YANGZHEN'S JOURNEY - Nyima YangZhen is a dedicated China Postwoman in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; she’s also a mother who has a baby to nurse at home. Having worked for several years in the post office, Nyima has grasped her work-life balance. Known for her work ethics, Nyima was nominated and later received the “advanced worker” award. Nyima looks at her medal and is basking in great satisfaction and blessed aura. Yet life is full of mysteries. With great power comes great responsibility. Nyima received a job relocation and must leave her family temporarily to take up a post in rural Yunling township. For the first time in her life, Nyima feels helpless -- stuck in the middle between her baby who still needs to be nursed, and a wall of recommendations and awards. It’s a major family-work dilemma. She knows that her husband could care for the baby, but the locals in the mountainous area need her more.

Her new job is not short of “surprises” and “incidents”. The postal routes linking up the Yunling post office and the remote villages are treacherous trails. Nyima could only deliver mail on foot, carrying heavy postal bags. Nyima has trekked over snow-capped mountains, and trudged through currents and streams; encountering wild wolves when she camped outside at night. Nyima also had to overcome her fear by sliding herself across a steel cable wire above a roaring river.

She’s met all sorts of wonderful villagers on her deliveries. She found refuge at her friend Sangji’s grandma’s home after being chased by a dog. Sangji’s grandma is a wise, gentle old lady. Nyima would stop by grandma’s every time on route as a much-needed pit stop. And she’s more than happy to deliver Sangji’s letter to grandma. A stack of returned letters also draws her attention towards the plight of Little Metok, a left-behind child in the village. With naïve optimism, Metok believes that she could summon her parents’ return from the urban area if she writes 100 letters. Nyima and the old postal director have been working hard to keep this dream alive.

It’s lonesome to deliver mail on arduous routes day after day. In addition, Nyima has to fight her constant yearning to see her own baby. She’s faced life, death, and everything on her job. Nyima was in self-doubt and wanted to quit at one point. But Sangji’s grandma’s encouragement, “There’s still plenty of people who need you here” made Nyima understand her true mission. Nyima braved the years and seasons. From delivering mail on her own to getting her family involved. Nyima finally believes that there’s no right or wrong way at every life’s intersection. One can only be true to your heart and answer your own calling. (94 min, China, 2021, Director: Chengxu Lan)

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PARKLIFE chronicles life in Manhattan’s Columbus Park, where groups of Chinese seniors congregate on a daily basis. As seasons change and an unexpected crisis unfolds with COVID-19, the park’s seemingly outlandish cultural spectacles and nostalgic performances wane. (12 min, 2020, Director: Lillian Xuege Li)

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COMPANY TOWN - On the anniversary of General Motors' 100th year of manufacturing vehicles in Oshawa, Canada, the union is forced into a life-and-death fight to save their members' jobs when the company announces it will be shuttering the plant at the end of the next year. (52 min, Canada, 2020, Director: Peter Findlay) + Director Q&A with Special Guests including Jerry Dias, National Union President of Unifor.

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CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SHIFTS is a portrait of Chicagoland ICU nurse Jeanette Alvarez-Basem, captured through the perspective of her son, Ben Basem. This documentary forms a year-long time capsule of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between her night shifts and Illinois Nurses Association union meetings, Jeanette navigates what it means to be a nurse and a human during a traumatic moment in history. (30 min, 2021, Director: Ben Basem)

THE COKE CARTEL (Trailer)

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From Executive Producer Angela Bassett:

NO SHORTCUTS TO CHANGE - The Essential Campaign, a project of The League, presents No Shortcuts to Change, a short film that follows Ramona (Franceli Chapman) a homecare aid who suddenly meets her Fairy God-Person (Sherri Shepherd) who is trying to "change her life for the better" by tempting her with magical shortcuts. Ramona ends up not falling for the high-jinx and tricks because she realizes that she doesn’t need magic to create real change. (4 min, 2021, Director: Adrian Rojas Elliot) #CareIsEssential #CareCantWait

Tell Congress Care Can’t Wait. Sign the Petition!

COVER/AGE - Confronting the healthcare exclusion of elderly undocumented immigrants in California, two immigrant leaders (one a caregiver, the other a policy advocate) champion the movement to expand healthcare coverage for everyone in the Golden State. (25 min, 2019, Director: Set Hernandez Rongkilyo)

https://caimmigrant.org/cover-age/

LONG DISTANCE - A Filipino couple in Calgary, Alberta perseveres through a long-distance relationship redolent of the many years they spent apart in the past. Before, international borders separated them. Now, a virus. While Roderick, a Cargill meat plant worker, recovers in the hospital from a COVID-induced stroke, his wife, Norie, summons the strength to support her family. Set against the backdrop of COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant workers across Canada. (28 min, Canada, 2021, Director: Kiana Rawji)

LIMBO - A true-fiction short following the story of Witold, a young, Polish Londoner whose humanity is blunted by the demands of his digital boss, laying bare the hardship of the job of a care worker at this poignant time of the global pandemic.

Under-trained and underpaid, Witold speeds from home to home on his bicycle, feeling the enormity of his responsibility as he enters hidden worlds to administer care to a delicate but dynamic assortment of elderly men living alone.

Required to use a mobile app which enforces his schedule, Witold’s attempts at connecting with his ‘service users’ are constantly interrupted. He and his wards are united in their isolation and inevitably begin to bond - until his bike is stolen, and his malevolent schedule unravels.

Witold’s elderly clients are played by vulnerable men who receive care at home and are not actors. Unbeknownst to cast and crew, the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded as filming commenced. ‘Limbo’ reveals the acute loneliness of those most vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, and its devastating real-time implications.

This story is the narrative debut of Emmy nominated writer and director Lotje Sodderland (My Beautiful Broken Brain, Netflix), herself once a recipient of vital care. (19 min, U.K., 2020, Director: Lotje Sodderland)

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TALES FROM THE LONG MEMORY - Folk singing rabble-rouser U. Utah Phillips crisscrossed the country on freight trains searching for teachers. He experienced ultimate freedom, no home ahead and none behind but also the works of mercy. He discovered the dynamic struggle of people to organize themselves and demand a quality of life for themselves and those around them that provides bread, yes, but roses too.

Tales From the Long Memory follows the people who look to Utah as their teacher now while they continue the work that inspired him throughout his life. In Detroit, the Wobbly Kitchen shows how the simple act of feeding someone can spark a community of solidarity in a city struggling to rebuild its glory. In Madison, the sweet sounds of labor songs echo through the capital building every day at noon. In Portland, the Sisters of the Road Café serve up dignity and nourishment at a price you can afford. And in a quaint northern California gold rush town, a dedicated group of community members grow an idea into a house of hospitality called Utah’s Place. (54 min, 2020, Director: Charles Hall) + Filmmaker Q&A with Special Guests

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THE FREE STATE OF GEORGE FLOYD - Immediately following the murder of George Floyd, the neighbors surrounding the murder site established a police-free autonomous zone. As hundreds of offerings and visitors came to pay their respects everyday, the community began to protect the memorial site; the public art and the offerings. As barricades went up around the streets, the community released a list of 24 justice demands from the city of Minneapolis. One of the guiding philosophies in the square is “people over property.” This short film was created in solidarity and collaboration with the community at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue. (6 min, 2021, Produced by Flowstate Films, the Center for Work and Democracy, and United Healthcare Workers West)

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DIGGING FOR WELDON IRVINE - A feature-length documentary about the life and influence of heralded writer, arranger, composer and pianist Weldon Irvine, Jr. Weldon Irvine's socio-culturally evocative work in music and theater drew appreciation from the likes of Freddie Hubbard and Nina Simone to Mos Def and Q-Tip. The film studies his influence on the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, the evolution of hip-hop, and the development of some of the most well-known figures in jazz today.

Through previously unreleased audio and music from Irvine, and exclusive interviews with those closely associated with the tortured artist professionally and personally, De Costa helps us understand the journey of an artist of moderate success yet monumental influence. Equally as important, how these two realities coexist, and why? Irvine, who wrote over 500 songs and over 50 plays, relentlessly strived to reinvent himself within an industry and a world that didn’t always reciprocate, understand or appreciate his voice.

A hovering backdrop of generational burdens, toxic vices, and unapologetic blackness paint the complexities that sing an all too familiar refrain of the native sons' inability to fully escape the web of American fate. Yet, the resilience of Weldon Irvine's creative contribution remains a lovely, precious dream. (111 min, 2019, Director: Victorious De Costa)

Shorts to precede:

GRINNING SKULL - Set in Los Angeles in 1946, Black and Latina female washroom attendants wrestle with the decision to unionize, bucking racism, sexism, and class discrimination at the Pacific Electric Railway subway terminal. (21 min, 2018, Director: Director: Sikivu Hutchinson)

BLACK INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER APP (Trailer) (1 min, 2020, Director: Justin M. Thomas)

SOPHIA DAWSON: PURPOSE - The story of renowned Brooklyn visual artist and activist Sophia Dawson. Through revealing conversation and a treasure trove of archival photographs from Ms. Dawson's personal scrapbook, Justin Thomas directs an intimate and powerful portrait of a brilliant young woman determined to use her creative gifts to enlighten and empower her community. (15 min, 2019, Director: Justin M. Thomas)

YUSUF HAWKINS: STORM OVER BROOKLYN (Trailer) (2 min, 2020)

NO LEADERS (Preview Trailer) (5 min, 2021, Director: Victorious De Costa)

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THE GREAT POSTAL HEIST is the directorial debut of a postal worker's son, Jay Galione, who tells the story of his father, a 30-year postal clerk who was harassed, threatened, and fired for standing up for fellow employees. The documentary reveals how the USPS has been systematically dismantled and privatized by the trillion-dollar mail industry and its politicians who seek to raise prices and lower wages. A moving indictment of the toxic culture and push to downsize, the eye-opening documentary allows viewers to hear from experts and advocates including Ralph Nader and Richard Wolff, and directly from the selfless and courageous people hidden behind the scenes, long suffering and ignored. (96 min, 2019, Director: Jay Galione)

thegreatpostalheist.com

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SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED: LABOR STRUGGLE IN THE POST OFFICE - On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers across the country walked off their jobs when their contract expired, saying “No” to mandatory overtime, forced speedups and hazardous working conditions. As a result of this wildcat strike, 600,000 postal workers won a better contract. But 200 workers were arbitrarily fired by management to teach all postal workers a lesson.

Signed, Sealed and Delivered is the story of the struggle these postal workers waged to win back their jobs. It follows their fight into the streets, onto the floor of the American Postal Workers Union’s National Convention and among workers and communities nationwide. But it took the tragic death of Michael McDermott, a 25 year old mail handler who was sucked into a conveyor belt and crushed to death, to bring their hazardous working conditions to national attention. (38 min, 1980, Directors: Tami Gold, Dan Gordon, Erik Lewis)

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A GRAIN OF WHEAT IN FLAMES - Chun Tae-il, a tailor of the Pyeonghwa Market, self-immolated in protest to improve Inhumane working conditions of laborers 50 years ago in South Korea. This is the story of a Christian youth who became a grain of wheat by igniting a spark to Korea’s labor rights movement. The documentary also observes the reality of labor in Korea, which has yet to change. (55 min, South Korea, 2020, Director: Lee Hyoung-Joon)

BORAMEY: GHOSTS IN THE FACTORY - Sreyra, Ponler, and Sreyven are three young garment workers in Cambodia. Day after day, they produce clothes for the most important global brands, until something exceptional disrupts their routine: suddenly they pass out in the workplace, an event that is followed by their colleagues fainting en masse. Episodes of mass fainting like these are not uncommon in Cambodia, where labour conditions remain harsh. According to trade unionists and government officials, this is caused by long work hours, high temperatures, and malnutrition. However, workers tell a different story: what happened to them is caused by spirits (boramey), angered by the lack of respect shown by the factory owners. Starting from this enigmatic background, Boramey: Ghosts In the Factory offers insight into the lives of Cambodian garment workers at the intersection of work, religion, family, and spirituality. (60 min, Cambodia, 2021, Directors: Tommaso Facchin, Ivan Franceschini)

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LAST CALL: THE SHUTDOWN OF NYC BARS - The hospitality industry is the artistic heartbeat of New York. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in Queens. Thousands of artists, musicians and actors flock to the city’s most diverse borough to work in the service industry to supplement their dreams. In March of 2020, these dreamers put their lives on hold, self-isolating and sacrificing their income as Queens became the global epicenter of COVID-19.

As the weeks go by, we follow two local bars fighting off the virus, financial ruin, and the deaths of loved ones, while the frontline workers battle to slow down the death toll engulfing the borough. Under strict and safe filming guidelines, we witnessed how both industries needed each other in order to bend the curve. It’s a tale of two sacrifices that saved not only the lives of thousands but the future of New York. (59 min, 2020, Director: Johnny Sweet) + Director Q&A

Shorts to precede:

FOR ARMETTA - To commemorate the one-year COVID-19 lockdown anniversary, we look at the profound sacrifices that essential workers have made since March 2020. For Armetta is a story of loss and reflection that acknowledges we all have an essential story to tell. (5 min, 2021, Director: Kevin Wilson, Jr., Executive Producer: Angela Bassett)

The Essential Campaign is a national storytelling-in-action effort that spotlights the essential workers who keep our communities and families running. Share your essential story to help inspire a future short film: theessentialcampaign.org

SACRIFICIAL LAMBS tells the story of the pandemic on Rikers Island through recorded phone interviews with two Rikers correctional officers and a former Rikers inmate. In this hybrid animated film we hear their fears, sorrows, and frustrations. (4 min, 2021, Director: Stephanie Tangkilisan)

HEALTHCARE WORKER DAY OF ACTION - A nurses day of action at Kingsbrook Hospital in Brooklyn, where they lost five co-workers to COVID-19. (3 min, 2020, Directors: Eloise Sherrid, Yoni Golijov)

#TIMETOCARE - The pandemic heightened awareness that we all need time to care — and that most of us can’t afford it. Ky Dickens, the award-winning director of Zero Weeks, discovered an interest in an unexpected place: TikTok. The more she looked, the more she found people with zero tolerance for zero weeks of paid leave and an appetite for activism. (20 min, 2021, Director: Ky Dickens)

https://familyvaluesatwork.org/timetocarefilm/

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A collection of shorts from our 2020 and 2021 seasons:

THE LAST CUT - The oldest barbershop in Manhattan’s Chinatown is coming to its close. The barbers, all immigrants, have to face their retirement and adapt to this new stage of life. (13 min, 2021, Director: Ben Wang)

NIGHT CLEANERS - After sunset, familiar New York spaces turn into something else entirely; shadowy worlds where only the thoughts of the night cleaners can be heard. Night Cleaners is a documentary about the people who clean up after us while we sleep. It explores the relationship between spaces and the cleaners who go through them at night while shining a light on people who are rarely noticed. The stories of the cleaners have similarities - most are immigrants and all have a special connection to the space they clean. Night Cleaners peaks behind the scenes lets us witness the extraordinary in the ordinary. (24 min, 2019, Director: Hanna Nordenswan)

THREE THREADS - The Rann is a salt desert that stretches for miles across west Gujarat, India. It is here that Pachan Siju, a traditional handloom artisan, lives and is determined to add his own color to the white landscape through his clothing brand, Three Threads. Being a Dalit and deemed untouchable by the higher caste communities, he cannot a­fford local exhibitions, and dreams of finding funding opportunity in the U.S. This film weaves a story of the hopes and aspirations of an extraordinary artist. (24 min, India, 2021, Director: Rohan Rao)

WOODCARVER: DEBORAH MILLS - Deborah’s craft is slowly disappearing – like many other hand-made traditions. But, in taking the slow path, and making beautiful, artistic and practical things for daily life, she’s trying to bring it back. (7 min, 2020, Director: Shuming Zhang)

A LITTLE MESS - Artist Lydia Ricci utilizes scraps from her childhood home to create miniature sculptures of nostalgic objects. (6 min, 2019, Director: Jamie Deradorian Delia)

IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND - Profiles the framemakers of Quebracho in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who work with the best museums worldwide to marry a painting and its frame. (7 min, 2020, Director: Veronique Engel)

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2021 NEW VIRTUAL EQUITY AWARDS - NEW's Equity Leadership Awards Luncheon celebrates the women building New York City. For more than 40 years, NEW has trained and placed women in the skilled construction trades and related fields, helping them secure sustainable wages for themselves and their families. The women who enter the doors of NEW are changed; they walk out confident and ready to begin their journey in a new career. The NEW Equity Leadership Awards Luncheon recognizes the hard work and dedication of NEW students and graduates as well as those who support them. (52 min, 2021, Produced by Nontraditional Employment for Women)

APPRENTICE ELECTRICIANS CITIZEN FILMS SHOWCASE (IBEW LOCAL 3) - For the 5th year, apprentice electricians from SUNY Empire State’s Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies are empowered to share a snapshot of their working lives by creating their own short 5-6 min films. Using only a smartphone, they are taught how to shoot and edit video in order to depict a personal truth that might otherwise be framed incorrectly in the mainstream media, where stories about workers and their unions are often distorted and not truthful. Our goal is to create 100,000 Citizen Journalists from the labor union side to help balance the stories about workers and their unions. (2020-2021, approx. 1 hr)

Featuring short films from:

Joanna Kokosis, Nikita Stewart, Tyler Novielli, Adonis George, Joyce P. Smith, Donna Stewart, Shakeema Scott, Abel Alvarez, and Bradley Narain.

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HANDMADE IN BANGLADESH - In short episodes, Handmade in Bangladesh tells the stories of average working people who live in a rich cultural heritage of artisan handicraft and creativity. They invent many ways of recycling in order to make a living out of basically nothing. From the perspective of the affluent West, it's a case of “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” This documentary offers an alternative point of view to the often one-sided, negative media image of this young, independent country.

Besides being one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh faces major challenges: environmental vulnerability as a result of global warming, child labor violations, and dangerous conditions for workers. But listing problems alone does not paint the entire picture. There are many creative, open-minded, optimistic, and proud people who are building their country literally with their own hands. Their struggle for survival is directly related to global capitalism and our standard of living in the West. (76 min, Bangladesh, 2020, Directors: Florian Wehking, Liz Bachhuber)

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ARCHEOLOGY OF THE WORKERS' DIGNITY - In neo-liberal times, trade unions and labor rights are increasingly a topic for archaeologists. The film portrays an old trade unionist in Guatemala, delving into shameful working conditions and the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. (30 min, Guatemala, 2020, Director: Uli Stelzner)

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BONE CAGE - Jamie works a wood processor, clear-cutting for pulp in small-town Nova Scotia. At the end of each shift, he walks through the destruction he has created looking for injured animals and rescues those he can. Adapted from a play by Nova Scotian author Catherine Banks, Bone Cage is an impressive first feature from Halifax actor/filmmaker Taylor Olson that sensitively excavates the tragedy of how young people in rural communities, employed in the destruction of their environment, treat the people they love at the end of their shift. (90 min, Canada, 2020, Director: Taylor Olson)

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STORMCHASER - All Bonnie Blue ever wanted was to chase tornadoes with her Dad. But dreams die with time. Now, she’s become a different kind of storm chaser — hawking storm-doors “door-to-door” for her charismatic boss, Flip Smyth: a cult-like father figure to Bonnie and his tribe of young sales bucks. In the guise of “tough love,” Flip relishes publicly shaming Bonnie and his token minority assistant, Don Stuckey, her sole ally.

After hours, Bonnie and Don find comfort in each other’s arms, inspiring Bonnie to rekindle her childhood dream and close her first deal. But when Flip pulls a bait-and-switch to avoid paying her commission, she finally challenges him, sending him into a rage as fierce as the funnel cloud that hovers on the horizon. As she realizes Flip’s doctrine of “Flip the Switch!” is just a way to exploit customers, a different kind of switch flips inside Bonnie — unleashing an inner and outer storm of violence. (27 min, 2019, Director: Gretl Claggett)

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TOWN OF WIDOWS - In a factory town both sustained and poisoned by big industry, a growing group of widows, workers and family members fight for justice in a system stacked against injured workers. Nicknamed “The Electric City”, Peterborough, Ontario, was home to a General Electric plant for over a century. Over time, employees of the plant and their families noticed more and more GE workers dying from cancer. Now, they're fighting for compensation and finding a "conspiracy of silence". (86 min, Canada, 2019, Directors: Natasha Luckhardt, Rob Viscardis)

THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1983, OR HOW A SMALL TOWN LOST ITS EDGE - A small mining town in Arizona was struck by two catastrophes in 1983: one of the largest floods in history and a strike to end all strikes. In this short stop-motion animation, family members who have mined the Arizona rock for over a century share their story. (6 min, 2020, Director: Bridget and Riana Johnson)

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TIED - This documentary captures the struggle of 320 unpaid seamen of the Lesvos Shipping Company - one of Greece's most historic maritime companies - in 2015. With many trapped in the company's vessels in Drapetsona, a part of the Piraeus port, and away from the spotlight, the camera captures their efforts to receive their wages for 7 months, following them from the docks to the Prime Minister's office during the most critical times in Greece's modern history. (53 min, Greece, 2019, Director: Tassos Morfis)

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FEET OF EARTH - Shoemakers in Turkey, including Syrian immigrants, speak out about low wages, child labor, health/safety issues, and the ongoing power struggle with their bosses. A strike is organized in the end. (22 min, Turkey, 2020, Director: Ümit Güç)

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BUCKY AND THE DESIGN SCIENCE REVOLUTION - This documentary presents the full scope of the inventions of design genius Buckminster Fuller. This is the second in a trilogy of films featuring Jeff Bridges, Jay Leno, Marianne Williamson, and many others. (106 min, 2021, Director: Noel B. Murphy)

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DRILLS OF LIBERATION - After experiencing a ten-year economic crisis, and facing the perils of climate change, the Puerto Rican youth does not trust the State anymore. They take to the streets to demand accountability from the government, and organize autonomous community centers to ensure their survival as People of Puerto Rico. In this epic documentary, young Puerto Ricans craft their path to liberation, as we see the faces of survival and resistance. This film has an unique point of view from inside Puerto Rican social movements. The director captures a series of major historical events as they unfolded right at the frontlines, including the protests against a U.S.-appointed Control Board, the aftermath of hurricane María, and the notorious Summer of 2019. (120 min, Puerto Rico, 2021, Director: Juan C. Dávila Santiago) + Director Q&A

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MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE: THE STORY OF PUERTO RICAN STUDIES AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE - The story of the student led struggle to win Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, in the late 1960's. This documentary is a mosaic of voices, film footage, and photographs taken by student activists, featuring the music of Grammy award-winning musicians Arturo O’Farrill and Oscar Hernández. This important story highlights the powerful alliance that Puerto Rican, African American, and other progressive students and faculty forged that changed the face of higher education with the founding of one of the first Puerto Rican Studies departments in the nation. (33 min, 2021, Directors: Tami Gold, Pam Sporn) + Director Q&A

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HAYMARKET: THE BOMB, THE ANARCHISTS, THE LABOR STRUGGLE - The Chicago Haymarket Affair, 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, is examined in this feature documentary film. 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. (83 min, 2021, Director: Adrian Prawica)

filmadria.com/haymarket

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COMMITTING TO MAKE IT COME TRUE - THE CISL, THE LABOUR UNION - The temptations to stay separated, to reason with the "I" and not with the "we", are just around the corner today, even in the world of work. This is the beginning of a journey into the social commitment in the Labour Union of young and old which tells us that it’s time to commit, all together, to build a better world: a moral obligation to "committing to make it come true". (7 min, Italy, 2020, Director: Giovanni Panozzo)

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From Executive Producer Dolores Huerta:

BACKSTREET TO THE AMERICAN DREAM is a modern-day look at the classic American Dream, and it’s done through the quintessential 21st Century entrepreneurial endeavor - food trucks! This deep dive into the birthplace of the global phenomenon, Los Angeles, profiles two trucks and juxtaposes the experiences of American entrepreneurs and Mexican immigrants. Indeed, these are very different operations in the same city: the gourmet burger truck, Grill 'Em All, is the first season winner of The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network in 2010, and El Pescadito, a mariscos lonchera (seafood truck), that has been parking at the same swap meet in an immigrant neighborhood since 1982.

This bilingual documentary takes the audience on a journey, and it depicts the perseverance, resilience, and tenacity of immigrants and first-generation Latino/Latina/Latinx individuals fighting for their place of inclusion. Through rich and vibrant stories of everyday Americans, the 90-minute feature explores the connection between food, culture and community and discovers that the meaning of the American Dream is in the eye of the beholder.

The documentary is preceded by a personal greeting by 2012 Medal of Freedom recipient and Executive Producer Dolores Huerta. It also includes a four-minute animated open done in English, Spanish, and the indigenous Náhuatl language that traces street food from Los Angeles back to Ancient México and reveals many Náhuatl names still used for food to this very day. (1 hr 41 min, 2020, Director: Patricia Nazario) + Director Q&A

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VEINS OF RESISTANCE - Weaving together frontline narratives from people facing the intergenerational traumas of a CIA-backed coup, Indigenous genocides, and forced migrations, the film raises pressing questions. What happens when students in over 200 high schools vote to occupy their own schools and use them as protest camps for the semester to demand free quality education? How does it feel to take back your families' Indigenous territory from a multinational company? What does it mean to be a working mother while serving as the volunteer treasurer for a committee made up of 104 families in an urban land occupation, seeking to help each other save the money to move from their hand-built shantytowns into public housing together?

On October 25th, 2020, Chile voted in favor of rewriting the nation's Pinochet dictatorship era constitution. Veins of Resistance premiered just prior to this and takes us to the streets as social movements unite in the years leading up to this pivotal moment for Chilean and Mapuche self-determination. (110 min, Chile, 2020, Director: Joshua Tucker)

https://veinsofresistance.net/

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THE WORLD'S WORST OIL RELATED DISASTER YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF - Deep in the Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador lies the "Amazon Chernobyl", a 1,700-square-mile environmental disaster brought on by oil extraction and production. After a visit to Ecuador in 1993, human rights lawyer Steven Donziger and other attorneys brought a class-action lawsuit against Texaco (later Chevron) on behalf of over 30,000 farmers and Indigenous people from this Amazon region who were affected by this disaster. Through his personal testimony and supporting footage, Steven recounts his experience advocating on behalf of the environment and affected communities and the personal toll this work has had on his life. https://climateuprise.vice.com (12 min, Director: Gabriela Dematteis, Produced by VICE Media Group, 2020)

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From Executive Producer Rosario Dawson:

THIS IS NOT A WAR STORY tracks a ragtag group of combat veterans in New York whose anti-war art, poetry and papermaking keep them together, despite the spectre of their friend’s suicide and the ever-crystalizing fact that healing from war is sometimes an impossible mission.

This hybrid narrative film features a supporting cast of Iraq and Vietnam veterans, as well as their original artwork, poetry, and music - and was produced over three years as an ongoing collaboration with a thriving community of veteran artists and papermakers. (111 min, 2021, Director: Talia Lugacy) + Director Q&A

http://www.acousticpictures.org/

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ART IN RESISTANCE ('Dissidents' Chapter Four) - Different expressions, various techniques, and thousands of formats are born and mask the streets of Santiago. Art is reborn in the streets as a political-corporal necessity for resistance, transforming public spaces and bodies into spaces of struggle. (6 min, Chile, 2020, Produced by Milla Films & VlopCinema Collective)

Dissidents is a web series made up of four 5 minute chapters that immerse you in the first-person lived experiences of the Social Revolts in Chile that began on October 18, 2019. Our short films open a space to learn from participants in diverse processes of resistance. You can feel for our struggles, from the heroism and organization of the frontline combatants and the feminist movements that emerged with greater force through performances of “Las Tesis,” through understanding the atrocities of the police branch of the military, to how art is the great tool of resistance in our society.

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I, CANDY - Filmmaker Candy Kugel deconstructs a drawing she did when she was 6 years old to explore her life -- touching on family history, current events and societal norms of the time. (22 min, 2018, Director: Candy Kugel)

ANYWAY, JEFF BEZOS CAN KISS OUR ASS - Amid NYC's fight against Amazon, Aurelia must decide what it means to be "crazy" in a crazy world for the sake of her neighborhood and her small family. (18 min, 2019, Director: Olivia Ramos)

FRANKNESS is a family portrait, a meditation, a love letter, and a eulogy to the strong, funny, loud Jewish matriarchs of the Frank family. The topics of unionization, love and death are all woven together with archival footage that spans generations to bring these women to life and bind them together in the fabric of inheritance, belonging, and time. (21 min, 2019, Director: Aviva Skye Tilson)

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AFGHAN WOMEN: A HISTORY OF STRUGGLE - The tumultuous history of Afghanistan from the perspective of the country's female population, this film chronicles the stories of women who have risked their lives to achieve political, economic, and social equality, from the early 1970s to the present day.

Rare archival footage illustrates the amazing stories of women who participated in the revolutionary movement of the 1970's and the years of political turmoil that followed: from proxy war, to civil war, to the ensuing oppressive rule of the Taliban and the current sway of regional warlords and general instability.

These women shed light on the cold war battle between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R that was played out on Afghan soil, and the CIA's role in the creation of terrorist groups on the Pakistan-Afghan border that plague the world today.

The film goes inside a women's prison. It records the drafting of an Afghan Women's Bill of Rights by women from across Afghanistan at a conference in Kandahar. In scenes like these women debunk the commonly held myth that the U.S. intervention and the fall of the Taliban government brought Afghan women freedom. (69 min, 2007, Director: Kathleen Foster)

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WITHOUT WOMEN THERE IS NO REVOLUTION ('Dissidents' Chapter Two) - ‘Las Tesis’ arrived with performances that catalyzed Chilean social movements at a critical moment. Thousands of women take to the streets to dance and protest against femicides, as well as sexual, political, and social violence.

'Dissidents' is a web series made up of four 5 min chapters that immerse you in the first-person lived experiences of the Social Revolts in Chile that began on October 18, 2019. Our short films open a space to learn from participants in diverse processes of resistance. You can feel for our struggles, from the heroism and organization of the frontline combatants, and the feminist movements that emerged with greater force through performances of “Las Tesis,” through understanding the atrocities of the police branch of the military, to how art is the great tool of resistance in our society. (4 min, Chile, 2020)

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9TO5: THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT - 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. (86 min, 2019, Directors: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar) + Special Guests

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THE LIFE OF A UNION ORGANIZER - A short film by Gabrielle Rogano, an Organizer with the International Association of Machinists (IAM) Union, and a student at SUNY Empire State College’s Van Arsdale Labor Studies Program. While portraying a day in the life of an organizer, Gabby explains how the IAM’s Organizing Department is helping the Baltimore County Public Library workers amplify their voice by unionizing. (8 min, 2021, Director: Gabrielle Rogano)

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WOMEN OF STEEL - Wollongong, New South Wales, 1980: Denied jobs at the steelworks, the city's main employer, working class/migrant women refused discrimination. Their 14-year campaign for the right to work pitted them against BHP, the richest and most powerful company in Australia. In Women of Steel, they tell their personal stories – from the unemployment line to the factory gate to the High Court. It's an exciting and often humorous story of the ups and downs of a group of seemingly ordinary women, determined to overcome a giant. This is an extraordinary but little known episode in women’s history! (56 min, Australia, 2020, Director: Robynne Murphy)

https://www.womenofsteelfilm.com/

Shorts to precede:

PRECARITY U - This short documentary introduces one of the world’s top Universities’ dirty little secret. Employees at the University of Toronto speak out about work and shine a light on things that need to change. Produced to support the United Steelworkers Local 1998 Casual Unit bargaining campaign. (13 min, Canada, 2020, Director: Laura Dasilva)

HOW TO FORM A UNION - Willy Street Grocery Co-op workers began organizing in 2019 after management implemented a new attendance policy that was harsher than that of Whole Foods (a corporate competitor in the natural-foods market). In addition, despite a 2017 promise that the Co-op would move towards paying a “livable wage” within two to three years, in 2019 the starting wage rate was cut from $12.40 to $12.10 per hour. (22 min, 2021, Director: Gretta Wing Miller)

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