11TH DC Labor FilmFest Launches Tonight

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)The 11th annual DC Labor FilmFest launches tonight at AFI’s Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD, with yet another great line-up of films about work and workers. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will introduce the final Working Lunch screening today at noon at the AFL-CIO. A special 35th-anniversary showing of All the President’s Men kicks off the main FilmFest at 7:30p at the AFI, with a post-screening panel that includes former Washington Post reporter/editor John Hanrahan and modern-day whistleblowers Thomas Tamm and Thomas Andrews Drake. Saturday evening the FilmFest features The Whistleblower, the gripping story of a Nebraska cop (Rachel Weisz) who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and stumbles into the sordid world of Balkan sex trafficking only to find her fellow U.N. peacekeepers implicated in the trade. The weekend closes out with Made in Dagenham, a highly-entertaining film which chronicles the historic 1968 strike at a British Ford factory. Led by spunky Sally Hawkins, the women walk out when they learn that management has classified them as unskilled workers and substantially capped their wages. The festival continues throughout the weekend; other films include Inside Job, The Company Men and Moon. To check out the full festival schedule and order tickets, check out DC Labor’s FilmFest website.
- still image from "The Whistleblower"