2008 Free Friday Film Series
Below are films previously screened as
part of this year's DC Labor Filmfest Free
Friday Film Series.At The River I
Stand (1994,
58m)
Screened Friday, January
25
Documents the 1968 Memphis
sanitation workers' strike and the historical
forces which came together with the death of
Dr. Martin Luther King. Special screening in
honor of Martin Luther King Day. Introduced by
AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer and Coalition of
Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) President Bill
Lucy, who worked closely with Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. during the historic 1968
Memphis sanitation workers strike documented in
the film.A. Philip
Randolph: For Jobs and
Freedom
Screened Friday,
February 22
The Attorney General
of the United States called him "the most
dangerous Negro in America." He forced
President Roosevelt to integrate the armed
forces, won the first-ever contract for a Black
union and was the moving force behind the
historic 1963 March on Washington. In
celebration of Black History Month, the DC
Labor FilmFest will show the 1996 documentary
"A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and
Freedom."Mother Jones: America's
Most Dangerous Woman (2007, 23 min)
Screened March
14, 26, & 28 & April 16
Mother
Jones: America's Most Dangerous Woman is a new
23 minute documentary about the amazing labor
heroine, Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother
Jones. The documentary shows how Mother Jones'
organizing career influenced the history of
early 20th century United States.
Featuring historian Elliott Gorn, leading
biographer of Mother Jones, it shows how Mother
Jones used class and gender boundaries to shape
an identity that allowed her to become an
effective labor organizer in the early 20th
century. Mother Jones transformed personal and
political grief and rage into an effective
persona that led workers into battles that
changed the course of history. The
documentary evokes the terrible conditions and
labor oppression that motivated her to traverse
the country, mobilizing thousands to fight
back. A moving "music video" of the "Ludlow
massacre," focusing on her role in those
events brings to life a forgotten vista of
brutalities that faced immigrant laborers in
the United States in the previous
century. The film uses authentic
photographs and live footage, including the
only known film of Mother Jones on her
deathbed, proclaiming that she is still a
"radical" and "longs for the day when labor
will have the destination of the nation in her
own hands."
Fired! (2007, 70m)
Screened
Wednesday, April 16
Getting fired by
Woody Allen was just the beginning for actress
Annabelle Gurwitch, who Barbara Ehrenreich says
"transformed her misery into a hot and sour
chicken soup for the laid off soul."
Trying to cope with being fired by a cultural
icon, Gurwitch discovered she wasn't alone and
brings us side-splitting tales of being fired
from Tim Allen, Felicity Huffman, Jeff Garlin
and more, as well as the less-humorous aspects
of job insecurity that include attending job
fairs, career retraining classes, outplacement
workshops and meeting with human resource
directors.
Women Organize! (30 min)
Screened
Friday, April 18
Women Organize! is an
inspirational, half hour video that portrays
women organizers across the U.S. who are
involved in the global struggles for racial,
social, and economic
justice.Sicko (2007, 123m, directed by Michael
Moore)
Screened Friday, April
25
Academy Award winning filmmaker
Michael Moore applies his usual sharp-edged
satirical style to America's dysfunctional
healthcare system, using humor to tell
compelling stories of everyday people faced
with extraordinary and bizarre challenges in
their quest for basic health coverage. More
than just a film, the documentary has become a
stunningly effective organizing tool as
healthcare advocates have used it as to enrage,
educate and mobilize activists across the
country. Special screening in conjunction with
the AFL-CIO Health Care Campaign's Spring
Lift-Off Action Plan, with hundreds of Labor
Councils nationwide focusing on this issue
during the month of April.Grassroots
Rising (2005, 56m,
directed by Robert C.
Winn)
Screened Wednesday,
May 7
An evocative exploration of Asian
Pacific Islander working families in Los
Angeles. The film weaves together
powerful interviews and live action footage
with moving labor murals and a lyrical
narration by spoken word artist Alison de la
Cruz and the voices of low wage Asian
immigrants at the forefront of worker-led
movements to build a just community in Los
Angeles. Grassroots Rising shares stories
from a sprawling multilingual Los Angeles that
is the sweatshop capital of the United States
and the home for several of the largest Asian
communities outside of their home countries.
From Thai garment workers to restaurant and
supermarket workers in Koreatown and Pilipino
home healthcare workers, the working families
in Grassroots Rising are not passive victims,
but instead are reshaping the city through
their activism.
