Labor & Employment Law

Looking for Labor-Themed Films? Check This Out

By Mike Hall

You probably won’t find many of these films on the shelves of your local video store. But there are now two new sources to track down labor films?from a four-minute short experimental film about undocumented immigrants who died while trapped inside a tractor trailer in Texas to blockbusters like “Norma Rae” and ”The Grapes of Wrath.”

Chris Garlock, founder and director of the DC Labor Filmfest, has teamed up with LabourStart to compile an online database of labor films. Check out the nearly 1,500 films (some may be available for screening) here.

There’s also a separate database of labor film festivals around the world. If you have suggestions for additions to either of these lists; are interested in screening a film; or organizing a labor film festival in your area, contact Chris at cgarlock@dclabor.org.

A new book by Tom Zaniello, Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films About Labor, offers a 434-page guide to 350 labor films from around the world. Zaniello describes all the films in detail, tells you whether and where they’re available for rental or purchase.

Each entry includes critical commentary, production data, cast list, suggested related films and annotated references to books and websites for further reading.

Award-winning filmmaker Barbara Koppel says:

With close attention to detail, Tom Zaniello has created a long overdue guide to films that tell entertaining and heartfelt stories of working people?stories that are as vital today as ever before. It would take years to find all the information contained in this one book. [It is] a wonderful compilation of hidden treasures for audiences everywhere.

The book is available at most major online booksellers, including Powell’s Books and UCS Labor Books.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 10, 2010 (boomark / email).