After a long radical filmmaking career, and more recently treating subjects from the Spanish Civil War "land and Freedom, and Nicaragua "Carla's song", for the first time Loach sets a film in the U.S. "because I thought I should have a go before hanging up the view finder"

Loach's latest film "Bread and Roses" is a story about the most marginalised of L.A. communities daring to take on their corporate bosses against all odds.

"It is in a city which is the home of pictures, and yet it is about a parallel world, a complete other world, about organising immigrant workers, Spanish speakers, very vulnerable, easily exploited... a story about the relationship between the U.S. and countries that are essentially it's colonies, not formally colonies but in practice they are colonies, economically and culturally.

The interview was shot at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival where the film premiered in competition to good reviews.

Despite this the film has not, as yet, found a U.S. distribution deal. I wonder why?

"Bread & Roses" does have a US distributor. It is Lion Gate Entertainment and it will be opening at the beginning of next year. Loach and Laverty could not get any US funding to do a film about US workers.


Steve Zeltzer