Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 08:29:20 -0500
From: Stacy Anne Harwood sharwood at uiuc.edu
Organizing Films
compiled from COMM-ORG postings, summer 2005
The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy
Documentary 56:40. Legendary organizer Saul Alinsky led the movement to
empower disenfranchised communities through collective action. Now others
have taken up the challenge. The Democratic Promise examines Alinsky's
life and adaptive legacy through work being done by two contemporary
"people's organizations". " Case studies of his work in
Rochester, NY and recent IAF organizing work in Texas and Brooklyn
Outsiders
Documentary of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union "new freedom bus
tour" of the country in the summer of 1998.
From the Bottom Up
Chicago, Ill. Sedgwick Productions, c1991 It's a 65 minute documentary
that features: 1. Community organizing: Gail Cincotta and NPA Two IAF
groups in Texas: COPS and Valley Interfaith. 2. Community-based
economic development Two groups in the South Bronx doing affordable
housing including sweat equity - Banana Kelly, and the Mid-Bronx
Development Corporation One group in Embarrass Minnesota (SISU) working
on stabilizing a rural community through reviving Finnish heritage
buildings, crafts, etc.
City of Hope
A feature film, directed by John Sayles, about urban politics, focusing
on the tensions between urban redevelopment and community development in
a city undergoing gentrification; based on Jersey City or Hoboken, NJ. It
has some interesting scenes about organizing and politics.
The Fenceline
Another documentary on community organizing features organizing around
environmental justice. "The Fenceline is about a community
called "Diamond" located near a Shell chemical processing plant
in Norco, LA. The community struggles to be relocated and eventually
'wins' their request for relocation. A google search for Margie
Richards or Norco, LA or Fenceline, or Diamond Community.
The Killing Floor
Feature film about the 1919 Chicago race riots, focusing on the migration
of blacks from the south, the ghettoization of blacks, the efforts of
workers in the meatpacking industry to unionize, and the tensions that
led to the riots.
Hull House: The House that Jane Built
Documentary about the first wave of urban social reform at the turn of
the 20th century, focusing on women reformers in the settlement house
movement.
The Triangle Fire
This is a 30-minute segment of the 10-part PBS documentary series on the
history of New York City. It focuses on the conditions in sweatshops and
slums among immigrants in the early 1900s and the efforts of unions and
social reformers to organize to address these problems.
Daley: The Last Boss
Documentary about Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago -- the father of the
current mayor -- and how he ran his
urban political machine. It shows what community groups are up against,
but it also shows how to build a political/electoral organization that
delivers the goods.
The Times of Harvey Milk
Documentary about the rise of gay politics in San Francisco, the
importance of coalitions, the link between grassroots organizing and
electoral politics.
Do The Right Thing
Spike Lee's film about the Brooklyn ghetto of Bed-Sty in the 80s. Wbat's
interesting, and misleading, in this film is
the absence of any organizing groups in the neighborhood, thus the film's
sense of hopelessness and nihilism.
Holding Ground
Documentary about community organizing in Boston, focusing on the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative by New Day Films
Your Loan is Denied
PBS documentary about bank redlining, focusing on Chicago and on ACORN's
organizing work
Fillmore
Documentary about urban renewal in the Fillmore neighborhood in San
Francisco, which includes a history of federal urban renewal policy,
grassroots efforts in the 60s ad 70s to organize against the bulldozer,
and current efforts to resist gentrification and displacement.
Boom
Documentary about gentrification in SF, focusing on the tension between
the dot-com boom and the displacement/eviction of low-income renters.
Includes interviews with dot-com workers, developers, the mayor, and
community activists.
Building Hope
Documentary about the history of community development corporations and
their origins in community protest
Promises to Keep
Documentary about the work of homeless advocate Mitch Snyder and the
Community for Creative Non-Violence during the 1980s in response to
rising homelessness and federal housing cuts
Roger and Me
Michael Moore's documentary about the decline of Flint, Michigan and the
role of GM in the deindustrialization of a once-thriving industrial city
Global Assembly Line
Documentary about the global economy, showing how global corporations and
US policy pit workers in the US and workers in third world countries
against each other; includes footage of the development of urban slums
and maquilladora factories in Mexico.
One Day Longer
Documentary about the strike of the Culinary Workers union against the
Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. This is good to show along with the article
in the New Yorker, "How the Maids Fought Back," about the union
organizing among the hotel workers in Las Vegas
David Beats Goliath: How Inglewood Defeated Wal-Mart
A 10-minute documentary, sponsored by the LA Alliance for a New Economy,
the describes the victory of a community-labor coalition that defeated
Wal-Mart's efforts to locate a mega-story in Inglewood.
Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker
A documentary about Ella Baker, one of the key behinds-the-scenes
organizers in the civil rights movement
Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town
Documentary that follows events in Ashland, VA, over a one-year period,
from the first stormy public hearing that galvanizes residents'
opposition until the Town Council takes a final vote on the proposed
Wal-Mart Store. Highlights Wal-mart as the icon of the Big Box industry
and the symbol of sprawl
Killing Floor
Hollywood film about efforts to unionize slaughterhouse workers in
Chicago in the early 1900s, the role of racism in dividing workers in the
community and at the workplace, and the conditions that led up to the
1919 Chicago race riot.
Bread & Roses (2000)
A feature film based on the Justice for Janitors campaign in LA among
immigrant workers. Maya (Pilar Padilla) is appalled at the work
conditions and unfair labor practices at her job as a janitor in a
downtown LA office building. She teams up with Sam (academy award
winner Adrian Brody), a labor organizer, in a stirring fight against her
ruthless employer. A selection of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
British director Ken Loach's first film made in the United States.
Northern Lights
Feature film about the work of the Non-Partisan League to organize rural
farmers in the early 1900s in North Dakota and Minnesota.
The Uprising of '34
Documentary about Southern textile workers strike in the Depression.
Harlan County U.S.A.
Documentary about coal miners' strike in Kentucky
Fighting for Our Lives and The Fight in the Fields
Two documentaries about Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers union
The Organizer (1963)
Italian feature film about early union organizing efforts among textile
workers in Italy in the early 1900s. One of the best films for discussing
the importance of consciousness, solidarity, and leadership, the role of
racism, the question of whether or not conditions are "ripe"
for organizing.
This is a Italian trade union film that offers hope and promotes the
importance of education for working people, while also warning of the
sacrifice involved for individuals taking part in industrial action and
the need for unity between all workers black, white, male, female,
local or not. The film centres on a textile mill in Turin at the end of
the 19th century. It highlights the universality of the struggles of
workers for safer working conditions and a better work/life balance such
as shorter working hours. A visiting professor, played by Marcello
Mastroianni, provides the vision to drive the mill workers on to achieve
their goal of a shorter day and compensation for an injured colleague.
However, his ideological focus leads to a lack of responsibility and
sensitivity for the suffering of the individual workers. There are many
touching scenes where director Mario Monicello really breathes life into
the people involved in the action taken at the mill and these provide
warmth and humour to the grim backdrop.
Salt of the Earth (1953)
Based on a true story, this film, made by blacklisted actors, directors
and producers during the McCarthy era, describes the efforts to organize
Latino and Anglo miners in New Mexico. Way ahead of its time in dealing
with issues of sexism and racism, and the way people can grow personally
and politically through organizing
"Salt of the Earth" was the only movie blacklisted in the
United States during the Cold War. The movie, filmed in Bayard, New
Mexico, is based on the true story of a miners' strike by the Mine-Mill
Union against the Empire Zinc Corp. The film examines the miners' lives
in a company town inhabited predominantly by Mexican-American workers,
and also looks at the changing role of women in family life, through the
eyes of family matriarch Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas). The Mine-Mill
Union struck to gain wage parity with white workers, end the company's
policy of hiring only Mexican-Americans for underground work, and other
inequities. The Empire Zinc Corp paid dual-wage rates, which gave more
money to Anglos than to Hispanics. Many of the workers and wives who took
part in the strike played themselves in the movie.
The film, made in cooperation with the International Union of Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers, was produced by Paul Jarico and directed by Herbert
Biberman, both of whom had been blacklisted. Biberman, a member of the
Hollywood 10, had spent five months in prison after refusing to cooperate
with the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. The two men formed a
film company to create work for other blacklisted members of the
industry. The role of the evil sheriff in "Salt of the Earth",
for example, was played by Will Geer, who had also been blacklisted.
As a result of anti-communist fever in the United States, the political
views of Biberman and his partners, and the film's focus on workers'
rights, racial equality, and women's empowerment, made the project
controversial. Those wishing to suppress the movie's message tried to
keep it from being made, then blocked its distribution and showing.
Laboratories refused to process the film, projectionists would not show
it, theaters canceled bookings, and one of the film's stars Rosaura
Revueltas, who played Esperanza, was deported to Mexico.
Members of the miner's union received death threats from local
vigilantes, who set fire to the union's headquarters in Silver City, N.M.
Toward the end of the filming, Revueltas was arrested by immigration
officials and charged with entering the United States illegally. She was
deported back to Mexico and the film makers had to use a double for the
remainder of the movie. Once in Mexico, she was banned from acting there
and never acted again. Still, the film was completed and is now available
in video stores. "Salt of the Earth" was never released widely,
but played briefly in New York City and San Francisco to enthusiastic
crowds and generally warm reviews. There also were screenings in Toronto
and Mexico City, and the film won the 1955 International Grand Prize from
a French academy.
Norma Rae (1978)
Based on a true story, this Hollywood film describes the life of southern
textile workers and their families and the effort of a union to organize
the local mill. Very good on issues of racism and the role of organizers
and leaders, except the last scene, when the organizer leaves town right
after the election but before the union has negotiated a contract.
Norma Rae is a 31 year old textile worker at the O P Henley Mill in a
small town in southern USA. Her husband is dead and she lives in cramped
conditions with her two children and her ageing mother and father, both
of whom work at the mill as well. There is no union at the Henley Mill,
but there is punishing work, excessive noise, authoritarian management
and low pay coupled with job insecurity. Norma's mother is becoming
increasingly deaf from the noise of the machinery and her father
eventually collapses and dies in the mill from a heart attack occasioned
by sheer pressure of work.
Into this explosive situation comes a union organiser called Reuben
Warshovsky. The film centres on his attempts to organise the workers and
his success at persuading Norma Rae to lead the struggle from the inside.
The campaign comes to a head when Norma is arrested for refusing to stop
copying down the words on a viciously anti-union notice which management
has displayed illegally. There is a tremendously powerful scene when she
seeks to avoid arrest by standing on a table holding aloft a hastily
scrawled card which reads simply "UNION". One by one her fellow
workers show their solidarity by turning off their looms until the
weaving room is bathed in a most eloquent silence. From then on, the
workers are fighting back.
The film is loosely based on the life of Crystal Lee Jordan who in 1973
was fired by the J P Stevens Company in Roanoake Rapids, North Carolina,
USA. Her offence was to organise a membership drive for the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers of America (ACTWU). In 1978, she regained
her job with five years back pay.
"Norma Rae" was directed by Martin Ritt and has a lively script
from husband and wife team Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Junior.
Tremendous performances are given by Ron Liebman as the union organiser
and Sally Field in the title role for which she received the 1980 Oscar
for Best Actress. All the interior mill scenes in the movie were filmed
inside a company under contract to the ACTWU and most of the extras in
the film were mill workers and union members. At the time of its release,
the ACTWU said: "As a pro-union film that combines high drama with
the nitty gritty of day to day organising, 'Norma Rae' is unique".
In 35 years of watching films, I've never seen a better production for
explaining why we all need a union.
The Long Walk Home
Hollywood film starring Sissy Spacek and Woopie Goldberg about the
Montgomery bus boycott, told through the eyes of rank-and-file people
rather than leaders and organizers.
Freedom on My Mind
Documentary about the civil rights movement, focusing on the Mississippi
Freedom Summer voter registration project.
The Willmar 8
Documentary about the efforts of 8 woman bank employees to organize a
union, despite incredible obstacles, in a small town in rural Minnesota.
Wall Street
The classic Hollywood film about the Reagan-era "greed is good"
mentality, focusing on the role of Wall Street finance. It includes some
interesting stories about a union trying to resist a corporate takeover.
Matewan (1987)
John Sayles' film about a mineworkers' organizing drive in the 1920s,
with good stories about immigration, racism, corporate greed, the
violence promoted by the mine owners, etc.
This is a true life account of a coalminers' strike in West Virginia in
the 1920s written and directed by John Sayles who even takes a small
acting role. Sayles has a fine record as an independent film-maker
directing such works as "Passion Fish" and "Lone
Star". Here he has chosen a dramatic subject worthy of his talents
and portrays well the brutal tactics of the management including the
attempt to divide the workers by setting blacks and immigrants against
one another. He is aided by an excellent cast which includes James Earl
Jones (who supplied the voice of Darth Vader) and Mary McDonnell (who
achieved greater prominence with "Dances With Wolves"). For
many trade unionists, this film is one of the best of the genre.
Certainly it is both powerful and polemical but, for me, it is a little
slow and too one-dimensional.
Business As Usual (1987)
This is a rarity -- a British film which portrays the Labour movement in
a positive light -- and it is surprising that so few people have heard of
it. Set in Liverpool, it is the story of the successful fight of a shop
manageress called Babs against her peremptory dismissal, following her
complaint about the sexual harassment of her colleague Josie by the Area
Manager. Babs is played by Glenda Jackson -- a native of the Wirral --
then best known for "Women In Love" (1969), but now a Labour
Member of Parliament and former Minister. The Josie character is
portrayed by the then new but talented black actress Cathy Tyson who was
so impressive as the prostitute in "Mona Lisa".
"Business As Usual" is a woman's film in the sense that the
central role is taken by a woman and both the writer/director, Lezli-Ann
Barrett, and producer, Sara Geater, are woman. However, the issue at the
heart of the work -- sexual harassment -- is equally relevant to both
sexes, although it is men who have the most to learn about it.
"Business As Usual" is based on actual events in Liverpool in
1983 when Audrey White was sacked by the management of "Lady At Lord
John". Both Audrey White and Lezli-Ann Barrett were supporters of
Militant -- the sectarian faction subsequently expelled from the Labour
Party - and such activists are depicted in the film as the real force in
the campaign against the sacking.
The strengths of "Business As Usual" are its relevance as a
British film about an actual incident, its novelty in raising the subject
of sexual harassment in what was then an unprecedentedly direct way, and
its appeal in showing that the trade union movement could fight and win a
dispute even in Thatcher's Britain. The weaknesses of the film are
twofold. First, there is a certain amateur air about it, reflecting the
lack of experience of the director and producer and some of the younger
actors and actresses. Then there is the mono-dimensional nature of the
film, with each of the characters so obviously 'good' -- trade unionist
or picket -- or 'bad' -- manager or policeman -- with very little
subtlety or complexity of characterisation, a fault so common to many
well-intentioned pro-labour movies.
F.I.S.T (1978)
Fans of Sylvester Stallone's testosterone performances as Rocky and Rambo
may be surprised to learn that he has starred in -- and indeed co-wrote
-- a movie on American trade unionism in which one can actually
understand what he is saying. He plays an organiser for the Federation of
Inter-State Truckers (which bears more than a passing resemblance to the
Teamsters). As in "Norma Rae" and "Silkwood", a
safety issue sparks the revolt of the workers, but this work -- more
cynically -- shows the union leadership to be as violent and corrupt as
the management. The
other co-writer was Joe Eszterhas who went on to write such money-spinner
works as "Basic Instinct". The director and producer of the
movie was Norman Jewison who moved on to lighter works like
"Moonstruck".
Czlowiek z zelaza ( 1981)
A worker becomes a "man of iron" forged by experience, a son
comes to terms with his father, a couple fall in love, a reporter
searches for courage, and a nation undergoes historic change. In Warsaw
in 1980, the Party sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack, to Gdansk to
dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an
articulate worker whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests.
Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews people who know Tomczyk,
including his detained wife, Agnieszka. Their narrations become
flashbacks using actual news footage of 1968 and 1970 protests and of the
later birth of free unions and Solidarity.
Wide Blue Road (1958)
This film asked the question: will international star/hunk Yves
Montand playing a renegade fisherman evade the scrutiny of the chief of
police and join with his fellow fisherman against the evil fishing
cartel? Directed by Gillo Pontecarvo ("Battle of Algiers").
Italian with English subtitles.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich organizing residents of a small town to
win a lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric which poisoned the town's
water supply and then covered up the fact. Winner of the Academy
Award for best Actress. Directed by Steven Soderbergh ("Sex
Lies and Video Tape," "Ocean's 11").
Freedom Song
A film (fiction) made for HBO with Danny Glover as the star. It is a film
based on the organizing of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) in McComb, Mississippi and highlights the role of young people in
the work. You can buy a used copy on line for a song. The running time
for this is 117 minutes.
The Children's March
This film is about young people organizing in Birmingham, AL when the
elders were encouraging slowing down civil rights organizing. You can get
this free from Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) if a teacher requests
it. Running time is about 20 minutes.
Silkwood (1983)
This is a true story about an American woman who becomes active in her
union as a result of a health and safety issue, only to face the full
force of the company. Karen Silkwood was a laboratory technician at the
Kerr-McGee plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma. The factory worked with
radioactive plutonium which was pressed into fuel rods for a breeder
reactor. Over a period of time, she became more and more anxious about
the company's safety standards: a contaminated truck had to be taken
apart and buried, there were nothing like enough showers for the workers,
and the staff doctor was only a veterinarian. Matters became even more
frightening when she discovered that the X-ray negatives of welds in the
fuel rods were being doctored to remove white spots.
The film depicts how the safety issue drew Karen, a rank and file trade
unionist with no previous skill at negotiation, into more and more active
participation in union matters, first the battle to win a certification
election something we in Britain have not faced -- and then the
struggle to expose the company's working practices. In these efforts, she
is assisted by a national officer of her Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
Union. But Karen paid the price for her growing union involvement. Her
live-in boyfriend walked out on her. Even more serious, someone
contaminated her with plutonium -- but the company suggested that she had
contaminated herself to make the management look bad. The scenes in which
she has to undergo the humiliating and painful procedure of being
scrubbed down with brushes and detergent, in order to eliminate the
contamination, are among the most dramatic in the film.
"Silkwood" was directed by Mike Nichols whose others successes
include "The Graduate" for which he received an Oscar for Best
Director. The part of Karen Silkwood is played by Meryl Streep, one of
the finest actresses of her generation, and her friend is portrayed by
the singer Cher, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for
their impressive performances. Yet the film is not without its faults. At
times it is rather slow and sometimes the dialogue is a little hard to
follow. Above all, the ending backs away from making a clear stand on the
central issues. On 13 November 1974, Karen Silkwood drove off to meet a
reporter on the "New York Times" with a dossier on the work
conditions at her company. She never arrived, suffering a fatal car crash
that -- depending on whose version of events you accept -- was the result
of her taking tranquillizers and alcohol or the consequence of the
deliberate ramming of the back of her car by another vehicle.
Thunderheart (1992)
Featured Val Kilmer playing a half-Sioux FBI agent assigned to the
Reservation in South Dakota in this face-paced thriller based on the
organizing work of Leonard Peltier and the American Indian
Movement. Directed by Michael Apted ("42 Up", "Coal
Miners Daughter") and produced by Robert De Niro.
This black soil: a story of resistance and rebirth
A film by Teresa Konechne. This film chronicles the successful struggle
of an impoverish African
American community in Bayview, Va. Residents organized in response to the
state's plan to build a maximum-security prison in Bayview. Following the
defeat of the prison, the community formed a non-profit and partnered
with various government, community and private sector organizations to
secure $10 million dollars in grants to purchase the land for the
proposed prison and develop new housing, commercial and community
buildings. Under the leadership of visionary women, this rural community
dramatically improved the living conditions for Bayview residents as well
as increased income earning potential for many and created new
educational opportunities.
Northeast Passage: The Inner City and the American Dream
This 55-minute documentary covers gentrification in the African American
neighborhood of North/Northeast Portland from 1997 to 2002. Further
information is available at
http://www.northeastpassage.net/thefilm.html
Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
In Milagro, a small town in the American Southwest, Ladd Devine plans to
build a major new resort development. While activist Ruby Archuleta and
lawyer/newspaper editor Charlie Bloom realize that this will result in
the eventual displacement of the local Hispanic farmers, they cannot
arouse much opposition because of the short-term opportunities offered by
construction jobs. But when Joe Mondragon illegally diverts water to
irrigate his bean field, the local people support him because of their
resentment of water use laws that favor the rich like Devine. When the
Governor sends in ruthless troubleshooter Kyril Montana to settle things
quickly before the lucrative development is cancelled, a small war
threatens to erupt.
Waking Ned Devine (1998)
A comic fable that finds a tiny Irish town invigorated when its
inhabitants band together to cash in a winning lottery ticket…after
ripping it from the clenched fists of its recently deceased owner.
The Sting (1973)
Redford and Newman
National People's Action Videos
NPA also has some videos they produced primarily as recruitment tools for
their national conferences that showcase a lot of direct action. They are
real short, no more than 10 minutes, but kind of fun. To get them you
could contact Richard Muhammad, 312-243-3038
(www.npa-us.org)