1199 SEIU: Unions 101 (4m)
Produced by: SEIU Communications Department
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 9

An animated short about why joining a union is beneficial.

20 Dollar Gift Card (8m)
Directed by: Thalia Drori Ramirez
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 5 and 19

When a Nicaraguan maintenance technician gets a 20 dollar gift card as a Christmas bonus for his year of working in horrible conditions, he is compelled to tell the world what he does for a living. His story reveals the inequities in the treatment of workers in the United States and asks the question, 'What is the value of human labor, especially when that labor is performed by Latinos?'

A Thousand Pines (77m)
Directed by: Sebastian Diaz and Noam Osband
Documentary Feature (2023)
Program 16

In this tale of labor and family that shines a light on the precarity of temporary work visas, Raymundo Morales leads a crew of workers who have to make the challenging decision to leave their families in rural Mexico to plant commercial pine forests in the United States. The crew struggles to balance the job’s physical demands and its extreme isolation while remaining connected to their families back home. As the season progresses, they become a small family, cooking and caring for each other in order to endure the punishing work. Spending only three months at home during the off-season, Raymundo’s job is both the family’s salvation and its heartbreak.

Americonned (96m)
Directed by: Sean Claffey
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 21

The super rich determine virtually every aspect of the lives of the other 90% of Americans. This film examines the hidden struggles of American families, the calculated political maneuvers of the elite and the long overdue uprising of American workers. With affection for the middle-class and the outrageous attempt to color them as lazy, the film explores the question: How do we make sure workers are paid what they are worth, instead of believing they are only worth what they are paid?

Apple of My Eye, My Dearest (103m)
Directed by: Seenu Ramasamy Ramakrishnan
Narrative Feature (2019) India
Online Only, 11/3-11/10

Kamalakannan, an organic farmer, marries Bharathi, a bank manager. However, Kamalakannan's grandmother does not want Bharathi to work after marriage, which leads to a tussle between them.

BERLIN (40m)
Directed by: Muhammad Fawad
Documentary Short (2023) Pakistan
Online Only, 11/3-11/10

This doc short explores the harrowing journey of Asif, who was trafficked through Iran and Turkey in an illegal attempt to reach Europe and Berlin. We also learn more about attempts to reach Europe by disaffected Pakistani youth and the Afghani LGBTQ+ community who are fleeing the Taliban.

City of Steel (92m)
Directed by: Bruce Spiegel
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 11

City of Steel chronicles the rise and fall of the American steel industry in the greater Pittsburgh area. For over 100 years, communities around Pittsburgh were linked to the steel mills. It was a way of life that was passed on from generation to generation. Starting in the 1980's, the forces of globalization substantially wiped out this entire industry, throwing families and communities into a sudden decline. Bruce Spiegel returns to his hometown to tell this important story that is lost on most Americans. It is a personal story of the human spirit and the bond that people had with the steel mills. It is a way of life that will never return and it is a story that must be told before we lose an entire generation of people who once lived it.

Dark Denim (35m)
Directed by: Sulite Bao
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 18

Aldo El Creator, a Mexican immigrant and clothing designer in Los Angeles, faces numerous challenges, including racism and gatekeeping in the industry. Despite these obstacles, he works to get his next collection together and to uplift his family's financial situation.

Fault Lines from the Front Line (26m)
Directed by: Rob Viscardis
Documentary Short (2023) Canada
Program 16

Why do we work the way we do, and for what? The pandemic unearthed and exacerbated the endemic fault lines in our system. No paid sick days. Migrant worker deaths. Profit over the elderly in nursing homes. An unequal burden of disease on Black communities. A lack of power for workers to speak out. In this short doc, the audience is exposed to point of view stories from workers on the front lines in the hardest hit sectors.

Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones (55m)
Directed by: Ian Cheney
Documentary Feature (2023)
Program 12

We were never supposed to know her name. She was a poor Irish immigrant who survived famine and war, fire and plague. Unable to save her husband or their four small children, she dedicated her life to saving working families everywhere. The robber barons called her “the most dangerous woman in America,” but workers called her “Mother Jones”. She educated, agitated, and organized the dispossessed and showed America what it could be. Adapted from Obie Award-winning Actress Kaiulani Lee’s one-woman play “Can’t Scare Me,” Fight Like Hell was written and performed by Lee and drawn from the autobiography, letters, speeches, and interviews of Mother Jones.

Fighting Back (12m)
Directed by: Echo Xiaoying Su
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 18

Jessica Ng, a first-generation Hong Kong Chinese American, is an internationally recognized Muay Thai fighter and instructor. Her self-defense classes empower AAPI women at a time of an alarming rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City. She navigates her identity and newfound motherhood with her husband in New York City. The film explores themes of love, energy, growth, and personal identity.

Film Noir Cinema (13m)
Directed by: Kell Qinkai Yang
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 18

Malitek, a true cinephile, has owned Film Noir Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for more than 20 years. He is an eccentric scholar, a persistent dreamer, and a true film artist.

Fireburn: The Documentary (21m)
Directed by: Joel Fendelman
Documentary Short (2021) Virgin Islands
Program 12

A powerful short film about the human rights violations that occurred on the island of St. Croix during the post-emancipation event known as the Fireburn. Find out what sparked this fiery labor revolt and learn how it changed the lives of Virgin Islanders. On July 3, 1848 all enslaved in the Danish West Indies were emancipated and proclaimed free by the governor of the islands. However, 30 years later, the freed workers were still suffering under the oppressive rules of the landowners and government. Inhumane treatment and poor work conditions existed for the laborers who had difficulty earning a decent living. Four female laborers rose up as leaders ("Queens") and what ensued was a bloody labor revolt. This revolution became known as the Fireburn, as almost half of the islands’ plantations and sugar cane fields were burned in the process.

Forged In Steel (7m)
Directed by: Matthew Ryan Heffner
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 4

This short details the history and importance that Bethlehem Steel had in making America what it is today, straight from the mouths of men who worked there for decades. From building the country to saving it, Forged in Steel shares the story of what hard work can do for the community and beyond.

Honorable But Broken: EMS In Crisis (59m)
Directed by: Bryony Jane Gilbey
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 3

A documentary about the realities of working in EMS and the systemic shortcomings that are causing critical workforce shortages, especially in rural parts of the country. EMS are the first responders to care for patients but they are not funded appropriately and so retaining these valuable health workers is unsustainable. We need to designate EMS as an essential service in every state in America.

Made In Italy (By the Chinese) (30m)
Directed by: DJ Clark and Mingjie Wang
Documentary Short (2023) Italy/China
Program 17

The 'Made in Italy' fashion label guarantees that the product is not only designed but produced in Italy. This investigative documentary uncovers a fascinating story of how migrants from a few villages in rural China became instrumental to the Italian fashion industry.

Meeting Human Needs (19m)
Directed by: Liz Gibson-DeGroote and Paula Krasiun-Winsel
Documentary Short (2022) Canada
Program 3 and 13

Every day, people in Saskatchewan rely on public healthcare, libraries, schools, and Crown corporations to access the services they need to survive. Meeting Human Needs examines schemes used by conservative governments to privatize public services and the consequences suffered by communities.

Men In Blue (35m)
Directed by: Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda
Narrative Short (2022)
Program 17

Inspired by actual events, Men In Blue explores the effects of human trafficking and labor exploitation in the United States. Resistance brews among the Indian immigrants who were stripped of their dignity when a reputed shipyard in Texas conscripted them as guest workers to repair the oil rigs and ships damaged after Hurricane Katrina.

Moments with Mujica (47m)
Directed by: Ken McMullen
Documentary Short (2023) Uruguay
Program 15

A documentary interview with the former president of Uruguay, Jose 'Pepe' Mujica, in which he discusses art, literature, philosophy, and the global challenges that face humanity.

More Perfect Union: Shorts Series (52m)
Produced by More Perfect Union
Documentary Short/Films from the Frontlines (2023)
Program 1

Includes 7 Frontline films from the recent SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and UAW strikes:

Exclusive Interview: Shawn Fain's Vision for UAW
What GM Doesn’t Want You to Know
“No Deal, No Wheels”: Autoworkers Break Down Why They’re on Strike
"The Whole American Workforce Needs to Hear This Right Now"
What Jeep Doesn’t Want You to Know
Why Actors Are Striking For The First Time In 40 Years
How AI could KILL your favorite TV show

NYSNA Strike Victory 2023 (2m)
Directed by: Angad Singh Bhalla, Time of Day Media
Films from the Frontlines (2023)
Program 10

7,000 nurses, 2 hospitals, and 3 epic days on the picket line. Watch the story of why NYC nurses went on strike this January and and how they won.

Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square (83m)
Directed by: Ryan Joseph, Kathryn Barnier, and Kelly Anderson
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 8, 26

A trailblazing housing organizer and her diverse working class neighbors fight Robert Moses, the real estate industry and five mayors to create the first Community Land Trust in New York City - an oasis of permanent low-income housing in the heart of the rapidly gentrifying Lower East Side. Guided by the belief that urban renewal should benefit - not displace - residents, they formed the Cooper Square Committee (CSC) and launched a campaign to save the neighborhood.

Revolutionary Hearts (57m)
Directed by: Mary E Lutz, Peter Kinoy
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 7

Revolutionary Hearts is centered around the life of David Greene who was born and raised in East New York, Brooklyn, but organized co-workers in the coal mines and auto plants of West Virginia, in adult education schools in NYC and in the rust belt of Central Ohio. David, along with his wife Janet, set up formal and informal working-class schools wherever they lived and worked. When David’s occupationally-related cancer treatments threatened further community work, David turned to art. Painting his life story in over 60 pictures in less than 3 years, he and Janet reveal their astonishing 50-year career and the diverse lives they touched. David and Janet use the paintings to do what they have always done - teaching and learning with those around them to build a collective knowledge for liberation. Revolutionary Hearts may not have all the answers, but it warmly invites the viewer into the conversation.

Say Their Names (10m)
Directed by: David Reibman
Documentary Short (2022)
Program 2 and 14

The stories of 16 people killed by the police is told along with poetic context, using images from 27 Black Lives Matter Protests.

Silvio Rodriguez: My First Calling (25m)
Directed by: Catherine Murphy
Documentary Short (2020) Cuba
Program 7

The unknown story of trovador Silvio Rodriguez, talking in first person about his experience as a 14 year old teaching a rural family how to read and write during the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign.

Smile As You Kill (86m)
Directed by: Michael Sarrow
Narrative Feature (2023)
Program 13

With only a few months to live, a desperate man kidnaps a successful advertising director and makes one demand: Create an online campaign to pay for treatment ... or share his fate.

Something I Can Teach (4m)
Directed by: Natasha C. Smith
Narrative Short (2023)
Program 19

Based on true events, Something I Can Teach is set amidst a single day in the life of Merline, a hard-working professional striving to excel in her role as a production accountant. Her world is disrupted when she encounters Sara, a newly appointed accountant who joins the team with questionable motives. As the day unfolds, Sara's true intentions, colored by internalized racial bias, are unveiled through a derogatory comment, compelling Merline to confront the challenging environment and unmask the true nature of those around her, while discovering her own resilience and inner strength.

Stonebreakers (70m)
Directed by: Valerio Ciriaci
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 2

Stonebreakers chronicles the conflicts around monuments that arose in the United States during the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election. As statues of Columbus, Confederates, and Founding Fathers fall from their pedestals, the nation’s triumphalist myths are called into question. By exploring the shifting landscapes of American monumentality, the film interrogates the link between history and political action in a nation that must confront its past now more urgently than ever.

Storming Caesars Palace (85m)
Directed by: Hazel Gurland-Pooler
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 5

When Ruby Duncan loses her Las Vegas hotel job due to a workplace accident and accepts public assistance, she discovers firsthand the stigma and harassment by an over-zealous, fraud-obsessed welfare department. With Mary Wesley and Alversa Beals, Ruby creates a welfare rights group to fight for an adequate income, dignity, and justice. They, along with low-income mothers across the country, form the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) with the support of George Wiley, a chemistry professor-turned-activist and Frances Fox Piven, a radical social-scientist. Together, the mothers of the NWRO introduce a Universal Basic Income campaign with feminist Gloria Steinem at their side, at the Democratic National Convention in Miami 1972. Storming Caesars Palace shares the uplifting story of how a group of ordinary low-income mothers launched a revolutionary Black feminist anti-poverty movement in the 1960s & 1970s.

Talking Union, Talking Climate (15m)
Directed by: Vivian Price
Documentary Short (2023) U.S./Nigeria/Norway
Program 6, 26

What happens when a refinery worker from California, a rig mechanic from Norway, and a fluids engineer from Nigeria meet? Talking Union, Talking Climate is a funny and serious dialogue between workers in the global north and south who share experiences about their jobs, their labor conditions, thoughts on the impact of climate change on their industry, and concerns for a just transition.

The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales (87m)
Directed by: Abigail E. Disney and Kathleen Hughes
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 19

Abigail Disney looks at America's dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. Using her family’s story, she explores how this systemic injustice took hold and imagines a way toward a more equitable future. In this feature-length, personal essay documentary, Abigail encounters workers at Disney struggling to put food on the table. Could she, a descendant, with no role in the multinational conglomerate, use her famous last name to help pressure Disney and other American corporations to treat low-wage workers more humanely? Believing her conservative grandfather, Roy Disney, (Walt’s brother and company co-founder) would never have tolerated employee hunger at “The Happiest Place On Earth”, Abigail reexamines the story of modern American capitalism from the middle of the last century, when wealth was shared more equitably, to today, when CEO’s earn upwards of 800 times more than their average employees.

The Battle of Chile - 3 Parts (264m)
Directed by: Patricio Guzmán
Documentary Feature (1975-1978) Chile/Cuba
Newly restored in 2023 to 2K!
Program 22

On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically-elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army. Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues had been filming the political developments in Chile throughout the nine months leading up to that day. The bombing of the Presidential Palace, during which Allende died, would now become the ending for Guzman's seminal documentary The Battle of Chile, an epic chronicle of that country's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it.

The Devil's Avocado (19m)
Directed by: Kees-Jan Mulder
Narrative Short (2022) Netherlands
Program 6 and 14

When a man regrets the abuses in the family business on his deathbed, his granddaughter seems to be the right person to change the company for good - were it not for an uncle and aunt who think slightly differently about this.

The Exchange Girl (9m)
Directed by: George Larkin
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 10

The Exchange Girl is a short documentary about women working in dangerous conditions in silent film post-production. Those positions did provide women with an entry point to film work, but those jobs suddenly disappeared with the coming of sound. The film also explores how Margaret Booth, one of the great editors, started her legendary career that way.

The Farmer-Labor Movement: A Minnesota Story (57m)
Directed by: Randy Croce
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 9

The Farmer-Labor movement founded the most successful third party in U.S. political history. Directly based on the militant organizing of the state's emerging labor and farm organizations, this progressive movement elected candidates and advanced political change in Minnesota from 1917 until it merged with the Democrats in 1944, to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The documentary portrays this history through the voices of Farmer-Labor leaders and their descendants, as well as contemporary historians, union and co-op and activists. Animated segments bring the personal stories of Farmer-Labor men and women to life, while songs from the period convey the spirit of the movement.

The Girls In the Band (87m)
Directed by: Judy Chaikin
Documentary Feature (2011)
Program 23

The Girls In the Band tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 20's to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continue today to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them.

The Kill Floor (27m)
Directed by: Carlos Avila
Narrative Short (2023)
Program 6 and 14

When the COVID-19 pandemic engulfs a meatpacking plant in his rural hometown, a young Latinx reporter returns to uncover the urgent and deadly circumstances threatening the plant’s workers – including his father.

The Last Cobbler (15m)
Directed by: Matan Berman
Documentary Short (2023)
Program 15, 26

Nearing retirement without a successor, the last independent shoe-repairman in Ithaca, New York balances his needs with those of the community, in the ever-changing shoe repair landscape.

The Revolt of the Good Guys (85m)
Directed by: Ann DeStefano Sutherland and Jim Sauber
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 4

Late on the evening of March 17th, 1970, 1,551 rank-and-file letter carriers in New York City did something that had never been done before. In an ultimate act of civil disobedience, they voted to strike against the federal government, igniting an illegal work stoppage that spread across the country like wildfire, crippling the nation’s postal system. Eight days in March of 1970 marked the tipping point for what had been a decades-long struggle for equality and respect. It was the nation's largest-ever wildcat strike, forcing President Richard Nixon to come to the table. As a result, letter carriers earned a significant raise, collective bargaining rights and the respect of a nation, shaping a brighter future for themselves and for those who came after them.

The Silent People (18m)
Directed by: Keith O'Grady
Narrative Short (2023) Ireland
Program 8 and 14

Against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, a young mixed-race Scots woman and a working-class Irish singer from Tallaght in Dublin are evicted without warning. After a year of living homeless on the streets, they chance upon the landlord that evicted them, and take him hostage.

The Strength of the Future (3m)
Directed by: Andrea Baglio
Documentary Short (2023) Italy
Program 6

The importance of meeting young people and transmitting to them the values of social commitment - that they are the next workers and the strength of a union's future. Dedicated to the trade unionists of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

There Goes the Neighborhood (73m)
Directed by: Ian Phillips
Documentary Feature (2022)
Program 10

New York City is currently undergoing a period of Hyper-Gentrification. It has become a haven for the wealthy when it was once a city that valued culture and community over money. This is a portrait of the communities that are fighting back. Before COVID happened, the sky seemed to be the limit for corporate greed and that is when filming for this documentary began, with a specific focus on two lower-class neighborhoods that are in peril - Queens and the Lower East Side. Here, there are local activists whose lives are centered around maintaining the ethos of their community. This made the film not just about a city, but about people - the everyday working person who uses every free ounce of time and energy they have to fight back against their own displacement.

Where Have All the Smiles Gone? (29m)
Directed by: Anja Strelec
Documentary Short (2023) Nepal
Program 17

Hoping for a better life and economic prosperity, Nepali workers move to foreign countries to earn money and help their families. However, in the destination countries they are often mistreated and deprived of their human rights, often coming back to Nepal in very bad health or dead in coffins due to the bad working conditions. Should people continue living in bad conditions in their own countries or die as slaves abroad?

Screenplays 2023

Amigas
Written by: Lindsay Waite
The Working Lives Screenplay Competition (2023)

In 1930s El Paso, Texas, when a timid Swedish maid and a strong-willed Mexican American maid develop an unexpected friendship, tension arises between them as the Swedish maid finds a mentor in her household but the Mexican-American maid is fired by her bosses for her assertiveness and fighting off sexual advances. The Mexican American maid becomes active in a fledgling Maids Union until she faces deportation and despairs. Her Swedish friend finds strength she never knew she had and takes steps to save her friend from deportation.

Barlow Bierlow
Written by: David Kirkham
The Working Lives Screenplay Competition (2023)

A surly workhouse clerk takes a precociously intelligent orphan girl under his wing. When she is adopted by an ambitious weapons manufacturer, their lives change forever, leading to her transformation into a radical environmental rebel.

The Coal Miner's War
Written by: Randall Reese
The Working Lives Screenplay Competition (2023)

Inspired by true events, the coal miners of Ludlow, Colorado strike against the coal company owned by John D. Rockefeller to protest unfair working conditions.