Before 2018, Chelsey Glasson was an up-and-coming manager at a large tech company. One day she heard a senior manager make discriminatory remarks about a pregnant employee. After reporting the incident to human resources, Chelsey’s life changed forever. Each year, tens of thousands of pregnant workers experience pregnancy discrimination. However, most pregnancy discrimination claims go unreported and even fewer claims result in legal action. For Chelsey, fighting workplace discrimination and retaliation means struggling through the emotional, physical, and financial toll of a lawsuit with no end in sight.

Spread Thin

The legal fight against pregnancy discrimination has left one woman spread thin.

In March 1970, the Teaching Assistants Association at the University of Wisconsin went out on strike for twenty-four days. It was the first TA strike in the history of the United States. This is the story of the strike that launched the first graduate student employee union in the country, the union that has continued to represent Wisconsin TAs for over fifty years. Features Bob Muehlenkamp of 1199 SEIU.

The Wisconsin TA Strike

The first Teaching Assistants strike in the U.S., in Wisconsin 1970.

The long-lost story of Communist poet, activist, and Canadian political prisoner Joe Wallace, bringing him to life through archival material, both real and imagined. This hybrid film is shot primarily on 16mm film and weaves together the story of Wallace, the failed Canadian Communist Party, and the filmmaker’s own surprising discovery of her relation to Wallace, despite a distant relationship with her father (Joe's great-nephew). Segmented throughout are stunning folk songs based on Wallace’s writings, performed by award-winning folk musician Simone Schmidt, aka Fiver. The film delves into the limits of history and its records, and how their re-imagining creates new political and personal truths.

A More Radiant Sphere

The long-lost story of Communist poet, activist, and Canadian political prisoner Joe Wallace.

When the restaurant that built them starts to shut them down, one artificially intelligent service bot decides to assemble a body that can house their consciousness permanently. Intercut throughout the narrative are interviews with former food service workers in Washington, DC. The interviews and the narrative work together to weave a story of freedom from the threads of real and speculative events.

Feed/back

Interviews with former food service workers in Washington, DC. intercut with a narrative about disposability.

Michael Paul Britto - Community Coordinator at Forsyth Satellite Academy High School, Arts Educator &amp; Artist. From the project "The Song of the Essential Worker", a Public Art Project involving posters, a mural, and film portraits of fourteen workers highlighting the resilience and diversity of New York City.

A Reality Show

Michael Paul Britto is a Community Coordinator at Forsyth Satellite Academy High School, as well as an Arts Educator & Artist.

Armed with realistic bird puppets, trickster environmental activists pretend to be oil company Total—staging a satirical press conference to introduce "RéHabitat," a program to rescue animals from the East African Oil Pipeline by relocating them to “more sustainable” habitats. Using humor and mischief, they expose a deadly ecological disaster in a zany effort to help #StopEACOP.

Total Disaster

Armed with realistic bird puppets, trickster environmental activists pretend to be oil company Total — staging a satirical press conference to introduce "RéHabitat".

This documentary tells the story of the MV Portland. It's about Australian seafarers, safest in the world, being replaced by foreign crew at $2.20 per hour. It's pure corporate greed trying to smash the workers. It's about workers fighting back and why they stood up for their rights "and every Aussie battler out there".

The MV Portland

Australian seafarers are replaced by foreign crew at $2.20 per hour due to pure corporate greed.

Set against the backdrop of the long history of the Texas prison system – from Juneteenth to COVID – Dark Cell Harlem Farm explores the death by suffocation of eight Black men at a prison plantation in 1913. Combining readings of primary source materials and personal reflections by formerly incarcerated individuals, footage of the prison landscapes where the incident took place, and a series of graphical interventions and excavations, the film makes an urgent and uncompromising argument for the impossibility of prison reform and the necessity of prison abolition.

Dark Cell Harlem Farm

'Dark Cell Harlem Farm' explores the death by suffocation of eight Black men at a prison plantation in 1913.

When factories were forced to close operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, an ophthalmic lens workers union ensured mechanisms to protect their workers, ultimately with the goal to change the culture of labor in their factory. While the pandemic turned the spotlight on essential and frontline workers, what was essential to the workers of Optodev was their union.

See Us Come Together

Ophthalmic lens workers in The Phiippines organize to change the culture of labor in their factory.

Alone/Together is a uniquely participatory documentary featuring artists, travelers, teachers, children, parents, and essential workers around the world, struggling and persevering through a deadly pandemic. Told through the eyes and perspective of a chorus of voices, the short documentary connects global citizens in eleven different countries as they begin responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our participants are from the US, the UK, Italy, Russia, Taiwan, Japan, China, Malaysia, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands. <a href="https://www.panvideo.net/alone-together" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.panvideo.net/alone-together</a> Panel Discussion with Epicenter-NYC : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYaMl7bQ4gw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Youtube</a>  / <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/epicenter-nyc/nyc-based-filmmakers-find-inspiration-in-lockdown" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Podcast</a>

Alone/Together

Artists, travelers, teachers, parents, and essential workers in 11 different countries struggle and persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic.

We're often told just how productive a capitalist economy is. We produce far more than we need … so why are there still so many hungry and malnourished people? In this episode we'll investigate the real cause of world hunger and assess whether capitalism has the tools to solve this massive problem.

Can Capitalism Solve World Hunger?

The real cause of world hunger and whether capitalism has the tools to solve this massive problem.

It’s no secret that Americans love to hear about billionaires. You’ll find them everywhere. They’re on the news (Bezos space launch), have their own TV shows, movies, and even make their way to elected office. Specifically, we consistently give massive audiences to “self-made” billionaires, the people who, unlike the aristocrats and monarchs of yore, didn’t simply inherit their wealth. In this episode, we’re talking about the obsession with so-called “self-made” billionaires, how misleading that term can be, and everything wrong with the myth of the “self-made person".

The Myth of the "Self-Made" Billionaire

The obsession with so-called “self-made” billionaires and how misleading that term can be.

All the Doc Shorts

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Tickets are now disabled for our main Season 11 festival films.  Winners will be announced on our website (workersunitefilmfestival.org) in November, along with info on 2023 submissions.  Questions? melanie@workersuniteff.org

The Workers Unite Film Festival is a celebration of global labor solidarity, bringing together activists, academics, and filmmakers all over the world who aim to publicize the struggles, successes, and daily lives of workers. We are non-profit, based out of NYC, and in our 11th season.

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