Labor Films
This is an ongoing list of films that complicate our understanding of work and the political possibilities of organized labor. Looking beyond the standard history of unionism in the United States, we include films that focalize sites and forms of work that have not typically been valorized, or represented, in the popular imagination of the labor movement. The films that we showcase involve racialized and gendered forms of production such as house work, sex work, factory work, student work, service work, and the work of survival in a world in which existence depends upon a wage. As members of unions in cultural sectors we are interested in how film can reflect the conditions of its own production and conditions of labor in cultural industries. Within and outside the factory floor, these films depict the lived reality of workers as they struggle for subsistence, dignity, and revolution. Together, these works offer historical testimony that opens up onto radically different visions of a collective future. As this list grows, we hope to solicit contributions from unionized and nonunionized workers, along with those who do not work.
Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory, Lumière Brothers (1895)
Strike, Sergei Eisenstein (1925)
Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin (1936)
On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan (1954)
Salt of the Earth, Herbert Biberman (1954)
The Pajama Game, George Abbott and Stanley Donen (1957)
Mamma Roma, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1962)
La noire de…, Ousmane Sembène (1966)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, William Greaves (1968)
In the Company of Men, William Greaves (1969)
Finally Got The News, Stewart Bird, Peter Gessner, and René Lichtman (1970)
I Am Somebody, Madeline Anderson (1970)
The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Elio Petri (1971)
Eight Hours Don't Make a Day, Fassbinder (1972)
Tout Va Bien, Jean-Luc Godard (1972)
Wildcat at Mead, (1972)
Solidarity, Joyce Wieland (1973)
Rebellion in Patagonia (La Patagonia Rebelde), Hector Olivera (1974)
Jeanne Dielman, Chantal Akerman (1975)
Les Prostituées de Lyon parlent, Carole Roussopoulos (1975)
All Work And No Pay, BBC Open Door (Feb 1976)
Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple (1976)
Union Maids, Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Miles Mogulescu (1976)
Creche-Lar, Maria Luiza d’Aboim (1978)
Baara, Souleymane Cissé (1978)
Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett (1978)
Blue Collar, Paul Schrader (1978)
Trabalhadoras Metalúrgica, Olga Futemma and Renato Tapajós (1978)
With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade, Lorraine Gray (1979)
Bush Mama, Haile Gerima (1979)
The Wobblies, Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer (1979)
Norma Rae, Martin Ritt (1979)
Passing the Message, Cliff Bestall and Michael Gavshon (1981)
Poletown Lives!, George L. Corsetti (1982)
Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle, Jack Santino amd Paul Wagner (1982)
Born in Flames, Lizzie Borden (1983)
The Real Thing, Peter Schnall (1984)
The Killing Floor, Bill Duke (1984)
Working Girls, Lizzie Borden (1986)
Sulanca, Katia Mesel (1986)
칠수와 만수 (English: Chilsu and Mansu), Park Kwang-su (1988)
At the River I Stand, David Appleby (1993)
Workers Leaving the Factory, Harun Farocki (1995)
The Interview, Harun Farocki (1996)
Human Resources, Laurent Cantet (1999)
Office Space, Mike Judge (1999)
Hammering it Out, Vivian Price (2000)
Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)
The Internationale, Peter Miller (2000)
Time out, Laurent Cantet (2001)
Chain of Love, Marije Meerman (2001)
Working Women of the World, Marie France Collard (2002)
Soil, Struggle and Justice: Agroecology in the Brazilian Landless Movement, Andreas Hernandez (2014)
Maquilapolis, Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre (2006)
Sleep Dealer, Alex Rivera (2008)
In Comparison, Harun Farocki (2009)
The Forgotten Space, Allan Sekula and Noël Burch (2010)
Housemaids, Gabriel Mascaro (2013)
Touch of Sin, Jia Zhangke (2013)
The Hand That Feeds, Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick (2014)
Sound That, Kevin Jerome Everson (2014)
Delano Manongs, Marissa Aroy (2014)
Tangerine, Sean Baker (2015)
Park Lanes, Kevin Jerome Everson (2015)
We The Workers, Wen Hai (2017)
Bitter Money, Wang Bing (2017)
Rams 23 Blue Bears 21, Kevin Jerome Everson (2017)
Bisbee 17, Robert Greene (2018)
Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley (2018)
Support the Girls, Andrew Bujalski (2018)
A Strike and An Uprising (in Texas), Anne Lewis (2018)
Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda (2018)
Chão (English: Landless), Camila Freitas, (2019)
Atlantique (English: Atlantics), Mati Diop (2019)
Parasite, Bong Joon-ho (2019)
Organized by Olivia Leiter and Michael Berlin.
List with the help of Micah Gottlieb.
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