Police Abuse and BLM Focus of 2nd Virtual Film Festival Screenings - July 31st to August 4th
/Movie theaters are still closed due to COVID-19, but you can catch a second preview of select Workers Unite Film Festival Season 9 films free on our homepage (plus some from past seasons along the BLM theme).
How It Works:
On Friday, July 31st, starting at 12:00 p.m. (EST), go to the homepage and simply play the videos that are embedded on the top of our page. They will remain there for 12 hours and be switched out at 12:00 a.m. midnight. The next batch of videos play from 12:00 a.m. to approx. 12:00 p.m. the next day. Note that there are two available screening windows (Screen 1, Screen 2) for the main day time slot playing different programs of films. There is no charge for watching or login requirements.
Full Schedule Below:
Friday, July 31st (12:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. EST)
Screen 1:
Sophia Dawson: Purpose - The story of renowned Brooklyn visual artist and activist Sophia Dawson, an intimate and powerful portrait of a brilliant young woman determined to use her creative gifts to enlighten and empower her community. (15 min, Director: Justin M. Thomas) (Trailer)
To Be Us: To Work - A narrative shattering documentary that holds a mirror to the treatment of Black people in the workplace. This film features participants from a diverse class of professions and disciplines who share a common experience. For many participants, the time of filming was their first opportunity to name and vocalize their pain. Each interview explores recurring themes of racism, misogynoir, retaliation, wrongful terminations, and discriminatory practices from employers. “TO BE US: To Work” also carefully highlights the psychological and chronic health consequences of racism. The physical act of working is exhausting in itself, but what happens to our body when it’s in a constant state of stress? (1 hr 36m, Directors: Tosca Davis, Cedrick Smith, Terrance Thomas) (Trailer)
Screen 2:
We Can’t Breathe - A young couple clashes in the wake of a racially charged murder committed by a police officer. (10 min, Director: Clarence Williams IV)
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, reflecting with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades. From Selma and Birmingham, and Atlanta, to the battleground beaches of St. Augustine, Florida, with Chinua Achebe, and back north for a visit to Newark with Amiri Baraka, Baldwin lays bare the fiction of progress in post–Civil Rights America—wondering “what happened to the children” and those “who did not die, but whose lives were smashed on Freedom Road.” (1 hr 35m, Directors: Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley) (Clip)
Friday Overnight (12:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. EST, technically Sat 8/1)
Screen 1:
A Job I Can Enjoy - The first time Shymara Jones, a Popeye’s worker, went to a protest, she didn’t know where she was supposed to stand. The second time she went on strike, she brought 6 of her coworkers with her. As a leaders in the growing movement for $15 and a union for fast food workers, Shymara is making a way for her two-year-old son Jaden to have a better future. They’ve come a long way, but they know the movement won’t stop when they win the fight for $15. (9m, Director: Milena Velis)
Detroit 48202: Conversations Along A Postal Route - The rise, demise, and contested resurgence of the City of Detroit through the lens of African-American mail carrier, Wendell Watkins, and the committed community he faithfully served for thirty years. In “DETROIT 48202”, we take a journey with Wendell along his route, which winds through the center of what was, once upon a time, a vital and thriving city. We listen in on his conversations with his customers – the resilient Detroiters who share stories of resistance: pushing back against racial segregation in housing; challenging industrial and political disinvestment; and living on reduced pensions as a result of the 2014 municipal bankruptcy. Our characters share stories of hope and propose creative ways to re-imagine an inclusive, productive, equitable and re-invigorated city. (1 hr 22m, Director: Pam Sporn) (Trailer)
Saturday, August 1st (12:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. EST)
Screen 1:
We Can’t Breathe - A young couple clashes in the wake of a racially charged murder committed by a police officer. (10 min, Director: Clarence Williams IV)
Raided - A multi-part series from The Appeal, “Raided” uses the largest gang raid in New York City's history as a starting point to examine the consequences of a new era of "precision" and "community" policing practices. In contrast to Stop and Frisk, which targeted large swaths of New Yorkers, precision policing prides itself on singling out the supposed worst of the worst: gang members. Part One explores precision policing’s use of coercive conspiracy prosecutions, the repurposing of old and low-level offenses, and racially disproportionate surveillance. Combining personal stories, archival footage and interviews with experts, this film shows that harmful policing practices that disproportionately target people of color have not been eradicated in New York City. They have evolved. Part Two reveals two major Freedom of Information Act responses, shedding light on the role of private technology companies, and the expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into domestic policing. (36 min, Director: Simon Davis-Cohen)
Profiled - Some of the victims—Eric Garner, Michael Brown—are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. Profiled knits the stories of mothers of black and Latin youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Moving interviews with the women are juxtaposed with sharply etched analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L.Graves, Jr, and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young. The women organize vigils and rallies to keep the memory of their loved ones alive and seek indictments of the officers responsible for the deaths. As their demands for justice are ignored we see them transition from grieving parents to activists who join the growing nation-wide, grass roots movement against police brutality and racial profiling that is spreading across the country. (53 min, Director: Kathleen Foster) (Trailer)
WITNESS - Protest Tips Compilation - Understanding your rights and how you can prepare before filming at a protest. For more information, visit bit.ly/FilmPolice_USA (4m)
Boricua - Shouting on Sunset Park - The shouting of the drums playing BOMBA on the street. Cameras all around cop-watching. People marching against racism and police brutality. Dennis Flores and El Grito de Sunset Park are voices of the resistance in the Latin New York. (19m, Director: Victor Ribeiro) (Trailer)
Screen 2:
LSI: Under Construction - COVID-19 inspired rap music video from apprentice UA Local 1 Plumbers. This project was submitted as part of the Workers/Artists class at SUNY Empire State’s Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies, where students are empowered to share a snapshot of their working lives by creating their own short 5-6 min films. (6 min, Director: Frank D'Ambrosio, Shady Saint Music)
Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights - The story of the successful 16-year fight to organize a union at the world's largest pork slaughterhouse, operated by Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, NC. There aren't many films about organized labor with happy endings! This happens to be one of them. The perseverance of a courageous group of workers, their guts and determination, form the core of this film. 'Union Time' contextualizes this victory -- the largest labor victory in the U.S. in the 21st Century -- within a backdrop of fervent anti-unionism in the South, and focuses on the interconnections between the labor and the civil rights movements in the U.S. (1 hr 10m, Director: Matthew Barr) (Trailer)
Saturday Overnight (12:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. EST, technically Sun 8/2)
Screen 1:
The Layoff - Four Leaf Clover Mart’s Branch Manager told the Supervisor to get her entire team to sign the layoff agreement. The Branch Manager wondered how she got everyone to sign. This is how she did it. (8 min, Director: G-Hey Kim) (Trailer)
The Gig Economy - Be your own boss. Work when and where you want. The gig economy promises freedom, flexibility and entrepreneurship to workers, but does it deliver? From award-winning documentary filmmaker Keif Roberts (“Sick School”) comes “The Gig Economy”, a head first dive into the precarious new world of app based work. (1 hr 7m, Director: Keif Roberts) (Trailer)
Sunday, August 2nd (12:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. EST)
Screen 1:
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, reflecting with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades. From Selma and Birmingham, and Atlanta, to the battleground beaches of St. Augustine, Florida, with Chinua Achebe, and back north for a visit to Newark with Amiri Baraka, Baldwin lays bare the fiction of progress in post–Civil Rights America—wondering “what happened to the children” and those “who did not die, but whose lives were smashed on Freedom Road.” (1 hr 35m, Directors: Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley) (Clip)
El Blues Del Charango - Music video from Singer-Songwriter Marcos Tabera (5 min, Director: Tonchy Antezana)
Songs of Slavery and Emancipation - Explores the history and rediscovery of songs written and sung by both abolitionists and enslaved peoples throughout the 1800's. In discovering these songs, we unearth a neglected history of North American slave dissension and abolitionist action. The question of why these songs and ideas were left to fade into history is addressed by historians, musicians, and activists. Ultimately we are left to consider the strikingly contemporary content of these nearly 200 year old songs. (50 min, Director: Mat Callahan, Yvonne Moore, Joe Johnson) (Trailer)
Screen 2:
Detroit 48202: Conversations Along A Postal Route - The rise, demise, and contested resurgence of the City of Detroit through the lens of African-American mail carrier, Wendell Watkins, and the committed community he faithfully served for thirty years. In “DETROIT 48202”, we take a journey with Wendell along his route, which winds through the center of what was, once upon a time, a vital and thriving city. We listen in on his conversations with his customers – the resilient Detroiters who share stories of resistance: pushing back against racial segregation in housing; challenging industrial and political disinvestment; and living on reduced pensions as a result of the 2014 municipal bankruptcy. Our characters share stories of hope and propose creative ways to re-imagine an inclusive, productive, equitable and re-invigorated city. (1 hr 22m, Director: Pam Sporn) (Trailer)
Sophia Dawson: Purpose - The story of renowned Brooklyn visual artist and activist Sophia Dawson, an intimate and powerful portrait of a brilliant young woman determined to use her creative gifts to enlighten and empower her community. (15 min, Director: Justin M. Thomas) (Trailer)
We Can’t Breathe - A young couple clashes in the wake of a racially charged murder committed by a police officer. (10 min, Director: Clarence Williams IV)
Trouble Finds You - Bronx native Kraig Lewis was set to graduate with a Masters in business, determined to get his son out of the rough streets of his NYC neighborhood. Instead, his life is turned upside down when he’s caught in the city’s largest gang bust in history. Now, he has to find a new path forward. (24 min, Director: Stephanie Tangkilisan) (Trailer)
Sunday Overnight (12:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. EST, technically Mon 8/3)
Screen 1:
Batay La - Today, no society is immune from the effects of capitalism. In Haiti “Batay La,” or the struggle, has been ongoing since before the slave revolution that founded the Caribbean nation. Batay La examines the current anti-imperialist movement in Haiti, led for decades by grassroots workers’ rights organization Batay Ouvriye (Workers Fight). Founded in 1994, Batay Ouvriye is known throughout Haiti as a fierce, uncompromised organization dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation of poor workers. (25 min, Director: Malia Bruker) (Trailer)
Digging Deep - A documentary film sharing the narratives and perspectives of former Black British coal miners' work experiences in former UK coal mines. (1 hr, Director: Norma Gregory)
Monday, August 3rd (12:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. EST)
Screen 1:
Feet On the Street: Dirty Patti at the L.A. Teacher's Strike - She's political, she's a bit inappropriate and she's a puppet! Dirty Patti, a fixture of the Los Angeles art scene, traverses to a teachers' strike where she interviews those fighting on the front lines lines for the betterment of the teachers and students of Los Angeles Unified School District. (5 min, Directors: Crispin Rosenkranz, Christina Elaine Vasquez)
In Search of Professor Precarious - A documentary in which the director, a longtime precarious contract teacher, lifts the curtain on higher education's dirty little secret. He travels Canada to capture the experience of precarity and the fight against the exploitation of contract faculty in higher ed. The film tells the stories and struggles of a few compelling characters and groups, while examining the issue of precarious work. (1 hr 21m, Director: Gerry Potter) (Trailer)
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, Director: Set Hernandez Rongkilyo) (Clip)
Screen 2:
Profiled - Some of the victims—Eric Garner, Michael Brown—are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. Profiled knits the stories of mothers of black and Latin youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Moving interviews with the women are juxtaposed with sharply etched analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L.Graves, Jr, and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young. The women organize vigils and rallies to keep the memory of their loved ones alive and seek indictments of the officers responsible for the deaths. As their demands for justice are ignored we see them transition from grieving parents to activists who join the growing nation-wide, grass roots movement against police brutality and racial profiling that is spreading across the country. (53 min, Director: Kathleen Foster) (Trailer)
WITNESS - Protest Tips Compilation - Understanding your rights and how you can prepare before filming at a protest. For more information, visit bit.ly/FilmPolice_USA (4m)
Raided - A multi-part series from The Appeal, “Raided” uses the largest gang raid in New York City's history as a starting point to examine the consequences of a new era of "precision" and "community" policing practices. In contrast to Stop and Frisk, which targeted large swaths of New Yorkers, precision policing prides itself on singling out the supposed worst of the worst: gang members. Part One explores precision policing’s use of coercive conspiracy prosecutions, the repurposing of old and low-level offenses, and racially disproportionate surveillance. Combining personal stories, archival footage and interviews with experts, this film shows that harmful policing practices that disproportionately target people of color have not been eradicated in New York City. They have evolved. Part Two reveals two major Freedom of Information Act responses, shedding light on the role of private technology companies, and the expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into domestic policing. (36 min, Director: Simon Davis-Cohen)
Monday Overnight (12:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. EST, technically Tues 8/4)
Screen 1:
Nightshift Spitalfields - Ali, a Bulgarian-Turkish porter at the London night market, works six nights a week, often on 15-hour shifts, loading and transporting goods. These nightshifts are incredibly demanding, mentally, emotionally and physically. (10m, Director: Julius-Cezar MacQuarie)
The Gig Economy - Be your own boss. Work when and where you want. The gig economy promises freedom, flexibility and entrepreneurship to workers, but does it deliver? From award-winning documentary filmmaker Keif Roberts (“Sick School”) comes “The Gig Economy”, a head first dive into the precarious new world of app based work. (1 hr 7m, Director: Keif Roberts) (Trailer)
Tuesday, August 4th (12:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. EST)
Screen 1:
LSI: Under Construction - COVID-19 inspired rap music video from apprentice UA Local 1 Plumbers. This project was submitted as part of the Workers/Artists class at SUNY Empire State’s Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies, where students are empowered to share a snapshot of their working lives by creating their own short 5-6 min films. (6 min, Director: Frank D'Ambrosio, Shady Saint Music)
American Made: Union Built - A powerful and triumphant look at the union labor movement in New York City, with a focus on the "Count Me In" movement. (22 min, Directors: Jacinta Filiaci, Spencer Santini, Peng Wang, Jordan Prieto-Valdés , Dany Zavala)
Not Going to Hide Who I Am - IBEW Local 3 Apprentice Electrician, Adonis George, gives us a glimpse into his life as a parent, union member, recent veteran, and what it's like to be transgender working in the trades and under the Trump administration. This project was submitted as part of the Labor On Film class at SUNY Empire State’s Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies, where students are empowered to share a snapshot of their working lives by creating their own short 5-6 min films. (9 min, Director: Adonis George)
Sista In the Brotherhood - A black tradeswoman faces discrimination on a new job site and must choose between making a stand or keeping her job. The story follows an apprentice carpenter who struggles to prove herself on her first day at a new job site. An outlier in a white, male-dominated workforce, she’s forced to navigate the crew’s reactions to her. When tensions arise, she receives inspiration from a surprising source to help her decide to either make a stand or risk never being recognized as the skilled worker she has become. The film was inspired by the doctoral thesis of co-Executive Producer, Dr. Roberta Hunte and partly based on the experience of Latina director Dawn Jones Redstone's experience as a union carpenter. (21 min, Director: Dawn Jones Redstone) (Trailer)
Building the American Dream - Across Texas an unstoppable construction boom drives urban sprawl and luxury high-rises. Its dirty secret: abuse of immigrant labor. “Building the American Dream” captures a turning point as a movement forms to fight widespread construction industry injustices. Grieving their son, a Mexican family campaigns for a life-and-death safety ordinance. A Salvadorian electrician couple owed thousands in back pay fights for their children’s future. A bereaved son battles to protect others from his family's preventable tragedy. A story of courage, resilience and community, the film reveals shocking truths about the hardworking immigrants who build the American Dream, of which they are excluded. (1 hr 15m, Director: Chelsea Hernandez) (Clip)
Screen 2:
A Job I Can Enjoy - The first time Shymara Jones, a Popeye’s worker, went to a protest, she didn’t know where she was supposed to stand. The second time she went on strike, she brought 6 of her coworkers with her. As a leaders in the growing movement for $15 and a union for fast food workers, Shymara is making a way for her two-year-old son Jaden to have a better future. They’ve come a long way, but they know the movement won’t stop when they win the fight for $15. (9m, Director: Milena Velis)
To Be Us: To Work - A narrative shattering documentary that holds a mirror to the treatment of Black people in the workplace. This film features participants from a diverse class of professions and disciplines who share a common experience. For many participants, the time of filming was their first opportunity to name and vocalize their pain. Each interview explores recurring themes of racism, misogynoir, retaliation, wrongful terminations, and discriminatory practices from employers. “TO BE US: To Work” also carefully highlights the psychological and chronic health consequences of racism. The physical act of working is exhausting in itself, but what happens to our body when it’s in a constant state of stress? (1 hr 36m, Directors: Tosca Davis, Cedrick Smith, Terrance Thomas) (Trailer)
How It Works:
On Friday, July 31st, starting at 12:00 p.m. (EST), go to the homepage and simply play the videos that are embedded on the top of our page. They will remain there for 12 hours and be switched out at 12:00 a.m. midnight. The next batch of videos play from 12:00 a.m. to approx. 12:00 p.m. the next day. Note that there are two available screening windows (Screen 1, Screen 2) for the main day time slot playing different programs of films. There is no charge for watching or login requirements.