Chicago has always been at the nexus of American life. Threads of the whole tapestry of the country’s history, especially of the Left, run through the city: race, class, industry, labor, migration and immigration, women’s rights, and the role of the police have all cut through Chicago over and over again. Such was the case from 1917 to 1919, when massive upheavals in American life all seemed to converge on the city’s South Side in ways that would ripple outward for decades.

This is the period covered by The Killing Floor, a film made for public television in 1984 by first-time director Bill Duke. Originally intended as the first of a series on labor history commissioned for the PBS American Playhouse series, The Killing Floor ended up being the sole entry. Though it was highly praised by critics, screening at Cannes and winning a special jury prize at the newly minted Sundance Film Festival, it fell victim to a near-total lack of commercial support and distribution, and largely disappeared from our cultural memory for decades.

But in 2019, to commemorate the centennial of the brutal Chicago race riot that the film portrays, the UCLA Film and Television archive released a restored 4K master, which went on to play at Cannes (again), the Siskel Center, and several other festivals and film forums. It finally arrived on the prestigious Criterion Channel late last year, along with its original trailer and a revealing interview with Duke.