ended up killing 146 people with most of them being women. The previous year the group held a massive strike for better wages, hours and working conditions but they were only able to get the better pay and hours. A year later many would lose their lives, which would set loose new rules for the workplace. I wasn't overly familiar with this tragedy so I was learning quite a bit from the film. Not only is the fire covered but we also hear about all the events leading up to the fire and learn how bad the working conditions were. At first the women were forced to work 14-hour days and they were only making $2 a day. When they did go on strike they were beaten by police and thrown into jail without committing crimes. One thing about the owners of the factory is that they feared people stealing from them so they pretty much locked the doors to where the women couldn't sneak out with clothing material and this here would end up costing them their lives because that same door was locked when the fire broke out. The documentary does a terrific job at giving the viewer an idea what working conditions were like during this period and of course the aftermath. Those with weak stomachs should be warned that there are photos from the actual event with dead bodies on the ground as well as a morgue where family members had to come and try to identify the bodies.