A Day’s Work (60 Minutes)
Directed by: David M. Garcia
Documentary Feature (2015)

90 minutes before he was killed on his first day of work as a temporary employee, 21-year-old Day Davis texted a picture of himself to his girlfriend, excited for their future.  Now Day's sister, 17-year-old Antonia, searches for answers. An investigation reveals the issues that led to Day's death and how the $100 billion temporary staffing industry is putting millions of American workers at risk.

Blood Fruit (80 Minutes)
Directed by: Sinead O’Brien
Documentary Feature (2014)

In July 1984 the naive action taken by one young Irish shop cashier was about to change the face of the anti-apartheid movement around the world. This film shows the power of steadfast action by a small group against opposition from the Church and the whole national establishment of a country. Twelve grocery clerks in Dublin refused to handle fruit imported from apartheid South Africa and started a movement that played a part in the eventual collapse of the apartheid South African government.

Blood on the Mountain (86 min)
Directed by:Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman
Documentary Feature 2015

Blood on the Mountain is a searing investigation into the economic and environmental injustices that have resulted from industrial control in West Virginia. This new feature documentary details the struggles of a hard-working, misunderstood people, who have historically faced limited choices and have never benefited fairly from the rich, natural resources of their land. Blood on the Mountain delivers a striking portrait of a fractured population, exploited and besieged by corporate interests and abandoned by the powers elected to represent them.

Can’t Wear a Wig Forever (6 Minutes)
Directed by: Victorious Decosta
Documentary Short (2015)

Out of work, out of benefits and almost out of hope, a young woman recounts her journey, which begins with the promises of education and ends with the changing of her self in a personal way. Can't Wear A Wig Forever is beyond all, an acknowledgement of the long lasting effects of 'The Great Recession" even at a time when Americans are told everything is back to normal.

Car Wash Workers Fight to Clean Up a Dirty Business ( 7 minutes  )
Directed by: Charles Fostrom and Janna Pea of the RWDSU and Chio Valerio of New York Communities for Change
Documentary Short (2014)

Carwasheros - the organizing drive to bring these mostly immigrant workers into the mainstream with fair wages and benefits.

Cast in India (26 Minutes)
Directed by: Natasha Raheja
Documentary Short (2014)

Iconic and ubiquitous, thousands of manhole covers dot the streets of New York City. Enlivening the everyday objects around us, this short film is a glimpse of the working lives of the men behind the manhole covers in New York City.

Champ Of The Camp (75 Minutes)
Directed by: Mahmoud Kaabour
Documentary Feature (2013)

The film follows a massive Bollywood singing and trivia competition that searches across more than 70 camps throughout the country to find and crown the champ of all camps. The film alternates between the x-factor style suspense of the competition and the gritty reality of the labor environment, while weaving in intimate access scenes of their daily routines and emotional reflections on their life as laborers in Dubai.

Claiming our Voice (20 Minutes)
Directed by: Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel
Documentary Short (2013)            

Claiming Our Voice is a short documentary film by Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel sharing the stories of Andolan, an organization founded and led by South Asian immigrant women low-wage workers as a means to support each other and collectively organize against exploitative work conditions. The film follows the women as they create, rehearse and refine acts for their first popular multi-lingual theater performance, directed by YaliniDream. Claiming Our Voice seeks to break community silence by allowing women to (literally) set the stage for how their stories will be told.

Connected By Coffee (70 Minutes)
Directed by: Aaron Dennis
Documentary Feature (2014)

The story of Latin American coffee farmers and how our daily brew is deeply connected to a troubled past and hopeful future. Following a 1000-mile journey from Mexico to Nicaragua, the film will show how equitable trading relationships are empowering communities and bringing social justice.

Daughter of a Lesser God (11 Minutes)
Directed by: Ammar Aziz
Documentary Short (2012)

A Film about the life and struggle of home-based women bangle-makers of Hyderabad, Pakistan. The film reflects the exploitation which takes place at multiple levels during the complicated process of bangle-making. It is an account of those women, belonging to all age groups, who make bangles for millions of other women of South Asia but can't afford to wear what they make.

Eugene V. Debs: His Life and Legacy (60 Minutes)
Directed by:
Documentary Feature (  )

Every Fold Matters (55 minutes)
Directed by: Lynne Sachs and Lizzie Olesker
Mixed Media Performance (2015)

A performance and film about working in a laundromat, - a mix of film, poetry and live performance. A woman folds clothes by rote, eyes fixed to a soap opera muted on the laundromat TV. As she weeps over a tragic plot twist, her hands never stop folding, pounding the table in an unceasing metronome of productivity. This moment, lifted from life and transcribed to performance by playwright/director Lizzie Olesker and experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs, becomes one of many striking, reality-based images in Every Fold Matters, a new site specific performance with film that premiered in a Clinton Hill, Brooklyn laundromat this month.

Fight For $15 (3 minutes)
Directed by: Fight For $15 
Documentary Short (2015)

The organizers and participants in the surging national movement to get minimum wage raised to $15 hour for all low-wage workers talk about their fight, organizing and the massive demonstrations planned for 4/15/15 and the year ahead.

Frontline FIlms From the TWU (24 min)
Directed by:  Mary Matthews
Documentary Shorts (2015)

Mary Matthews travels the country for the national Transport Workers Union to film both ongoing struggles, organizing drives, get out the vote campaigns, as well as solidarity events and leadership training conferences. These five short films are a great example of how well video can be used to educate the public about what unions do, why they are important  and remind members that belonging to and keeping their union strong is a major priority to keeping good jobs with fair pay.

Fire Lines (45 minutes)
Directed by: Avi Goldstein
Documentary Feature (2013)

The story of the Palestinian and Israeli firefighters who came together to battle Israel's worst natural disaster - the Carmel fire of 2010. Sometimes, without the politics, workers can bridge across a great divide. This is a fascinating story of what might be possible.

Food Chains (82 minutes)
Directed by: Sanjay Rawal
Documentary Feature  (2014)

There is so much interest in food these days yet there is almost no interest in the hands that pick that food. In the US, 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. While the legal restrictions which kept people bound to farms, like slavery, have been abolished, exploitation still exists, ranging from wage theft to modern-day slavery. These days, this exploitation is perpetuated by the corporations at the top of the food chain: supermarkets. Their buying power has kept wages pitifully low and has created a scenario where desperately poor people are willing to put up with anything to keep their jobs.

Get By (28 minutes)
Directed by: Emily Hong
Documentary Short (2015)

A look at two recycling workers, Stanley and Milton, as they bring their struggle for a living wage to the legislature, media, and the streets of Ithaca, New York. An exploration of worker-community solidarity and urban democracy, the film raises key questions about the value of increasingly privatized work, and the challenges of organizing across divides of race and class

Girls In The Band (88 minutes)
Directed by: Judy Chaikin
Documentary Feature (2013)

Tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them.

Grace (8 Minutes)
Directed by: Alrick Brown, from a story by Julian Pimiento
Narrative Short (2013)

Grace is about the daily obstacles and dangers of living in America as an undocumented worker. Grace is a woman, a mother and an immigrant with everything to lose except her faith in someone from her past. She gives a face to the faceless, those who work tirelessly behind the scenes of our families and our nation.  

Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast  (3 minutes)
Directed by:
Documentary Short (  )

Food Chain Alliance short. Reminds us of the thousands of workers involved in getting food to our tables each day.

Haiti, The Informal Economy (17 minutes)
Directed by: Andre Vanasse
Documentary Short (2013)  

The informal sector represents 80% of Haiti's economy. This film shows how the Haitian labor movement is trying to contribute to the formalization of the economy. In a more formalized economy, the State would be able to collect taxes and offer the population services in health and education which would help the country develop.

Hands That Feed, Part Three - Discrimination at Work. (8 Minutes)
Directed by: Food Chain Alliance
Documentary Short (2013)

Through excellent documentation and first hand accounts, we see how workers of color are routinely discriminated against on the job, with lower wages and worse job site conditions.

Judith: Portrait of a Street Vendor (17 minutes)
Directed by: Zahida Pirani
Documentary Short (2013)

This film takes us on an intimate journey into the daily life of Judith, a street vendor from Guatemala who lives and works in New York City. Judith exposes the routine obstacles she and her fellow immigrant vendors face daily on the city's streets and reveals her own struggles and hopes as an immigrant worker, mother, activist and community organizer.

Mass E Bhat (82 minutes)
Directed by: Hannan Majid and Richard York
Documentary Feature (2013)

This film tells the story of one young man’s struggle to grow up and achieve his goals in modern Bangladesh. As we follow the 20 year old Nasir, now a social worker in the slums, he reflects on his life, from childhood in a rural village and his families migration to the city, through his early years working in the rubbish dumps and sweatshops and finally how he has achieved his dream of an education and respect within his community. As Nasir recounts his life, we meet a series of children, parents and employers, who mirror his past but are all real in the country's present. Mass E Bhat's original score has been composed by John Pandit, Louis Beckett and Rowan Perkins.

Mill Stories:  Remembering Sparrows Point (35 minutes)
Directed by: William Shewbridge
Documentary Short (2014)  

After 125 years of operation, the Sparrows Point Steel Mill in Baltimore, Maryland closed forever in 2012. The documentary aims to examine the importance of the mill from the perspectives of former workers and community members while connecting these distinctive experiences to the larger narrative of American industrial boom and bust.

Overpass Light Brigade  (7 minutes)
Directed by: Dusan
Documentary Short (2013 )   

Lighted letters signs create "the people's bandwidth" in Madison, WI union fight and now all over the country. Alone, the letters are meaningless, united, their message is often profound.

Poverty Inc. (87 minutes)
Directed by: Michael Matheson Miller
Documentary Feature (2014)

Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we are all too tempted to ignore. The film invites the viewer to step into the shoes of local entrepreneurs and their colleagues, parents and their families, with expert commentary from public leaders, development economists, anthropologists, and others.From Tom’s Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?

Power State (15 minutes)
Directed by: Joshua Goene
Narrative short (2015)  

A bribe tests the will of a union leader as he battles corrupt police and an oppressive government in his fight for justice on the picket lines. An Electrical Trade Union leader, determined to fight against the changes that will see his workers stripped of their labor rights gets targeted by the authorities.

Pride (118 minutes)
Directed by: Matthew Warchus
Narrative Feature (2014)

It’s the summer of 1984. Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person. As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all.

Remembering Salt (15 minutes)
Directed by: Ron Verzuh
Documentary Short (2015)

The story of a small town in Canada that defied McCarthyism with a showing of the blacklisted movie Salt of the Earth.

Resistencia (92 minutes)
Directed by: Jesse Freeston
Documentary Feature (2014)

In 2009, the first coup d'etat in a generation in Central America overthrows the elected president of Honduras. A nation-wide movement, known simply as The Resistance, rises in opposition. Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley centers on the most daring wing of the movement, the farmers of the Aguan, who occupy the palm oil plantation of Honduras.

Rise of the Oppressed (17 minutes)
Directed by: Ammar Aziz
Documentary Short (2014)

A powerful short film from an amazing young Pakistani director, about young women workers and textile workers organizing to fight back against brutal working conditions and slave labor wages in the textile and fashion accessory industry in Lahore and Hyderbad.

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (92 minutes)
Directed by: Mary Dore
Documentary Feature (2014)

No victories are permanent. You are not allowed to retire from the fight for liberation. This stunning film resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971 as an enticing blend of historical clips and interviews.

Soil, Struggle and Justice (72 minutes)
Directed by: Andreas Hernandez
Documentary Feature  (2014)

This film examines a cooperative of the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) in the South of Brazil, which struggled for access to land and then transitioned to ecological agriculture, or agro-ecology. This MST cooperative is demonstrating the possibility of an alternative model of flourishing rural life, which provides thriving livelihoods for farmers, produces high quality and low cost food for the region, and rehabilitates the earth.

Something You Can Call Home (76 minutes)
Directed by: Rebecca Kenyon
Documentary Feature (2014)  

For some, the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a tourist playground. However the face of homelessness is changing rapidly.  Can anyone find a solution and is it sustainable? Some make the transition; others fall deeper through the cracks. With intimacy and dark humor, this film explores what's essential for physical and emotional survival.

Somos Amigos (13 minutes) Directed by:
Carlos Solano Perez
Narrative Short (2014)  

What would you do if you had to fire your best friend? It is at this point where Julio finds himself. Somos Amigos (We Are Friends) is a short film that seeks to explore the limits between friendship and work... if they exist at all.

Sovereign Paperwork (3 minutes)
Directed by: 
Documentary Short (  )

Story of America: From Bloody Sunday to Moral Mondays (20 minutes)
Directed by: Annabel Park
Documentary Short (2015)

An excerpt from a work in progress that tries to show how that when opposite sides on America really talk to each other, rather than yell and shout, something amazing is actually possible.  Follows several threads in the current day South, where the new Jim Crow laws are met by Reverend Barber and the Moral Monday movement.

Sunset Cruise (28 minutes)
Directed by: Anastasia and Ali Mann
Documentary Short (2015)

When 97-year old Brooklynite Marty and Dee, his 40ish Jamaican home health aide, leave their Florida lives for the open waters of the Caribbean, their connected, conflicting struggles for sex, money, love and dignity come along for the ride.

A Time to Care (13 minutes)
Directed by: Kelly O’Sullivan for OPSEU CAN
Documentary Short (2015 )

This film features the daughter of a Long-Term Care (LTC) resident and heartfelt accounts from PSWs and RPNs about the challenges they face providing quality care to residents.

We Are Wisconsin (77 minutes)
Directed by: Amie Williams
Documentary Feature (2012)

When a sleazy Republican Governor's bill threatens to wipe away worker rights and lock out public debate, six (extra)ordinary citizens force their way into the Wisconsin State Capitol, joining thousands of protesters who spend the next twenty-six days launching a popular uprising that not only challenges the bill, but the soul of a nation. This film underscores the current fight against "right to work" laws.

With Banners Held High (31 minutes)
Directed by: Judi Alston
Documentary Short (2015)

This film celebrates the resilience and humor of miners and women who went through the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike. The year long strike was one of the most defining industrial actions in recent history. Personal interviews with ordinary people from the Strike and the use of music, photographs, and archive material, make for an insightful, moving film that brings the experience of the Strike into perspective 30 years on.

Women of the Mine (Mujeres de la Mina) (60 minutes)
Directed by: Loreley Unamuno and Malena Bystrowicz
Documentary Feature (2015)

Portrait of three women who live and work in the mines of Cerro Rico, Potosi, Bolivia-an emblem of colonial plunder. Work in the mines belongs to men and women are the most precarious and cursed link of the system.Three women open their lives so we can discover their stories of struggle and resistance.

Workers Development Institute Films 2015
Directed by: Victoria Kerezi - 
Documentary Shorts (2015)

A Play About Labor and Hurricane Sandy - 5 min - Many first responders and other city employees lived right in one of the worst hit areas from the Hurricane Sandy Storm. This play is taken directly from the writings of those city workers at the heart of the storm and the clean-up afterwards.

Faith and Justice Walk Together - 12 min - As the Fight for $15 an hour heated up, the clergy at some of NYC's most famous progressive churches joined the demonstrations and helped lead the discussions - as well as offering moral support - to the courageous workers who have taken to the streets to drive home their message.
 

SCREENPLAYS 2015

Equity:  Written by Jeffrey Massie

In the wake of their sudden Broadway success, a husband and wife face hard choices in the 1919 actors strike.

Shangri-LA Written by Bryan Fierro

"Shangri-LA" is the untold, tragic true story of an original Los Angeles barrio at odds with its beloved Dodger Blue.

Ballad of the Lumberjack: Written by Thomas Pace

Two young men trying to escape the desperation of the Oklahoma dust bowl manage to find work as lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest.

Triangle Inferno: Written by Steve Maiselson

'Triangle Inferno' is an exploration by an award winning documentarian into the history of this important time in our nation's history.  In her research on the subject, she discovers the events leading up to and including the tragedy: the lives and loves of lost, the mistakes made, and more.

Shades of Postal Blue: Written by Sylvester Turner

This story revolves around Mr. Blue. 'Blue' is a machine clerk for the United States Postal Service, during the dawn of postal automation.

Indiscriminate Killers: Written by Gregory Fellows

Dreamwalkers: Written by Michelle Daniel

It's 2089 and unbeknownst to the critical public, the U.S. Department of Defense has unleashed a new brand of national security; a top-secret project dubbed ANGEL which merges human minds with advanced computing technology.

Lookin' Up: Written by Marvin Kaplan

A mild-mannered, law-abiding citizen decides to murder his parasitic family in order to become a media celebrity.  He hires and pays a hit man not once but twice.