Labor Films & Videos, A Selected List
American Dream by Call Number: SMLR Discs 31992. Academy Award winning, controversial documentary about the P-9/UFCW--Hormel strike in Austin, Minn.
At the River I Stand by Call Number: SMLR Discs 71993. Documentary of two 1968 events in the civil rights movement--the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bread & Roses by Call Number: SMLR Discs 132000. Maya, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, meets a young organizer and joins the fight to unionize the janitors at her workplace. But her sibling and sister janitor Rosa has concerns, and the bosses are not happy.
China Blue by Call Number: SMLR Discs 11ISBN: 15945852882005. This documentary visits a Chinese blue-jean factory, where workers are trying to survive a harsh working environment. But when the factory owner agrees to a deal with his Western client that forces his teenage workers to work around the clock, a confrontation becomes inevitable.
The Corporation: A documentary (Special Edition) by Call Number: Douglass 10-14932004. Documentary examines the nature, evolution, impact and possible futures of the modern business corporation.
Eyes on the Fries: Young workers in the service economy by Call Number: SMLR Discs 262004. While good jobs in high tech and manufacturing are increasingly hard to find, companies like Subway, Starbucks, and Blockbuster are opening stores at a pace of one a day. This film examines the rise of the low wage service sector and what it means for a generation of young Americans whose lives depend on it.
Harlan County, U.S.A. by Call Number: SMLR Discs 191977. Academy Award-winning documentary on the UMWA strike at Brookside Mine. Kopple “celebrates the spirit and courage of the miners and their families in the context of violence that seems never to end, in a class war that seems more appropriate to the 1930's than the 1970's”
The Killing Floor by Call Number: Douglass 2-34411984. The story of two young African-Americans who migrate from the South to the Chicago stockyards at the beginning of World War I. Though fiction, the story is based on real events. An intense and moving story.
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter by Call Number: Douglass 2-5641980. This excellent documentary tracks five “Rosies”, combining contemporary interviews and historical footage.
Made in Dagenham by Call Number: Douglass 10-2341Publication Date: 2011In 1968, the female workers at the Ford Dagenham car plant, walked out in protest against sexual discrimination. Their actions played a major role in the battle for equal pay, both nationally and internationally.
Maid in America by Call Number: Douglass 10-4850TV 1982. DVD 2004. This video takes a look into the lives of three Latina immigrants working as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles. The issue of worker' rights is introduced in the film.
Made in L.A. by Call Number: Douglass 10-11512007. Follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants, Lupe Hernandez, María Pineda, Maura Colorado, working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a mega-trendy clothing retailer.
Matewan by Call Number: SMLR Discs 241987. Sayles' fictional film about mining conflict in an Appalachian community after World War I speaks to many still current issues--class, race and the labor movement, the role of women in working class communities, and also speaks to the deep emotion involved in creating change in a closed community.
Modern Times by Call Number: Dana Discs 9141936. An imaginative, often slapstick satire on the alienating and disruptive effects of mass production and automation. Charlie Chaplin, as the Tramp, goes from job-to-job, beset on all fronts by bad luck. Primarily a silent film with music, sound effects, and some spoken and sung dialogue.
Norma Rae by Call Number: SMLR Discs 681979. Southern mill worker Norma Rae meets union organizer Reuben and becomes a key organizer in the mill, a move that radicalizes her life and relationships.
North Country by Call Number: SMLR Discs 22ISBN: 141980233XPublication Date: 2005Based on the book Class action: the story of Lois Jensen and the landmark case that changed sexual harassment law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler.
Out at Work by Call Number: Douglass 10-22861996. An award-winning documentary about what it means to be openly gay in the workplace.
The Take (2004) by Call Number: Douglass 10-18092006. Explores how Argentina's 2001 economic collapse, where a prosperous middle-class economy was destroyed during 10 years of IMF policies, impacted the lives of ordinary workers. Follows 30 unemployed auto-parts workers, who stage a protest against their bosses and economic globalization by occupying their closed factory and refusing to leave.
With Babies and Banners: The Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade by Call Number: Douglass 2-16411978. While autoworkers were occupying the Flint GM plant during the great sit-down strike of 1936-37, their wives, sisters, mothers, and girlfriends were leading the strike on the outside.
Labor Films Online
There are many feature-length films relating to labor and labor history available online. Here are just a select few. Below them, you can find some shorter videos, including newsreels and clips from documentaries.
- Final Offer1985. The film makers recorded the actual 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation, as well as the conflicts between the Canadian negotiator and his U.S. counterpart. Still used today to illustrate the nuts & bolts & complexities of collective bargaining.
- Salt of the Earth1954. The only film ever blacklisted in the U.S., Salt of the Earth is based on an actual strike that took place in New Mexico, involving Mexican-American miners, Anglo organizers, and the wives and children of the miners.
- The Wobblies1979. Directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer. This documentary on the International Workers of the World, or Wobblies, charts the rise and ebb of a labor movement that many people still find inspirational. It includes interviews and historical footage. Also available through Vimeo.
Labor History Videos Online
YouTube is an excellent source for newsreels, documentary clips, and footage relating to labor history. Here are a few highlights:
Labor Film Guides
LABOR FILM GUIDES & DATABASES
Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films About Labor by Tom Zaniello (ILR Press, 2003).
- Labor Themes in the movies and on TV (Media Resources Center, UC Berkeley)If you are looking for ideas of what labor films to view or screen, this is a good starting points. Selective rather than exhaustive, each title is annotated and linked to the IMDB. The MRC also offers a bibliography of books and articles about labor films.
- Labor Film DatabaseOver 1200 films and videos are listed, searchable by title, director, and keyword. International in scope, the database includes many independent films that have been shown at labor film festivals. Check out the "Highly Recommended Labor Films" page and the listing of Labor Film Festivals.
- Labor and Labor History Videotapes (Media Center, Berkeley)An extensive annotated list of labor history documentaries and films.
About The Douglass Media Center
Media Center
Mabel Smith Douglass Library
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
8 Chapel Drive
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8527
Telephone: 732/932-9783
The Media Center is a unit of the Rutgers University Libraries offering moving image and recorded sound materials, including the collections of the Laurie Music Library, to students, faculty, and staff on all Rutgers campuses. The unit also maintains viewing and listening facilities at the Media Center on Douglass.
Videos not committed for booking or on reserve circulate to faculty and graduate students for three days. All other users must view materials on-site at the Media Center on the Douglass Campus.