Festival Enters the Homestretch with Our Stop Killer Coke Day

May 18th, 2014

It has been an incredible run so far! nine nights of amazing films and amazing people interacting on issues of workers' lives, their dignity at work, fair pay, equality on the job and their right to organize and keep their labor union representation. We have screened over 50 films, both long and short, on almost every major topic related to issues affecting working people. 

PLEASE JOIN US FROM 2PM to 5PM TODAY AT JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH TO STOP KILLER COKE! FILMS< MUSIC< SPEAKERS AND THE NY LABOR CHORUS!

Last night the Workers Unite Film Festival was hosted by the NY Taxi Workers Alliance at their spectacular new home in Queens. We were honored to be able to bring several films to screen in this wonderful new home for workers, which will house a full health care and benefit fund in the near future.

Attentive crowd watches Tangled Thread

We screened the films to commemorate the one year anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory buildings in Bangladesh, where over 1300 workers were needlessly murdered by the greed and thoughtlessness of both local contractors and international clothing brands. Thanks to the filmmakers who attended and brought their powerful new films: Sara Ziff, who's trailer for her film in production, "Tangled Thread," explores how all workers, no matter how far away, or how seemingly distant their daily lives, are actually completely connected by how the 1% exploits them for profit. This short film packed a huge punch for telling the story of Bangladeshi garment union organizers and their members as they try to recover from the Rana tragedy.

Great screening at NYTWA to learn more about Raising for Rana

Richard York, part of the Rainbow collective with Hannan Majid, out of the UK, have now completed five films on the misery and struggle of these exploited garment workers in Bangladesh. Richard brought their new film direct from the UK, "Tears in the Fabric," which also went into depth on the huge loss the murder of these 1300 young people has had on the local community-literally a full generation of young people were killed in the factory collapse. we see their children, their Mothers and Fathers, searching through a mountain of rubble, for any shreds that might connect them to their lost loved ones. The enormity of their loss is quite painful to watch. And as we are told, most of our own American garment companies have not paid hardly a penny into the relief fund, nor signed on to the international accords that might help prevent such a tragedy in the future.

Richard York, Javaid Tariq (NYTWA), Sara Ziff

Please go to www.raisingforrana.org to donate what you can to help these families.