2021 DC Labor FilmFest line-up released!
April 30–June 6
Organized and presented by the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO and the AFI Silver, the 2021 DC Labor FilmFest features a wide-ranging selection of films about work, workers and the wider issues affecting workers' lives. This year, for its 20th edition, the festival goes virtual, presenting a lineup of outstanding work-related cinema online for audiences in the Washington, DC, area and beyond.
All tickets are just $5, unless otherwise noted. CLICK HERE for details.
Films will be released to the AFI's Virtual Screening Room each week, where they'll be available to watch until June 6.
And don't miss the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Join podcast hosts Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant -- and special surprise guests -- for a freewheeling discussion of the films in this year's DC Labor FilmFest! Click here to RSVP.
NOTE: Most titles in the 2021 DC Labor FilmFest are available to view throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories, from the date the title debuts until the festival ends June 6. One exception: THE LUNCHROOM is available ONLY to viewers in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
OVERVIEW:
WORK SONGS (Available April 30): "What's the weirdest thing that ever happened at your job?"
THE LUNCHROOM [PLANTA PERMANENTE] (Available May 4): Lila (Liliana Juárez, THE SNATCH THIEF) has been a cleaner in a provincial municipality building in Argentina for more than 30 years…
IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE (Available May 6): Recognized in 2020 with a special Pulitzer Prize, Ida B. Wells was a household name in Black America during much of her lifetime (1862–1931)…
MISS MARX (Available May 11): Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor (Romola Garai) is Karl Marx's youngest daughter…
THE CHAMBERMAID (LA CAMARISTA] (Available May 13): In her multi-award-winning feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous workday of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film rich with detail…
THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS aka RICHER THAN THE EARTH (Available May 18):
Young union leader Brad Adams (Lloyd Bridges) is reluctantly appointed president of a failing plastics manufacturing plant in a small New Hampshire town…
NASRIN (Available May 20): Immersive portrait of the world's most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh…
THE NEW DEAL FOR ARTISTS (Available May 21): Remastered classic explores how Depression-era theatre actors, directors, writers and painters found themselves the target of Republicans' aggressive anti-communist agendas, and the WPA under full-blown political attack…
CLICK HERE for details and tickets.
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest and AFI Silver Theatre, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE.
Co-sponsored by the Rochester (NY) Labor Film Series and the Workers Unite! Film Festival.
April 30–June 6
Organized and presented by the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO and the AFI Silver, the 2021 DC Labor FilmFest features a wide-ranging selection of films about work, workers and the wider issues affecting workers' lives. This year, for its 20th edition, the festival goes virtual, presenting a lineup of outstanding work-related cinema online for audiences in the Washington, DC, area and beyond.
All tickets are just $5, unless otherwise noted. CLICK HERE for details.
Films will be released to the AFI's Virtual Screening Room each week, where they'll be available to watch until June 6.
And don't miss the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Join podcast hosts Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant -- and special surprise guests -- for a freewheeling discussion of the films in this year's DC Labor FilmFest! Click here to RSVP.
NOTE: Most titles in the 2021 DC Labor FilmFest are available to view throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories, from the date the title debuts until the festival ends June 6. One exception: THE LUNCHROOM is available ONLY to viewers in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
OVERVIEW:
WORK SONGS (Available April 30): "What's the weirdest thing that ever happened at your job?"
THE LUNCHROOM [PLANTA PERMANENTE] (Available May 4): Lila (Liliana Juárez, THE SNATCH THIEF) has been a cleaner in a provincial municipality building in Argentina for more than 30 years…
IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE (Available May 6): Recognized in 2020 with a special Pulitzer Prize, Ida B. Wells was a household name in Black America during much of her lifetime (1862–1931)…
MISS MARX (Available May 11): Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor (Romola Garai) is Karl Marx's youngest daughter…
THE CHAMBERMAID (LA CAMARISTA] (Available May 13): In her multi-award-winning feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous workday of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film rich with detail…
THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS aka RICHER THAN THE EARTH (Available May 18):
Young union leader Brad Adams (Lloyd Bridges) is reluctantly appointed president of a failing plastics manufacturing plant in a small New Hampshire town…
NASRIN (Available May 20): Immersive portrait of the world's most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh…
THE NEW DEAL FOR ARTISTS (Available May 21): Remastered classic explores how Depression-era theatre actors, directors, writers and painters found themselves the target of Republicans' aggressive anti-communist agendas, and the WPA under full-blown political attack…
CLICK HERE for details and tickets.
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest and AFI Silver Theatre, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE.
Co-sponsored by the Rochester (NY) Labor Film Series and the Workers Unite! Film Festival.
MISS MARX (2020)
Available May 11–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/11 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor (Romola Garai) is Karl Marx's youngest daughter. Among the first women to link the themes of feminism and socialism, she takes part in the workers' battles and fights for women's rights and the abolition of child labor. In 1883, she meets Edward Aveling (Patrick Kennedy) and her life is crushed by a passionate, but tragic, love story. (Note adapted from Celluloid Dreams.) Winner, FEDIC Award for Best Film, 2020 Venice Film Festival. DIR/SCR Susanna Nicchiarelli; PROD Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa. Italy/Belgium, 2020, color, 107 min. In English. NOT RATED
Available May 11–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/11 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Bright, intelligent, passionate and free, Eleanor (Romola Garai) is Karl Marx's youngest daughter. Among the first women to link the themes of feminism and socialism, she takes part in the workers' battles and fights for women's rights and the abolition of child labor. In 1883, she meets Edward Aveling (Patrick Kennedy) and her life is crushed by a passionate, but tragic, love story. (Note adapted from Celluloid Dreams.) Winner, FEDIC Award for Best Film, 2020 Venice Film Festival. DIR/SCR Susanna Nicchiarelli; PROD Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa. Italy/Belgium, 2020, color, 107 min. In English. NOT RATED
IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE
Available May 6–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/6 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Recognized in 2020 with a special Pulitzer Prize, Ida B. Wells was a household name in Black America during much of her lifetime (1862–1931) and she was considered the equal of her well-known African American contemporaries such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker William Greaves' (SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE) IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period. The words of Wells are brought to life in the film through the performance of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison as she reads selections from Wells' memoir, "Crusade for Justice," and other writings. (Note adapted from California Newsreel.) DIR/SCR/PROD William Greaves. U.S., 1989, color/b&w, 53 min. NOT RATED
Available May 6–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/6 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Recognized in 2020 with a special Pulitzer Prize, Ida B. Wells was a household name in Black America during much of her lifetime (1862–1931) and she was considered the equal of her well-known African American contemporaries such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker William Greaves' (SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE) IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period. The words of Wells are brought to life in the film through the performance of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison as she reads selections from Wells' memoir, "Crusade for Justice," and other writings. (Note adapted from California Newsreel.) DIR/SCR/PROD William Greaves. U.S., 1989, color/b&w, 53 min. NOT RATED
THE LUNCHROOM [PLANTA PERMANENTE]
Available May 4–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/4 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Lila (Liliana Juárez, THE SNATCH THIEF) has been a cleaner in a provincial municipality building in Argentina for more than 30 years. She's an important figure in the office's carefully knit society because of the unofficial staff cafeteria, which she runs, together with her friend Marcela (Rosario Bléfari, SILVIA PRIETO). When Lila gets the opportunity to refurbish the lunchroom and run it officially as the boss, this sudden elevation of her status incites Marcela's envy and starts a slow decay of the office's delicate status quo. (Note adapted from New Europe Film Sales.) Winner, Best Actress (Liliana Juárez), 2019 Mar del Plata Film Festival. DIR/SCR Ezequiel Radusky; SCR/PROD Diego Lerman; PROD Nicolás Avruj. Argentina/Uruguay, 2019, color, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Available May 4–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/4 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Lila (Liliana Juárez, THE SNATCH THIEF) has been a cleaner in a provincial municipality building in Argentina for more than 30 years. She's an important figure in the office's carefully knit society because of the unofficial staff cafeteria, which she runs, together with her friend Marcela (Rosario Bléfari, SILVIA PRIETO). When Lila gets the opportunity to refurbish the lunchroom and run it officially as the boss, this sudden elevation of her status incites Marcela's envy and starts a slow decay of the office's delicate status quo. (Note adapted from New Europe Film Sales.) Winner, Best Actress (Liliana Juárez), 2019 Mar del Plata Film Festival. DIR/SCR Ezequiel Radusky; SCR/PROD Diego Lerman; PROD Nicolás Avruj. Argentina/Uruguay, 2019, color, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
WORK SONGS
Available April 30–June 6 – Tickets $12
Watch anytime starting 4/30 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP.
"What's the weirdest thing that ever happened at your job?" Inspired by the writing of the great Studs Terkel, filmmaker Mark Street interviews cab drivers, longshorewomen, a farmer, a barista and others, from California to New York. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the United States at work and of workers' concerns about automation, the gig economy and the decline of unions. (Note adapted from Argot Pictures.) Official Selection, 2020 Beloit International Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Mark Street. U.S., 2019, color, 68 min. NOT RATED
Available April 30–June 6 – Tickets $12
Watch anytime starting 4/30 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP.
"What's the weirdest thing that ever happened at your job?" Inspired by the writing of the great Studs Terkel, filmmaker Mark Street interviews cab drivers, longshorewomen, a farmer, a barista and others, from California to New York. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the United States at work and of workers' concerns about automation, the gig economy and the decline of unions. (Note adapted from Argot Pictures.) Official Selection, 2020 Beloit International Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Mark Street. U.S., 2019, color, 68 min. NOT RATED
THE CHAMBERMAID (2018) [LA CAMARISTA]
Available May 13–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/13 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
In her multi-award-winning feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous workday of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film rich with detail. Set entirely in an alienating hotel environment with extended scenes taking place in the guest rooms, hallways and cleaning facilities, this minimalist-yet-sumptuous movie brings to the fore Eve's hopes, dreams and desires. As with Alfonso Cuarón's ROMA, which is set in the same city, THE CHAMBERMAID salutes the invisible women caretakers who are the hardworking backbone of society. Winner, Best First Feature, 2019 Ariel Awards; Winner, Best First Work, 2019 Havana Film Festival; Winner, Jury Prize, 2018 Marrakech International Film Festival; Winner, Best Mexican Feature Film, 2018 Morelia International Film Festival; Winner, Cine Latino Award, 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival; Winner, Best New Director, 2018 Portland International Film Festival; Winner, Golden Gate Award, 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival; Official Selection, 2018 San Sebastián, Toronto, London and AFI FEST film festivals; 2019 New Directors/New Films and AFI Latin American Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Lila Avilés; SCR Juan Carlos Marquéz; PROD Tatiana Graullera. Mexico/U.S., 2018, color, 102 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Available May 13–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/13 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
In her multi-award-winning feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous workday of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film rich with detail. Set entirely in an alienating hotel environment with extended scenes taking place in the guest rooms, hallways and cleaning facilities, this minimalist-yet-sumptuous movie brings to the fore Eve's hopes, dreams and desires. As with Alfonso Cuarón's ROMA, which is set in the same city, THE CHAMBERMAID salutes the invisible women caretakers who are the hardworking backbone of society. Winner, Best First Feature, 2019 Ariel Awards; Winner, Best First Work, 2019 Havana Film Festival; Winner, Jury Prize, 2018 Marrakech International Film Festival; Winner, Best Mexican Feature Film, 2018 Morelia International Film Festival; Winner, Cine Latino Award, 2018 Palm Springs International Film Festival; Winner, Best New Director, 2018 Portland International Film Festival; Winner, Golden Gate Award, 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival; Official Selection, 2018 San Sebastián, Toronto, London and AFI FEST film festivals; 2019 New Directors/New Films and AFI Latin American Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Lila Avilés; SCR Juan Carlos Marquéz; PROD Tatiana Graullera. Mexico/U.S., 2018, color, 102 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
70th Anniversary
THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS aka RICHER THAN THE EARTH
Available May 18–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/18 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Following its world premiere at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival, we're excited to present Flicker Alley's new restoration of Robert Siodmak's rarely seen labor-ific 1951 drama THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS. When young union leader Brad Adams (Lloyd Bridges) is reluctantly appointed president of a failing plastics manufacturing plant in a small New Hampshire town, he finds himself with the unenviable task of cutting costs, bringing in new labor-saving machinery and laying off employees, all while simultaneously calming labor relations. Meanwhile, the plant's recently widowed owner Mrs. Doubleday (Dorothy Gish in a rare sound-era performance) is forced to consider selling the company. The stellar supporting cast also includes Ernest Borgnine (in his debut film role), Anne Francis, Arthur O'Connell, Anne Seymour, Carleton Carpenter, Parker Fennelly, Russell Hardie, Doro Merande and James Westerfield. DIR Robert Siodmak; SCR Lemist Esler, Virginia Shaler; PROD Louis De Rochemont. U.S., 1951, b&w, 96 min. NOT RATED
THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS aka RICHER THAN THE EARTH
Available May 18–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/18 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
Following its world premiere at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival, we're excited to present Flicker Alley's new restoration of Robert Siodmak's rarely seen labor-ific 1951 drama THE WHISTLE AT EATON FALLS. When young union leader Brad Adams (Lloyd Bridges) is reluctantly appointed president of a failing plastics manufacturing plant in a small New Hampshire town, he finds himself with the unenviable task of cutting costs, bringing in new labor-saving machinery and laying off employees, all while simultaneously calming labor relations. Meanwhile, the plant's recently widowed owner Mrs. Doubleday (Dorothy Gish in a rare sound-era performance) is forced to consider selling the company. The stellar supporting cast also includes Ernest Borgnine (in his debut film role), Anne Francis, Arthur O'Connell, Anne Seymour, Carleton Carpenter, Parker Fennelly, Russell Hardie, Doro Merande and James Westerfield. DIR Robert Siodmak; SCR Lemist Esler, Virginia Shaler; PROD Louis De Rochemont. U.S., 1951, b&w, 96 min. NOT RATED
NASRIN
Available May 20–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/20 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
NASRIN was secretly filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest to make it. It is an immersive portrait of the world's most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, and of Iran's remarkably resilient women's rights movement. In the courts and on the streets, Sotoudeh has long fought for the rights of women, children, religious minorities, journalists, artists and those facing the death penalty. In the midst of filming, she was arrested in June of 2018 for representing women who were protesting Iran's mandatory hijab law. She was sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Featuring acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and journalist Ann Curry, the film is narrated by Academy Award® winner Olivia Colman. (Note adapted from Kino Lorber.) DIR/SCR/PROD Jeff Kaufman; PROD Marcia Ross. U.S., 2020, color, 92 min. In English and Persian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Available May 20–June 6 – Tickets $5
Watch anytime starting 5/20 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
NASRIN was secretly filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest to make it. It is an immersive portrait of the world's most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, and of Iran's remarkably resilient women's rights movement. In the courts and on the streets, Sotoudeh has long fought for the rights of women, children, religious minorities, journalists, artists and those facing the death penalty. In the midst of filming, she was arrested in June of 2018 for representing women who were protesting Iran's mandatory hijab law. She was sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Featuring acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and journalist Ann Curry, the film is narrated by Academy Award® winner Olivia Colman. (Note adapted from Kino Lorber.) DIR/SCR/PROD Jeff Kaufman; PROD Marcia Ross. U.S., 2020, color, 92 min. In English and Persian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
THE NEW DEAL FOR ARTISTS
Available May 21–June 6 – Tickets $12
Watch anytime starting 5/21 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
With the failure of President Hoover's policies at the end of 1929, marked by the stock market crash on October 24 and the ensuing Great Depression, the decade that began with the dream of endless progress and prosperity came to an end with millions unemployed. American industrial workers who had lost their jobs lined up in the streets for a bowl of soup and a hunk of bread. Depression, new technology and foreclosure by the banks drove more than half of American farmers to bankruptcy. By 1932 something had to change, and the newly elected President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created the New Deal to put America back to work. The Works Project Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) were formed to carry out this plan. However, with the arrival of Martin Dies' House Un-American Activities Committee, theatre actors, directors, writers and painters soon found themselves the target of Republicans' aggressive anti-communist agendas, and the WPA was under full-blown political attack. Narrated by Orson Welles, this remastered classic also features interviews and commentary by John Houseman, Studs Terkel, Howard Da Silva, Arthur Rothstein, Joseph Losey, Norman Lloyd and more. (Note adapted from Corinth Films.) DIR/SCR/PROD Wieland Schulz-Keil. U.S., 1979, color/b&w, 90 min. NOT RATED
Available May 21–June 6 – Tickets $12
Watch anytime starting 5/21 and join us In the LABOR GOES TO THE MOVIES podcast Movie Club discussions Thursdays at 7p! Click here to RSVP
With the failure of President Hoover's policies at the end of 1929, marked by the stock market crash on October 24 and the ensuing Great Depression, the decade that began with the dream of endless progress and prosperity came to an end with millions unemployed. American industrial workers who had lost their jobs lined up in the streets for a bowl of soup and a hunk of bread. Depression, new technology and foreclosure by the banks drove more than half of American farmers to bankruptcy. By 1932 something had to change, and the newly elected President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created the New Deal to put America back to work. The Works Project Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) were formed to carry out this plan. However, with the arrival of Martin Dies' House Un-American Activities Committee, theatre actors, directors, writers and painters soon found themselves the target of Republicans' aggressive anti-communist agendas, and the WPA was under full-blown political attack. Narrated by Orson Welles, this remastered classic also features interviews and commentary by John Houseman, Studs Terkel, Howard Da Silva, Arthur Rothstein, Joseph Losey, Norman Lloyd and more. (Note adapted from Corinth Films.) DIR/SCR/PROD Wieland Schulz-Keil. U.S., 1979, color/b&w, 90 min. NOT RATED
The 2021 Global Labor Film Festival presents: HAYMARKET: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle
Saturday, May 1, 8pm ET; see below for details.
Saturday, May 1, 8pm ET; see below for details.
The 2021 Global Labor Film Festival presents:
HAYMARKET: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle
Saturday, May 1 * 8pm ET (6p Alberta, 11p Haifa)
Discussion with director Adrian Prawica and labor historians Joe McCartin (Georgetown University) and Steven Brier (CUNY School of Labor).
Click here to register for the discussion and click here for free registration for the film; you’ll be able to watch the film at your convenience (available beginning at 12 noon Weds April 28).
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest, Workers Unite! Film Fest, the Rochester Labor Film Series, the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee, the Haifa International Labor Film Festival, the Labour in Motion Movie Club (Alberta, Canada), the LAN Festival (Bilbao), the Nordic Labour Film Festival and the Green Mountain Labor Council as part of the 2021 Global Labor Film Festival.
The Chicago Haymarket Affair in 1886, where a bomb thrown into the ranks of police, was followed by an eruption of panic and violence resulting in a trial and execution of presumably innocent workers' rights activists. In this feature documentary, expert historians and professors present the history of the bomb, the anarchist movement of the 19th century, and the labor struggle of working people fighting for a shorter workday during the industrial might of America's Gilded Age.
Click here to watch the trailer for Haymarket
PLUS: West Coast screening/discussion by the Reel Work Labor Film Festival!
Labor Studies Professor Dana Frank will moderate a conversation with filmmaker Adrian Prawica and audience Q&A on the significance of May Day to the labor movement (screening starts at 6:30pm PDT on May 1; discussion at 8p PDT). RSVP here: bit.ly/RWMayDay
HAYMARKET: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle
Saturday, May 1 * 8pm ET (6p Alberta, 11p Haifa)
Discussion with director Adrian Prawica and labor historians Joe McCartin (Georgetown University) and Steven Brier (CUNY School of Labor).
Click here to register for the discussion and click here for free registration for the film; you’ll be able to watch the film at your convenience (available beginning at 12 noon Weds April 28).
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest, Workers Unite! Film Fest, the Rochester Labor Film Series, the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee, the Haifa International Labor Film Festival, the Labour in Motion Movie Club (Alberta, Canada), the LAN Festival (Bilbao), the Nordic Labour Film Festival and the Green Mountain Labor Council as part of the 2021 Global Labor Film Festival.
The Chicago Haymarket Affair in 1886, where a bomb thrown into the ranks of police, was followed by an eruption of panic and violence resulting in a trial and execution of presumably innocent workers' rights activists. In this feature documentary, expert historians and professors present the history of the bomb, the anarchist movement of the 19th century, and the labor struggle of working people fighting for a shorter workday during the industrial might of America's Gilded Age.
Click here to watch the trailer for Haymarket
PLUS: West Coast screening/discussion by the Reel Work Labor Film Festival!
Labor Studies Professor Dana Frank will moderate a conversation with filmmaker Adrian Prawica and audience Q&A on the significance of May Day to the labor movement (screening starts at 6:30pm PDT on May 1; discussion at 8p PDT). RSVP here: bit.ly/RWMayDay
2021 DC Labor Filmfest – Spring Screening Series
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre
With the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
All screenings 7:00 p.m. ET, with intro and post-film Q&A
Tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Wed, March 24: DEAR COMRADES!
Wed, March 31: IDENTIFYING FEATURES
Wed, April 7: LAPSIS
Wed, April 14: MARTIN EDEN
DC Labor FilmFest viewers might also like these other films now playing in AFI Silver’s Virtual Screening Room: MY DARLING SUPERMARKET; CITY HALL; 76 DAYS; FUKUSHIMA 50; THE FEVER; COLLECTIVE
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre
With the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
All screenings 7:00 p.m. ET, with intro and post-film Q&A
Tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Wed, March 24: DEAR COMRADES!
Wed, March 31: IDENTIFYING FEATURES
Wed, April 7: LAPSIS
Wed, April 14: MARTIN EDEN
DC Labor FilmFest viewers might also like these other films now playing in AFI Silver’s Virtual Screening Room: MY DARLING SUPERMARKET; CITY HALL; 76 DAYS; FUKUSHIMA 50; THE FEVER; COLLECTIVE
MARTIN EDEN
Wed, April 14, 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A with filmmaker and novelist John Sayles.
Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy young university student (Jessica Cressy). The dissatisfactions of working-class toil and bourgeois success lead to political awakening and destructive anxiety in this enveloping, superbly mounted bildungsroman. Winner of the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by NewsGuild Local 32035; Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Wed, April 14, 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A with filmmaker and novelist John Sayles.
Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy young university student (Jessica Cressy). The dissatisfactions of working-class toil and bourgeois success lead to political awakening and destructive anxiety in this enveloping, superbly mounted bildungsroman. Winner of the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by NewsGuild Local 32035; Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
LAPSIS
Wed, April 7; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A moderated by labor journalist Sarah Jaffe (& author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone), with Katie Parker, Administrative Organizer for NPEU, the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union and EPI Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock
New York, an alternate present: the quantum computing revolution has begun and investors are lining their pockets in the quantum trading market. Building the network, though, requires miles of infrastructure to be laid between huge magnetic cubes by "cablers" — unprotected gig workers who compete against robots to pull wires over rough terrain. Queens delivery man Ray Tincelli is skeptical of new technology, and the buy-in to start cabling is steep, but he struggles to support himself and his ailing younger brother, who suffers from a mysterious illness. So when Ray scores a shady permit, he believes their fortunes may have finally changed. What he doesn't expect is to be pulled into a conspiracy involving hostile cablers, corporate greed and the mysterious "Lapsis" who may have previously owned his permit. Called "a smart, class-conscious sci-fi parable" by The Hollywood Reporter, LAPSIS is a darkly comic and timely look at the gig economy and the failed utopian promises of big tech. Winner, Jury's Choice Award, 2020 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival; Nominee, Best First Screenplay, 2021 Independent Spirit Awards. Official Selection, 2020 SXSW, Mill Valley Film Festival, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival and Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by NPEU, EPI, Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Wed, April 7; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A moderated by labor journalist Sarah Jaffe (& author of Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone), with Katie Parker, Administrative Organizer for NPEU, the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union and EPI Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock
New York, an alternate present: the quantum computing revolution has begun and investors are lining their pockets in the quantum trading market. Building the network, though, requires miles of infrastructure to be laid between huge magnetic cubes by "cablers" — unprotected gig workers who compete against robots to pull wires over rough terrain. Queens delivery man Ray Tincelli is skeptical of new technology, and the buy-in to start cabling is steep, but he struggles to support himself and his ailing younger brother, who suffers from a mysterious illness. So when Ray scores a shady permit, he believes their fortunes may have finally changed. What he doesn't expect is to be pulled into a conspiracy involving hostile cablers, corporate greed and the mysterious "Lapsis" who may have previously owned his permit. Called "a smart, class-conscious sci-fi parable" by The Hollywood Reporter, LAPSIS is a darkly comic and timely look at the gig economy and the failed utopian promises of big tech. Winner, Jury's Choice Award, 2020 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival; Nominee, Best First Screenplay, 2021 Independent Spirit Awards. Official Selection, 2020 SXSW, Mill Valley Film Festival, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival and Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by NPEU, EPI, Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Labor FilmFest viewers might also like these films in the AFI online screening room…
MY DARLING SUPERMARKET
A charming and witty portrait of a grocery store in São Paulo, MY DARLING SUPERMARKET follows the day-to-day lives of its employees — a panoply of workers steeped in the confining space of the store.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/5sik_vtlhgc
CITY HALL (2020)
City government touches almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us are unaware of or take for granted these necessary services such as police, fire, sanitation, veterans affairs, elder support, parks, licensing of various professional activities, recordkeeping of birth, marriage and death as well as hundreds of other activities that support Boston residents and visitors. CITY HALL, the latest film from master documentarian Frederick Wiseman, shows the efforts by Boston city government to provide these services. The film also illustrates the variety of ways the city administration enters into civil discourse with the citizens of Boston. Mayor Walsh and his administration are presented addressing a number of their policy priorities which include racial justice, affordable housing, climate action, and homelessness. CITY HALL shows a city government successfully offering a wide variety of services to a diverse population. Winner, Fair Play Cinema Award - Special Mention, 2020 Venice Film Festival. Official Selection, 2020 Toronto, Hamburg and New York film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/d7oRNoSDO7M
76 DAYS
On January 23rd, 2020, China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, to combat the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Set deep inside the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals, 76 DAYS tells indelible human stories at the center of this pandemic, from a woman begging in vain to bid a final farewell to her father and a grandpa with dementia searching for his way home, to a couple anxious to meet their newborn and a nurse determined to return personal items to families of the deceased. These raw and intimate stories bear witness to the death and rebirth of a city under a 76-day lockdown, and to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy. Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, 2020 AFI FEST; Winner, Grand Prize, Best Documentary Feature and Richard D. Propes Social Impact Award, 2020 Heartland International Film Festival; Short List for Best Documentary, 2020 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards. Official Selection, 2020 Toronto, Zurich and DOC NYC film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/x_f6-jhbsR4
FUKUSHIMA 50
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan risk their lives and stay at the nuclear power plant to prevent total destruction after the region is devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfBWDVuAn4
THE FEVER (2019) [A FEBRE]
Forty-five-year-old Justino is a Desana Tribe native working as a security guard in a freight yard on the harbor in the industrial city of Manaus, surrounded by the Amazon rainforest. He lives on the outskirts of town in a modest house with his youngest daughter, Vanessa, who works a nurse in a local clinic. When she is accepted into a program to study medicine in Brasília, Justino is suddenly overcome with a mysterious fever that won't subside. It causes him to fall asleep on the job and gives him hallucinations of an unidentifiable creature following him in the night. Far from the native village that he left two decades ago and with a looming empty nest, Justino feels utterly out of place. This evocative and poetic feature debut from filmmaker and visual artist Maya Da-Rin is a charming father-daughter story with painterly imagery and naturalistic performances from the mostly non-professional cast. Regis Myrupu gives a standout performance as Justino, for which he was awarded the Best Actor prize at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival. Winner, Best Director, 2019 Chicago International Film Festival; Winner, Best Latin-American Film, 2019 Mar del Plata Film Festival; Winner, FIPRESCI Prize, Best Actor (Regis Myrupu), 2019 Locarno International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2019 Toronto and Locarno film festivals, 2020 AFI Latin American Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Maya Da-Rin; SCR Pedro Cesarino, Miguel Seabra Lopes; PROD Juliette Lepoutre, Leonardo Mecchi. Brazil/France/Germany, 2019, color, 98 min. In Tukano and Portuguese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Official trailer: https://vimeo.com/500859426
COLLECTIVE
After an explosive fire claims the lives of 27 people at Bucharest nightclub Colectiv, officials reassure the public that surviving victims will receive care in facilities that are "better than in Germany." Weeks later, a rising causality count leads intrepid reporters at the Sports Gazette to investigate. Just as a crucial tip exposes local firm Hexi Pharma's culpability, the firm's owner dies under mysterious circumstances and the health minister quietly resigns amid the uproar — and this is only the first chapter in a thrilling, ever-twisting exposé. Closely tracking the efforts of the Gazette team as they methodically discover layer upon layer of fraud and criminal malfeasance, Alexander Nanau's COLLECTIVE is a fast-paced, real-time detective story about truth, accountability and the value of an independent press in partisan times. Winner, Best International Documentary Film, 2019 Zurich Film Festival; Winner, Best Documentary Feature, 2020 Hamptons International Film Festival; Winner, Special Jury Award, International Documentary Competition, 2020 Sofia International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2019 Venice, Toronto and IDFA film festivals; 2020 Sundance and AFI FEST film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/KLgGoT7v3ro
MY DARLING SUPERMARKET
A charming and witty portrait of a grocery store in São Paulo, MY DARLING SUPERMARKET follows the day-to-day lives of its employees — a panoply of workers steeped in the confining space of the store.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/5sik_vtlhgc
CITY HALL (2020)
City government touches almost every aspect of our lives. Most of us are unaware of or take for granted these necessary services such as police, fire, sanitation, veterans affairs, elder support, parks, licensing of various professional activities, recordkeeping of birth, marriage and death as well as hundreds of other activities that support Boston residents and visitors. CITY HALL, the latest film from master documentarian Frederick Wiseman, shows the efforts by Boston city government to provide these services. The film also illustrates the variety of ways the city administration enters into civil discourse with the citizens of Boston. Mayor Walsh and his administration are presented addressing a number of their policy priorities which include racial justice, affordable housing, climate action, and homelessness. CITY HALL shows a city government successfully offering a wide variety of services to a diverse population. Winner, Fair Play Cinema Award - Special Mention, 2020 Venice Film Festival. Official Selection, 2020 Toronto, Hamburg and New York film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/d7oRNoSDO7M
76 DAYS
On January 23rd, 2020, China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, to combat the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Set deep inside the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals, 76 DAYS tells indelible human stories at the center of this pandemic, from a woman begging in vain to bid a final farewell to her father and a grandpa with dementia searching for his way home, to a couple anxious to meet their newborn and a nurse determined to return personal items to families of the deceased. These raw and intimate stories bear witness to the death and rebirth of a city under a 76-day lockdown, and to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy. Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, 2020 AFI FEST; Winner, Grand Prize, Best Documentary Feature and Richard D. Propes Social Impact Award, 2020 Heartland International Film Festival; Short List for Best Documentary, 2020 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards. Official Selection, 2020 Toronto, Zurich and DOC NYC film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/x_f6-jhbsR4
FUKUSHIMA 50
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan risk their lives and stay at the nuclear power plant to prevent total destruction after the region is devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfBWDVuAn4
THE FEVER (2019) [A FEBRE]
Forty-five-year-old Justino is a Desana Tribe native working as a security guard in a freight yard on the harbor in the industrial city of Manaus, surrounded by the Amazon rainforest. He lives on the outskirts of town in a modest house with his youngest daughter, Vanessa, who works a nurse in a local clinic. When she is accepted into a program to study medicine in Brasília, Justino is suddenly overcome with a mysterious fever that won't subside. It causes him to fall asleep on the job and gives him hallucinations of an unidentifiable creature following him in the night. Far from the native village that he left two decades ago and with a looming empty nest, Justino feels utterly out of place. This evocative and poetic feature debut from filmmaker and visual artist Maya Da-Rin is a charming father-daughter story with painterly imagery and naturalistic performances from the mostly non-professional cast. Regis Myrupu gives a standout performance as Justino, for which he was awarded the Best Actor prize at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival. Winner, Best Director, 2019 Chicago International Film Festival; Winner, Best Latin-American Film, 2019 Mar del Plata Film Festival; Winner, FIPRESCI Prize, Best Actor (Regis Myrupu), 2019 Locarno International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2019 Toronto and Locarno film festivals, 2020 AFI Latin American Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Maya Da-Rin; SCR Pedro Cesarino, Miguel Seabra Lopes; PROD Juliette Lepoutre, Leonardo Mecchi. Brazil/France/Germany, 2019, color, 98 min. In Tukano and Portuguese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Official trailer: https://vimeo.com/500859426
COLLECTIVE
After an explosive fire claims the lives of 27 people at Bucharest nightclub Colectiv, officials reassure the public that surviving victims will receive care in facilities that are "better than in Germany." Weeks later, a rising causality count leads intrepid reporters at the Sports Gazette to investigate. Just as a crucial tip exposes local firm Hexi Pharma's culpability, the firm's owner dies under mysterious circumstances and the health minister quietly resigns amid the uproar — and this is only the first chapter in a thrilling, ever-twisting exposé. Closely tracking the efforts of the Gazette team as they methodically discover layer upon layer of fraud and criminal malfeasance, Alexander Nanau's COLLECTIVE is a fast-paced, real-time detective story about truth, accountability and the value of an independent press in partisan times. Winner, Best International Documentary Film, 2019 Zurich Film Festival; Winner, Best Documentary Feature, 2020 Hamptons International Film Festival; Winner, Special Jury Award, International Documentary Competition, 2020 Sofia International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2019 Venice, Toronto and IDFA film festivals; 2020 Sundance and AFI FEST film festivals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/KLgGoT7v3ro
IDENTIFYING FEATURES [SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES]
Wed, March 31; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A with Jose Vargas, Executive Director, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), and Andrea Arenas, LCLAA Director of Communications
It has been months since Magdalena has heard from her son after he left Guanajuato to go find work in the United States. Local authorities are pushing her to sign a death certificate, but she is not ready to give up hope. With the deck stacked against her, Magdalena journeys on her own across a beautiful and often dangerous Mexico. After some close calls, she runs into the recently deported Miguel, about the same age as her son and on a solo journey of his own. The two join forces to help each other find their missing loved ones and hopefully get closure once and for all. In her feature debut, writer-director Fernanda Valadez tackles the topic of the migrant crisis with this stunningly assured, lyrical thriller that expertly builds tension through the emotional journey of a mother who will stop at nothing to find her son. Winner, World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and Best Screenplay, 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Official Selection, 2020 New Directors/New Films, Karlovy Vary and AFI Latin American film festivals.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA); Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Wed, March 31; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Event support provided by American Income Life.
Post-screening Q&A with Jose Vargas, Executive Director, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), and Andrea Arenas, LCLAA Director of Communications
It has been months since Magdalena has heard from her son after he left Guanajuato to go find work in the United States. Local authorities are pushing her to sign a death certificate, but she is not ready to give up hope. With the deck stacked against her, Magdalena journeys on her own across a beautiful and often dangerous Mexico. After some close calls, she runs into the recently deported Miguel, about the same age as her son and on a solo journey of his own. The two join forces to help each other find their missing loved ones and hopefully get closure once and for all. In her feature debut, writer-director Fernanda Valadez tackles the topic of the migrant crisis with this stunningly assured, lyrical thriller that expertly builds tension through the emotional journey of a mother who will stop at nothing to find her son. Winner, World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and Best Screenplay, 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Official Selection, 2020 New Directors/New Films, Karlovy Vary and AFI Latin American film festivals.
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest
Co-sponsored by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA); Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Workers Unite! Film Festival
Plus, 'Rosie the Riveter' Documentary - Last Week of March
March 24th 11:00AM - March 31st 11:00PM EST
Watch Page
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter - Domestic. Shop girl. Waitress. Cook. Those were the jobs for women in the 1930's — when they could get work. Suddenly the U.S. entry into World War II created an unprecedented demand for new workers. Notions of what was proper work for women changed overnight. Thousands of posters and billboards appeared calling on women to “Do the Job He Left Behind.” Rosie the Riveter was born — the symbol of working women during World War II. (Directed by Connie Field, 1980, 1 hr 5m) (Trailer)
“The best film on working women I have seen.”
— Molly Haskell, Ms. Magazine
“A classic movie. And an essential film in the annals of feminist history.”
— Karen Cooper, Film Forum
All listings/viewings at bit.ly/WatchWUFF10
Special Thanks to the Women's Committee of NYS PEF for Sponsoring these events!
March 24th 11:00AM - March 31st 11:00PM EST
Watch Page
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter - Domestic. Shop girl. Waitress. Cook. Those were the jobs for women in the 1930's — when they could get work. Suddenly the U.S. entry into World War II created an unprecedented demand for new workers. Notions of what was proper work for women changed overnight. Thousands of posters and billboards appeared calling on women to “Do the Job He Left Behind.” Rosie the Riveter was born — the symbol of working women during World War II. (Directed by Connie Field, 1980, 1 hr 5m) (Trailer)
“The best film on working women I have seen.”
— Molly Haskell, Ms. Magazine
“A classic movie. And an essential film in the annals of feminist history.”
— Karen Cooper, Film Forum
All listings/viewings at bit.ly/WatchWUFF10
Special Thanks to the Women's Committee of NYS PEF for Sponsoring these events!
Sista In the Brotherhood - When a young black carpenter faces discrimination on a new job site, she must choose between taking a stand or keeping her job. (Directed by Dawn Jones Redstone, 2016, 21 min) (Trailer)
Inspired by the doctoral thesis of Dr. Roberta Hunte entitled "My Walk Has Never Been Average: Black Tradeswomen Negotiating Intersections of Race and Gender In Long Term Careers in The United States".
All listings/viewings at bit.ly/WatchWUFF10
Inspired by the doctoral thesis of Dr. Roberta Hunte entitled "My Walk Has Never Been Average: Black Tradeswomen Negotiating Intersections of Race and Gender In Long Term Careers in The United States".
All listings/viewings at bit.ly/WatchWUFF10
Film: DEAR COMRADES!
[Дорогие товарищи!] [DOROGIE TOVARISHCHI!]
Wed, March 24; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Post-screening pre-recorded Q&A with filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky and actress Julia Vysotskaya, moderated by IndieWire's Eric Kohn.
2020 Oscar® Selection, Russia
When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist. DEAR COMRADES! received critical praise at the Venice Film Festival, with Variety calling it "scintillating" and "meticulous and majestic, epic in scope and tattoo-needle intimate in effect," and The Playlist describing it as "a fascinating blend of dark satire and bleak archaeology."
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest; Co-sponsored by Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
[Дорогие товарищи!] [DOROGIE TOVARISHCHI!]
Wed, March 24; 7:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE for tickets: $12; $2 from each ticket purchased goes to MWC’s Community Services Agency
Post-screening pre-recorded Q&A with filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky and actress Julia Vysotskaya, moderated by IndieWire's Eric Kohn.
2020 Oscar® Selection, Russia
When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist. DEAR COMRADES! received critical praise at the Venice Film Festival, with Variety calling it "scintillating" and "meticulous and majestic, epic in scope and tattoo-needle intimate in effect," and The Playlist describing it as "a fascinating blend of dark satire and bleak archaeology."
Presented by AFI Silver Theatre and the DC Labor FilmFest; Co-sponsored by Busboys & Poets, with the financial support of American Income Life, National Nurses United and IFPTE
Play: We Were There
Wednesday, March 24⋅7:00 – 8:30pm
The Coalition of Labor Union Women celebrates its 47th anniversary with We Were There, a play consisting of great historical women leaders to current activists in the present. This year, the program will be available online. We hope CLUW members and supporters can join us and celebrate 47 years of America's only national labor union women's organization!
Click here and stay tuned for additional details.
Wednesday, March 24⋅7:00 – 8:30pm
The Coalition of Labor Union Women celebrates its 47th anniversary with We Were There, a play consisting of great historical women leaders to current activists in the present. This year, the program will be available online. We hope CLUW members and supporters can join us and celebrate 47 years of America's only national labor union women's organization!
Click here and stay tuned for additional details.
ON THE BASIS OF SEX
Thursday, March 25
7p (online); FREE; register here
Hosted by the DC chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women
Intro/Q&A with Elise Bryant, National President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and Tyra McClelland, AFGE District 14 National Women's Action Coordinator (NWAC).
The compelling story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early years, as she crafts a national legal strategy to win equal rights for women and fights to succeed in a profession notably hostile to women. This is an inspiring story about Ginsburg’s rise through male dominated law schools, her struggles for equal rights, and how she overcame institutionalised sexism to become a US Supreme Court Justice. Working with the ACLU and her husband, she made the case for gender equality as a fundamental human right, and the film culminates in a famous courtroom scene, the first time Ginsburg had ever argued in public - before three male judges. Starring Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, and Kathy Bates.
DIR Mimi Leder; SCR Daniel Stiepleman. U.S., 2019, color, 2h, 35mm. RATED R
https://youtu.be/28dHbIR_NB4
Thursday, March 25
7p (online); FREE; register here
Hosted by the DC chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women
Intro/Q&A with Elise Bryant, National President of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and Tyra McClelland, AFGE District 14 National Women's Action Coordinator (NWAC).
The compelling story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early years, as she crafts a national legal strategy to win equal rights for women and fights to succeed in a profession notably hostile to women. This is an inspiring story about Ginsburg’s rise through male dominated law schools, her struggles for equal rights, and how she overcame institutionalised sexism to become a US Supreme Court Justice. Working with the ACLU and her husband, she made the case for gender equality as a fundamental human right, and the film culminates in a famous courtroom scene, the first time Ginsburg had ever argued in public - before three male judges. Starring Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, and Kathy Bates.
DIR Mimi Leder; SCR Daniel Stiepleman. U.S., 2019, color, 2h, 35mm. RATED R
https://youtu.be/28dHbIR_NB4
A WOMAN’S WORK: THE NFL’S CHEERLEADER PROBLEM
Tuesday, March 9, 7p EST
FREE; RSVP here
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest and the Coalition of Labor Union Women
Introduced by Mark Gaston Pearce, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Georgetown Law’s Workers’ Rights Institute
Post-film Q&A with director Yu Gu, hosted by Tarn Goelling, Vice President, Coalition of Labor Union Women
A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem sheds light on the continued fight to end the gender pay gap prevalent throughout the National Football League. For over 50 years, the NFL has employed cheerleaders—women who are lifelong athletes expected to both maintain a peak physical condition and fulfill extreme beauty standards. Many of these athletes have been historically underpaid, with some earning as little as $5 an hour, while others are never paid a salary at all. A Woman's Work chronicles the journeys of cheerleaders from the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills, each of whom put their careers on the line to take legal action and fight for fair pay.
Film website.
Tuesday, March 9, 7p EST
FREE; RSVP here
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest and the Coalition of Labor Union Women
Introduced by Mark Gaston Pearce, Visiting Professor and Executive Director, Georgetown Law’s Workers’ Rights Institute
Post-film Q&A with director Yu Gu, hosted by Tarn Goelling, Vice President, Coalition of Labor Union Women
A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem sheds light on the continued fight to end the gender pay gap prevalent throughout the National Football League. For over 50 years, the NFL has employed cheerleaders—women who are lifelong athletes expected to both maintain a peak physical condition and fulfill extreme beauty standards. Many of these athletes have been historically underpaid, with some earning as little as $5 an hour, while others are never paid a salary at all. A Woman's Work chronicles the journeys of cheerleaders from the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills, each of whom put their careers on the line to take legal action and fight for fair pay.
Film website.
Monday and Tuesday
Catch the Encore Screening of 'Councilwoman'! (Free)
March 8th 11:00AM - March 9th 11:00PM EST
Watch Page
Councilwoman - Politicians aren’t often full-time hotel housekeepers, union members (UNITE HERE!), grandmothers, and immigrants working service jobs. But Carmen Castillo changes that when she wins a seat on the City Council in Providence, Rhode Island. (Directed by Margo Guernsey, 2018, 57m) (Trailer)
Carmen Castillo is a Dominican City Councilwoman who maintains her job cleaning hotel rooms, as she takes on her new role in politics. She faces skeptics who say she doesn’t have the education to govern, the power of corporate interests who take a stand against her fight for a $15/hourly wage in the City, and a tough re-election against two contenders—all of this while balancing the challenges of managing a full-time job cleaning hotel rooms, and a personal relationship. It’s a journey behind the scenes of politics after the victory.
“This little documentary is a major winner.”
— TrustMovies
“Councilwoman is an inspiring and informational documentary that serves both as record and template for what politics and politicians can look like in 2019.”
— Remezcla
“The film is powerful, inspirational and change-making!”
— Patrice Green, Surdna Foundation
Catch the Encore Screening of 'Councilwoman'! (Free)
March 8th 11:00AM - March 9th 11:00PM EST
Watch Page
Councilwoman - Politicians aren’t often full-time hotel housekeepers, union members (UNITE HERE!), grandmothers, and immigrants working service jobs. But Carmen Castillo changes that when she wins a seat on the City Council in Providence, Rhode Island. (Directed by Margo Guernsey, 2018, 57m) (Trailer)
Carmen Castillo is a Dominican City Councilwoman who maintains her job cleaning hotel rooms, as she takes on her new role in politics. She faces skeptics who say she doesn’t have the education to govern, the power of corporate interests who take a stand against her fight for a $15/hourly wage in the City, and a tough re-election against two contenders—all of this while balancing the challenges of managing a full-time job cleaning hotel rooms, and a personal relationship. It’s a journey behind the scenes of politics after the victory.
“This little documentary is a major winner.”
— TrustMovies
“Councilwoman is an inspiring and informational documentary that serves both as record and template for what politics and politicians can look like in 2019.”
— Remezcla
“The film is powerful, inspirational and change-making!”
— Patrice Green, Surdna Foundation
Black History Month with WUFF
The Workers Unite! Film Festival is offering an encore of Film Faves for Black History Month
Weds, February 24
ALL DAY: 9:00AM - 11:00PM EST
Click here for the Watch Page
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, reflecting with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades. [...] Baldwin lays bare the fiction of progress in post-Civil Rights America — wondering “what happened to the children” and those “who did not die, but whose lives were smashed on Freedom Road.” (Directed by Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine, 1982, 1 hr 35m) (Clip)
Profiled - Knits together the stories of mothers of Black and Latin youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims — Eric Garner, Michael Brown — are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. (Directed by Kathleen Foster, 2016, 52m) (Trailer)
Trouble Finds You - Bronx native and Masters student Kraig Lewis has his life turned upside down when he gets caught up in New York's largest gang take down. Now he was to find a new path. [...] Lewis, along with 119 others, were prosecuted under a law originally designed to target mobs but are now increasingly used against low-income neighborhoods of color in New York. (Directed by Stephanie Tangkilisan, 2019, 26 min) (Trailer)
Quarantina - Director Pat Hartley (I Heard It Through the Grapevine) talks about being an older black woman amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021, 3 min)
Filmmaker Justin Thomas on Black Film, Art and Activism (Free)
The award-winning filmmaker and WUFF alumnus discusses the motivation for creating the Black Independent Filmmaker App to support filmmakers of color in the independent community. In addition, he will share stories behind his two documentaries Truth Through A Lens and Sophia Dawson: PURPOSE, and how social justice and activism are driving factors that inform much of his film work.
Available as a pre-recorded event.
Weds, February 24
ALL DAY: 9:00AM - 11:00PM EST
Click here for the Watch Page
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, reflecting with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades. [...] Baldwin lays bare the fiction of progress in post-Civil Rights America — wondering “what happened to the children” and those “who did not die, but whose lives were smashed on Freedom Road.” (Directed by Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine, 1982, 1 hr 35m) (Clip)
Profiled - Knits together the stories of mothers of Black and Latin youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims — Eric Garner, Michael Brown — are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. (Directed by Kathleen Foster, 2016, 52m) (Trailer)
Trouble Finds You - Bronx native and Masters student Kraig Lewis has his life turned upside down when he gets caught up in New York's largest gang take down. Now he was to find a new path. [...] Lewis, along with 119 others, were prosecuted under a law originally designed to target mobs but are now increasingly used against low-income neighborhoods of color in New York. (Directed by Stephanie Tangkilisan, 2019, 26 min) (Trailer)
Quarantina - Director Pat Hartley (I Heard It Through the Grapevine) talks about being an older black woman amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021, 3 min)
Filmmaker Justin Thomas on Black Film, Art and Activism (Free)
The award-winning filmmaker and WUFF alumnus discusses the motivation for creating the Black Independent Filmmaker App to support filmmakers of color in the independent community. In addition, he will share stories behind his two documentaries Truth Through A Lens and Sophia Dawson: PURPOSE, and how social justice and activism are driving factors that inform much of his film work.
Available as a pre-recorded event.
East Side Freedom Library
Labor History Reading Group + Film: Exploration of Southern Women Textile Workers
March 16 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm EST
The East Side Freedom Library (St Paul, Minnesota) invites you a special version of our Labor History Film and Reading Group for March 2021
The Uprising of ‘34
the award-winning documentary by George Stoney
available to be viewed on Vimeo between March 5 and March 19
and a conversation on Tuesday, March 16, at 7pm, via Zoom
with the film’s editor Susanne Rostock
and
labor historian Mary Wingerd, author of the essay
Rethinking Paternalism: Power and Parochialism in a Southern Mill Village
Register here and we will send you a link for the film and Zoom meeting & a PDF of the essay
For Women’s History Month, join ESFL in an exploration of the lives, work, and struggles of southern textile mill workers. The Uprising of ’34 is a startling documentary which tells the story of the General Strike of 1934, a massive but little-known strike by hundreds of thousands of Southern cotton mill workers during the Great Depression. The mill workers’ defiant stance — and the remarkable grassroots organizing that led up to it — challenged a system of mill owner control that had shaped life in cotton mill communities for decades. Mary Wingerd’s essay not only explores this system of control, but also unearths the under-the-radar forms of resistance which made this strike possible. And she encourages us to consider other times and places where such control and resistance informed working class life.
The Uprising of ’34 offers a penetrating look at class, race, and power in working communities throughout America and raises critical questions about the role of history in making democracy work today. More than a social document, the film is intended to spark discussion on class, race, economics, and power — issues as vital today as they were decades ago. “The thrust of this film is to give the workers their chance to speak,” said editor Rostock. “We’re very proud of the fact that here’s a film in which they speak for themselves [with no narrator].” ESFL invites you to watch this 88 minute film on your own time and then join us for our conversation in our monthly Labor History Reading Group on the 16th.
Our conversation will feature Susanne Rostock the film’s editor and Minnesota historian Mary Wingerd. Rostock is a director as well as an editor, perhaps best known for her presentation of Harry Belafonte’s life in Sing Your Song [2011]. In an HBO project, she is currently directing Another Night in the Free World which documents the lives of three young women activists from 2012 to the present. Wingerd is the author of Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul (2001) and North Country: The Making of Minnesota (2010). Please join us.
March 16 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm EST
The East Side Freedom Library (St Paul, Minnesota) invites you a special version of our Labor History Film and Reading Group for March 2021
The Uprising of ‘34
the award-winning documentary by George Stoney
available to be viewed on Vimeo between March 5 and March 19
and a conversation on Tuesday, March 16, at 7pm, via Zoom
with the film’s editor Susanne Rostock
and
labor historian Mary Wingerd, author of the essay
Rethinking Paternalism: Power and Parochialism in a Southern Mill Village
Register here and we will send you a link for the film and Zoom meeting & a PDF of the essay
For Women’s History Month, join ESFL in an exploration of the lives, work, and struggles of southern textile mill workers. The Uprising of ’34 is a startling documentary which tells the story of the General Strike of 1934, a massive but little-known strike by hundreds of thousands of Southern cotton mill workers during the Great Depression. The mill workers’ defiant stance — and the remarkable grassroots organizing that led up to it — challenged a system of mill owner control that had shaped life in cotton mill communities for decades. Mary Wingerd’s essay not only explores this system of control, but also unearths the under-the-radar forms of resistance which made this strike possible. And she encourages us to consider other times and places where such control and resistance informed working class life.
The Uprising of ’34 offers a penetrating look at class, race, and power in working communities throughout America and raises critical questions about the role of history in making democracy work today. More than a social document, the film is intended to spark discussion on class, race, economics, and power — issues as vital today as they were decades ago. “The thrust of this film is to give the workers their chance to speak,” said editor Rostock. “We’re very proud of the fact that here’s a film in which they speak for themselves [with no narrator].” ESFL invites you to watch this 88 minute film on your own time and then join us for our conversation in our monthly Labor History Reading Group on the 16th.
Our conversation will feature Susanne Rostock the film’s editor and Minnesota historian Mary Wingerd. Rostock is a director as well as an editor, perhaps best known for her presentation of Harry Belafonte’s life in Sing Your Song [2011]. In an HBO project, she is currently directing Another Night in the Free World which documents the lives of three young women activists from 2012 to the present. Wingerd is the author of Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul (2001) and North Country: The Making of Minnesota (2010). Please join us.
LABOR MOVIES STREAMING NOW
The Killing Floor
Directed by Bill Duke • 1984 • United States
Starring Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Moses Gunn
Originally broadcast on PBS’s “American Playhouse” in 1984, the stirring first feature from actor and filmmaker Bill Duke explores the little-known story of an African American migrant’s struggle to build an interracial union in the Chicago Stockyards. Based on actual characters and events, the screenplay by Leslie Lee, from a story by producer Elsa Rassbach, follows the journey of Frank Custer (Damien Leake), a young Black sharecropper from Mississippi who, in the aftermath of World War I, travels to Chicago for a job on the “killing floor” of a meatpacking plant and the promise of greater racial equality in the industrial North. There, he must navigate the seething ethnic and class conflicts—stoked by management and culminating in the Chicago race riot of 1919—as he attempts to unite his fellow workers in a fight for fair treatment.
Three by Madeline Anderson
Recognized as the first Black woman to direct a televised documentary film, Madeline Anderson brings viewers to the front lines of the civil rights movement in these essential records of struggle and determination. Capturing a pivotal labor strike led by Black female hospital employees (I AM SOMEBODY), early desegregation efforts by Martin Luther King Jr. (INTEGRATION REPORT 1), and a rare interview with Malcolm X’s widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz (A TRIBUTE TO MALCOLM X), Anderson’s documentaries are a testament to the courage of the workers and activists at the heart of her films as well as to her own bravery, tenacity, and skill.
Solomon Northup’s Odyssey
Directed by Gordon Parks • 1984 • United States
Starring Avery Brooks, Rhetta Greene, Petronia Paley
Gordon Parks directs the original film adaptation of abolitionist Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography “Twelve Years a Slave,” later the basis for the Academy Award–winning drama by Steve McQueen. Avery Brooks stars as Northup, a free Black man born in New York who was kidnapped, sold into slavery, and held in bondage in Louisiana for more than a decade. Originally aired on PBS, SOLOMON NORTHUP’S ODYSSEY brings his powerful tale of perseverance and resistance to the screen with searing conviction.
The Killing Floor
Directed by Bill Duke • 1984 • United States
Starring Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Moses Gunn
Originally broadcast on PBS’s “American Playhouse” in 1984, the stirring first feature from actor and filmmaker Bill Duke explores the little-known story of an African American migrant’s struggle to build an interracial union in the Chicago Stockyards. Based on actual characters and events, the screenplay by Leslie Lee, from a story by producer Elsa Rassbach, follows the journey of Frank Custer (Damien Leake), a young Black sharecropper from Mississippi who, in the aftermath of World War I, travels to Chicago for a job on the “killing floor” of a meatpacking plant and the promise of greater racial equality in the industrial North. There, he must navigate the seething ethnic and class conflicts—stoked by management and culminating in the Chicago race riot of 1919—as he attempts to unite his fellow workers in a fight for fair treatment.
Three by Madeline Anderson
Recognized as the first Black woman to direct a televised documentary film, Madeline Anderson brings viewers to the front lines of the civil rights movement in these essential records of struggle and determination. Capturing a pivotal labor strike led by Black female hospital employees (I AM SOMEBODY), early desegregation efforts by Martin Luther King Jr. (INTEGRATION REPORT 1), and a rare interview with Malcolm X’s widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz (A TRIBUTE TO MALCOLM X), Anderson’s documentaries are a testament to the courage of the workers and activists at the heart of her films as well as to her own bravery, tenacity, and skill.
Solomon Northup’s Odyssey
Directed by Gordon Parks • 1984 • United States
Starring Avery Brooks, Rhetta Greene, Petronia Paley
Gordon Parks directs the original film adaptation of abolitionist Solomon Northup’s 1853 autobiography “Twelve Years a Slave,” later the basis for the Academy Award–winning drama by Steve McQueen. Avery Brooks stars as Northup, a free Black man born in New York who was kidnapped, sold into slavery, and held in bondage in Louisiana for more than a decade. Originally aired on PBS, SOLOMON NORTHUP’S ODYSSEY brings his powerful tale of perseverance and resistance to the screen with searing conviction.
The Big Meeting
Thu, Feb 11, 7p (local UK time; 2p U.S. EST)
Facebook Event here
Zoom Meeting
Documentary about the annual Durham Miners Gala. Screening This will be followed by a live Q&A with the film makers and one of the organisers of the Gala.
Hosted by the Cambridge & District Trades Council during ♥ Unions Week
"Every second Saturday in July the city of Durham is taken over by miners, trade-unions and the public for an event known locally as 'The Big Meeting’. The Durham Miners' Gala is an annual celebration of noise, colour and solidarity, of class culture, creativity and endeavour. Attracting 200,000 people, banners and brass bands parade through the streets to honour their heritage. The Big Meeting reflects the past, present and future of the Gala and labour movement, whilst following four protagonists over the course of this impressive working- class occasion. This will be especially poignant viewing whilst we are in lockdown but hopefully be a positive experience to see and feel something we can look forward to returning to.”
- Chris Jury & Reuben Irving, Festival Directors, Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
Thu, Feb 11, 7p (local UK time; 2p U.S. EST)
Facebook Event here
Zoom Meeting
Documentary about the annual Durham Miners Gala. Screening This will be followed by a live Q&A with the film makers and one of the organisers of the Gala.
Hosted by the Cambridge & District Trades Council during ♥ Unions Week
"Every second Saturday in July the city of Durham is taken over by miners, trade-unions and the public for an event known locally as 'The Big Meeting’. The Durham Miners' Gala is an annual celebration of noise, colour and solidarity, of class culture, creativity and endeavour. Attracting 200,000 people, banners and brass bands parade through the streets to honour their heritage. The Big Meeting reflects the past, present and future of the Gala and labour movement, whilst following four protagonists over the course of this impressive working- class occasion. This will be especially poignant viewing whilst we are in lockdown but hopefully be a positive experience to see and feel something we can look forward to returning to.”
- Chris Jury & Reuben Irving, Festival Directors, Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
9TO5: THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT
Tue, February 9, 7pm – 9pm
FREE, RSVP HERE
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest
Post-film Q&A with 9to5 co-founder Debbie Schneider and Angel Darcourt, Associate National Field Director for Working America. Moderated by Elise Bryant, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
9to5: The Story of a Movement captures the real-life fight that inspired a hit and changed the American workplace.
When Dolly Parton sang “9 to 5,” she was doing more than just shining a light on the fate of American working women. Parton was singing the true story of a movement that started with 9to5, a group of Boston secretaries in the early 1970s. Their goals were simple—better pay, more advancement opportunities, and an end to sexual harassment—but their unconventional approach attracted the press and shamed their bosses into change. Featuring interviews with 9to5’s founders, as well as actor and activist Jane Fonda, 9to5: The Story of a Movement is the previously untold story of the fight that inspired a hit and changed the American workplace.
FREE, RSVP HERE
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest
Post-film Q&A with 9to5 co-founder Debbie Schneider and Angel Darcourt, Associate National Field Director for Working America. Moderated by Elise Bryant, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
9to5: The Story of a Movement captures the real-life fight that inspired a hit and changed the American workplace.
When Dolly Parton sang “9 to 5,” she was doing more than just shining a light on the fate of American working women. Parton was singing the true story of a movement that started with 9to5, a group of Boston secretaries in the early 1970s. Their goals were simple—better pay, more advancement opportunities, and an end to sexual harassment—but their unconventional approach attracted the press and shamed their bosses into change. Featuring interviews with 9to5’s founders, as well as actor and activist Jane Fonda, 9to5: The Story of a Movement is the previously untold story of the fight that inspired a hit and changed the American workplace.
“Thank you so much for this wonderful, informative, and inspiring evening!” said one attendee as Tuesday night’s DC Labor FilmFest screening of 9to5: The Story of a Movement wrapped up after the Q&A with 9to5 co-founder Debbie Schneider and Angel Darcourt, Associate National Field Director for Working America, moderated by Elise Bryant, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.
The screening was the latest in the FilmFest’s 2021 Bread and Roses monthly screening series; the next one will be March 9, and we’re working on plans for this year’s DC Labor FilmFest, which will be online again this year. We’re also meeting with labor film festival organizers from around the world in an effort to coordinate screenings (see below for one coming up tomorrow in the UK). Though there will obviously be timing issues, we’ll keep you posted on what’s available. We’re also keeping an eye on laborific movies available on the various streaming services for you to watch on your own schedule, as well as other upcoming labor culture events.
And if there's an upcoming labor film -- or labor culture event -- we should know about, hit us up at [email protected]
The screening was the latest in the FilmFest’s 2021 Bread and Roses monthly screening series; the next one will be March 9, and we’re working on plans for this year’s DC Labor FilmFest, which will be online again this year. We’re also meeting with labor film festival organizers from around the world in an effort to coordinate screenings (see below for one coming up tomorrow in the UK). Though there will obviously be timing issues, we’ll keep you posted on what’s available. We’re also keeping an eye on laborific movies available on the various streaming services for you to watch on your own schedule, as well as other upcoming labor culture events.
And if there's an upcoming labor film -- or labor culture event -- we should know about, hit us up at [email protected]
Film: STAND!
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
7p, FREE via Eventive; RSVP here
Intro by TBA
Q&A with Director Robert Adetuyi, Composer/Producer Danny Schur & Select Stars
Sponsored by American Income Life; Co-sponsored by TBA
"Stand! tells the important story of the power of collective action. Workers should see this film to learn not only about labor history but the important value of fighting for our rights and greater justice." -Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
An immigrant Romeo & Juliet battle for love and a better future during a time of social upheaval. Director Robert Adetuyi (“Stomp the Yard”, “Bring It On”) teams up with two-time Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Roy Wagner in this movie adaptation of Juno-award-winning composer Danny Schur & Rick Chafe’s hit musical.
1919. Stefan and his father Mike fled Ukraine for the New World, where they struggle to earn enough to re-unite the family. Stefan is instantly smitten with the Jewish suffragette neighbor, Rebecca – but Rebecca’s brother Moishe and Mike oppose the would-be Romeo and Juliet. Returned soldiers, angry at the lack of jobs after the war, violently threaten the city’s immigrants, including Emma, the refugee from racist violence in Oklahoma. When a movement develops for workers to leave their jobs in protest, AJ Anderson, a wealthy lawyer, pits all against each other in a dramatic and inspirational final stand.
“Hamilton meets Fiddler on the Roof meets West Side Story” – Reel Chicago.
“Broadway-worthy tunes that stick in your head” – Globe & Mail.
“One of the greatest historical stories I have ever seen” – Hollywood North.
“Four stars” – CBC Radio.
Director: Robert Adetuyi; Writers: Rick Chafe, Danny Schur; Stars: Laura Slade Wiggins, Gregg Henry, Marshall Williams and Lisa Bell.
2019; 1h 50min; Drama, History, Musical; December 2020 (USA)
7p, FREE via Eventive; RSVP here
Intro by TBA
Q&A with Director Robert Adetuyi, Composer/Producer Danny Schur & Select Stars
Sponsored by American Income Life; Co-sponsored by TBA
"Stand! tells the important story of the power of collective action. Workers should see this film to learn not only about labor history but the important value of fighting for our rights and greater justice." -Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
An immigrant Romeo & Juliet battle for love and a better future during a time of social upheaval. Director Robert Adetuyi (“Stomp the Yard”, “Bring It On”) teams up with two-time Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Roy Wagner in this movie adaptation of Juno-award-winning composer Danny Schur & Rick Chafe’s hit musical.
1919. Stefan and his father Mike fled Ukraine for the New World, where they struggle to earn enough to re-unite the family. Stefan is instantly smitten with the Jewish suffragette neighbor, Rebecca – but Rebecca’s brother Moishe and Mike oppose the would-be Romeo and Juliet. Returned soldiers, angry at the lack of jobs after the war, violently threaten the city’s immigrants, including Emma, the refugee from racist violence in Oklahoma. When a movement develops for workers to leave their jobs in protest, AJ Anderson, a wealthy lawyer, pits all against each other in a dramatic and inspirational final stand.
“Hamilton meets Fiddler on the Roof meets West Side Story” – Reel Chicago.
“Broadway-worthy tunes that stick in your head” – Globe & Mail.
“One of the greatest historical stories I have ever seen” – Hollywood North.
“Four stars” – CBC Radio.
Director: Robert Adetuyi; Writers: Rick Chafe, Danny Schur; Stars: Laura Slade Wiggins, Gregg Henry, Marshall Williams and Lisa Bell.
2019; 1h 50min; Drama, History, Musical; December 2020 (USA)
See “Radium Girls” and support CLUW
If you missed the recent screening of the new film Radium Girls -- or want to see it again or share it with friends/colleagues -- you can catch it here, where $2 of the ticket will go to support the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s work creating connections between the feminist movement and the labor movement in the United States. Based on true events of the 1920’s, Radium Girls stars Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Joey King and Abby Quinn as teen sisters dreaming of Hollywood and Egyptian pyramids while they paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials at the American Radium factory in New Jersey. But when Jo loses a tooth, Bessie’s world is turned upside down as a mystery slowly unravels and leads to a lawsuit against American Radium. The notorious case ultimately led to a lasting impact in the area of workplace health and safety as well as the study of radioactivity. "The film was amazing," said one attendee last night. "So beautifully made and with such an important and meaningful subject."
NOTE: if you'd like to give someone a ticket, just click on "Give as a gift" on the ordering page.
NOTE: if you'd like to give someone a ticket, just click on "Give as a gift" on the ordering page.