DC Labor FilmFest Tonight: Free Labor Shorts!

This program features three short labor films (plus a sneak preview of a film from the upcoming Immigration Film Festival) selected from labor film festivals across the country, introduced by the directors of those film festivals, in town for the fifth annual Conference of Labor Film Festivals, hosted by the DC LaborFest. Enjoy great films, food & drink, and of course the raffle for DC LaborFest t-shirts!
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Cast in India, 20 Ways & Somos Amigos (We Are Friends) [Click below for more on each film]
​Tue, October 13, 6pm – 8pm; FREE
Busboys & Poets, 234 Carroll Street, Takoma Park, MD 

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Cast in India 
Introduced by Andrew Tilson, Workers Unite Film Festival (NYC) 
Offers a fascinating glimpse into the working lives of the men who forge manhole covers—the ubiquitous bits of daily life New Yorkers step on every day without thinking twice. Be transported to the factories where they are produced—bear witness to the pouring of molten metal and the dignity, hard work, and humor of the men who make them. Picturesque and utilitarian, discs that come half way around the world from Indian factories dot our city streets.
U.S./India; 2014; Directed by Natasha Raheja; 26 min

20 Ways 
Introduced by NaNi Rivera, Santa Fe Labor Film Festival
This comic satire explores the absurd humor of an article by an Oklahoma lawyer that proposed “twenty ways to spot an illegal immigrant.” An entertaining, intelligent look at immigration using humor to explore this very contemporary story.
U.S.; 2012; Directed by Peter Kershaw; 15:08 min

Somos Amigos (We Are Friends)
Introduced by Paula Guisande, Muestra de Cine y Trabajo (Madrid, Spain)
What would you do if you had to fire your best friend? That’s the dilemma faced by young businessman Julio, who must fire his friend Santi, along with twenty four other workers. His boss and friend Max tries to advise him on how to handle the situation, but it soon becomes increasingly entangled as this short film explores the limits between friendship and work... if they exist at all.
Spain, 2014, directed by Carlos Solano Perez; 13 min

PLUS: Food Chains (trailer only; full film being screened October 25 by partner Greater Washington Immigration Film Festival)
Introduced by Judith Johnson, co-chair of the Greater Washington Immigration Film Festival
In the U.S., farm labor has always been one of the most difficult and poorly paid jobs and has relied on some of the nation’s most vulnerable people. These days, this exploitation is perpetuated by the corporations at the top of the food chain: the supermarkets. In this exposé, a group of Florida farmworkers battle to defeat the $4 trillion global supermarket industry through their ingenious Fair Food program, which partners with growers and retailers to improve working conditions for farm laborers in the United States. 
US, 2014, directed by Sanjay Rawal
What: Short Labor Films
When: Tuesday, October 13, 6p
Where: Busboys & Poets, 234 Carroll Street, Takoma Park, MD