That company took advantage of me. Like so many companies are taking advantage of their workers. where'd you get the money? Don't worry about it. Back to work now. Doing a job that you don't really love. That's hard. Those are just a few powerful moments from some of the films in this year's DC Labor Film Fest, which kicks off on Mayday at the a FI Silver. As always, the festival's lineup focuses on work workers and the issues that shape our lives on and off the job.
But many of this year's selections also explore history, whether it's Lily, the true story of Lily Ledbetter's, fight for equal pay, the bittersweet farewell of Las Vegas Showgirls in the last showgirl, or the behind the scenes struggles of restaurant workers in a timeless, nameless kitchen. I've been organizing the DC Labor Film Fest for 25 years now, working closely with an incredibly talented programming team at a FI Silver. Recently, I sat down with that team.
A FI Director Todd Hitchcock, director of Programming Abby Algar and programmers Eli Presant and Javier Chavez to hear their top picks for this year's fest. You can find the full lineup trailers and ticket [email protected] and on labor history in two. the year was 1914, the bloody anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. Plus historian Nick Jovi shares one of his favorite labor songs. Uh, I love this one because it's got a great hook.
It reminds us that we need to know our history, and it celebrates a lesser known but radically important union. Of that 1930s era, the National Maritime Union or NMU, I'm Chris Garlock, and this is labor History Today. The DC Labor Film Fest is getting ready to kick off as it does each year on mayday Thursday, May 1st. This year's Festival of films about work workers and workers issues includes a dozen titles. I'll start with you Todd.
Uh, I'm sure like me, you love them all, of course, but what's your pick? Yeah, I do love them all. This is a really fun lineup this year. With labor movies, absolutely possible to achieve. If I had to single out from the lineup this year, I might go with September five, which debuted. Just last year, there's a host situation going on right now in the Olympic Village. A, b, C wants news to take over your sports. You're way over your head. We're a hundred yards away from where this is happening.
We are the only people capable of following it live. This is our story and we're keeping it. What I like about it is that it's an important part of media history covering the 1972 Munich Olympics and the hostage crisis. And how the news specifically a, b, c sports covered the story as it was happening.
Of course, there've been other tellings of that story, Steven Spielberg's film, Munich, for example, but this is hyper-focused on the story as it immediately happened and mediated by the television news. This TV production crew who typically do sports who have to suddenly pivot into covering hard news, maybe the hardest of of news, and make a lot of very quick, very tough calls on how to go about. Not only getting the story, but what's appropriate for representing the story in the moment.
The director, Tim Feldbaum, really puts you into the space 50 years ago of what the production floor and the studio looked like, felt like, and really achieves that sense of pacs and difficult decisions being made one right after the other on the fly, including where they're getting it wrong. Uh, so we appreciate all the innovation that we see from. The news people, but also there's a few corners that are cut that he doesn't shy away from that part as well.
So it's, it's just a fascinating media story. Not only. About the events themselves, but allowing us to understand more about the job and duty of people in the media around the 1972 Munich Olympics. And for me, I, I would just say this was another great instance of why I love working with you guys and a FI because I. When you suggested this, I knew the story, but how is this a labor film? Then I watched it and I was like, oh my God.
It is totally a labor film, but you are there in the studio with these broadcast folks working and it is just gripping. It's a well told story of workers on the job trying to do the best that they can under harrowing circumstance. It's a terrific labor film, so thank you for bringing it to us. You. Our job is to tell the story of these individuals whose lives are at stake. It's not okay if we made it worse. It's a madhouse down here. They know the whole world is watching.
If they shoot someone on live television, whose story is that? Is it ours or is it theirs? So from that to, uh, Abby, what's your pick? Well, I'm gonna choose something very different, but in a way has similarities because you are really embedded in this workplace and see behind the scenes. So that's the last showgirl starring Pamela Anderson. This is your place call for the final performance of Lura sso. She stars as a Vegas showgirl who has been.
Working in this traditional floor show for 30 plus years, she's put her life and soul into the work. She's surrounded by colleagues who together mount the show each evening for the public. The film comes in just at the point when they find out that the show has been canceled. After its long, long run, it sends.
Pamela Anderson's character into this kind of tailspin, figuring out, you know, what, what to do with her life, and realizing that maybe she's neglected certain aspects of her life to pursue her dream and her work in, in as, as a, as a showgirl, as an entertainer. She reconnects with her, her daughter, who's played by Billy Lord, and she's really great.
It's a fantastic look behind the scenes at this workplace because it, it is a workplace, um, and everything that goes into making these shows a reality. And it's also a look at this woman's journey and her as a mother and how that intersects with her professional life, and it's just really well done. Pamela Anderson. Is fantastic.
And you know, there was lots of buzz around her as being her comeback in a way, because I think the film mirrors her path a little bit in the entertainment industry in fact. So it's kind of a commentary on that. Ironically, the older and more experienced you become. As a woman in this, in this space, you should be kind of advancing and becoming more valuable.
But as we see in this film, she's kind of thrown aside as last year's news, old news, and it's onto the new generation of performers and shows and what the public want in the new era. So it's a really interesting workplace drama. It also has really funny aspects to it. The supporting cast is fantastic.
Jamie Lee Curtis is in a supporting role as a good friend of Pamela Anderson's character, also a former showgirl, and now she's a cocktail waitress, kind of struggling to get by Brenda Song Kin and Shipko, Dave Batista in the film, as well as the show stage manager guy. And so it's a really nice drama about the relationships between these people and how that goes together with the work that they do. So. Highly recommend.
It might not be a conventional pick for a labor movie, but I think it absolutely is. In that vein, and I'll also mention it's screening on Mother's Day. Pamela Anderson's character in the movie is a mother, and the film is also about that. Unconventional pick again, but I think it makes sense. Oh, I hadn't caught the scheduled on Mother's Day. Brilliant, brilliant people. Everybody should come. Bring your mom. I had such low expectations of this film. I did not expect much from Pamela Anderson.
I thought it would be all about. The show itself, you're absolutely right. It is literally behind the scenes. These are both films behind the scenes, places that we don't get to see unexpectedly moving. I was raving at all the performances in my mind. No small performances in this film, although Anderson does shine wonderful. Pick feeling seen. Feeling beautiful. That is powerful and I can't imagine my life without it. Doing a job that you don't really love. That's hard.
Javi. What do you got for us? So I'm going with probably the most conventional pick of the lineup. our closing night film is Serge Stein's, feature film debut strike. This is a film I've actually, personally have wanted to watch for so, so many years. I managed to finagle us to screen this as part of the festival, particularly because, so it came out in 1925 and it's celebrating its centennial.
So it's a hundred years and in the labor movement a hun you know, a hundred years later it's still incredibly relevant. It's all in the title strike. It's a film about, the laborers at, uh, factory. They're overworked, they're underpaid, and so they decide they've had enough and they go on strike. They use, the one act that laborers have to really show the people above them who actually is, producing all the value at the company. Eisenstein is one of the most famous Soviet filmmakers.
He was a theater director at the time, and then he started making films with this one, and he was a pioneer of montage. Keeping in mind that the one aspect of film that is unique to film that no other art form has is the editing. That should say something. And this one in particular has one of the most, iconic uses of Montage, in the film. So it just goes to show how great, how much of a genius, Eisenstein was. So I'm very much looking forward to this.
And the great thing about the screening in particular is that it's a silent film, so we're presenting it with live musical accompaniment by the great Andrew Earl Simpson. Um, so you want to talk about labor, see the labor that man will produce performing live to the film. Very much looking forward to closing out the festival with that film. Such a wonderful and an important film.
I saw it back in the days when, you had to go get a real, you know, at the college where I was, but to see it in a theater as it was intended with live accompaniment is, really special. What a FI is all about. Even if you've seen Strike before if you haven't seen it, in a theater like afis, this is gonna be really special. So, great pick. All right, Eli, what do you got for us?
Yeah, my pick is the film Laina, which we had actually is the opening night selection for our Latin American film festival just this past September. It's a modern update of the Play The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker, we follow the scenes in the back of house in its busy Times Square family style restaurant. The sort of inciting incident for the entire film is. $800 has gone missing from the prior night's deposit and that pits management against the staff. All the while.
There's a quickly escalating feud between two of the line cooks. I've worked in restaurants both front and back of house, so lots of elements in this film took me back to those days. There's always gonna be drama simmering behind the kitchen doors and seeing the film capture that as well as the tension when that uneasy truce between the staff and management gets broken is just a chef's kiss.
Um, this touches on a lot of other, labor issues as well, including, undocumented worker labor, people getting paid under the table as a result. Theft, questionable HR practices. For people who don't necessarily have recourse as a result of anything done unfairly, it's very relevant in tons of ways to the festival. Like what more could you get out of, a film set behind kitchen doors? I think I'm missing 800 from one of the registers. Anybody knows anything at all about this money?
You make sure it gets told. Got where'd you get the money? Don't worry about it. Back to work now. The film actually happens to screen on my birthday, which is May 14th at 6:40 PM. We'll all be there to sing you Happy Birthday, Eli. this film, completely came out of the blue to me. It's the kind of film that I saw that I just was mesmerized. First of all, it shot in, in not just black and white, but this glowing black and white. It's a phenomenal film, but the, the camera work is superb.
That the performances are, are amazing. It was the kind of thing that made me immediately look up this director. I'm sure you all knew this guy, but I had never heard of this guy before and this person is clearly going some, unless Hollywood gets hold of him hopefully it doesn't mess him up. But, just a Brara Vera film. Good choice. Todd. Let's go back to opening night. We have a very special treat for opening night. You wanna tell folks about that? Yeah. To go back to the beginning.
So, the festival will kick off on Thursday. May one, at seven o'clock with, a new film called Lily, which is the story of Lily Ledbetter, who, I'm gonna guess that your listeners recognize the name probably right away because of the Lily Ledbetter Act that was passed. About 20 years ago now. Right. Yeah. And the key thing was, I think it was the first thing that, Obama signed when he came in was the lily led better act, if I'm not mistaken, a little under 20 years ago.
That piece of legislation as the film makes us aware had a very long, very painful genesis. So it's her life story and, the decades long, efforts to, get into law the protections that ultimately were, achieved in that act. For a long time, it did not look good. There was a lot of, try and fail and pushback. The film, shows us that as well as, her own, lifetime from relative youth through middle age, presidents coming, presidents going, chances coming, chances going various court cases.
There's a lot there, but I think it does tremendous perspective gain by understanding that, a lot of things achieved, politically, legislatively are through these kind of efforts and a lot of one step forward, two step back setbacks to ultimately get to the finish line The partners, and I would like to take this to the Supreme Court. That company took advantage of me. Like so many companies are taking advantage of their workers. and playing.
lily Ledbetter is Patricia Clarkson, who, is of course a just a tremendous actress, and I think, this was a really important role for her. Also I believe Lily be led bets from Alabama. Patricia Clarkson, I think is originally from Alabama as well. So, she gets to go into that mode, in terms of, the character the accent and the setting. Yeah. The only thing I would add is that. The prevailing political, gestalt is that, well, we may have had, race issues or, inequality issues.
To the extent that we acknowledge any of these problems, we're all good now. Right. And so what's all the fuss about now? And I think that the Lily Ledbetter story, to your point, Todd, really shows the long and torturous path that any progress, takes. And it, it's, it's tough to take a long, complicated legal battle like that and make a good, story out of it.
And it's one of the reasons that we have the film fest, this film, I'm really honored and pleased that we can open, with this important and timely story. It's important to remember, these battles. I'm looking forward to opening the festival with that. Ms. Ledbetter was consigned to a career as a second class employee only because she is a woman. That cannot be the law and it isn't. You knew you were being paid less than your male counterparts. You waited to retire before suing.
You really believe. I chose to work 20 years knowing I was being cheated and discriminated against just so I could wait to sue. Does that make any sense? You are not one of them and you never will be. You are a country girl who grew up swimming in Dock Brewster's Pond. That's right. So I know how to burn off a leach. A FI, silver Director Todd Hitchcock, director of Programming Abby Algar and programmers Eli Presant and Javier Chavez previewing this year's DC Labor Film Fest.
Details including trailers and tickets are [email protected]. I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History. In two on this day in labor history, the year was 1914, the bloody anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. 11,000 miners had gone on strike against the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation owned by one of the wealthiest men in the world, John d Rockefeller.
The strikers wanted recognition of the United Mine Workers of America as their union increased wages, improved safety, and an eight hour workday. The miners lived in company town. Where they had to shop in the company stores, despite their high prices and had to visit company doctors, the strikers wanted an end to this repressive practice. During the strike, the workers and their families were evicted from the company houses.
The evicted minors moved into tent camps on land leased by the MWA, the Bitter Strike raged off. On this, the morning after minor celebrated Orthodox Easter National Guardsmen paid by the company, approached the camp at Ludlow. Some drove up in an armored car mounted with a machine gun. Its nickname was the death special. At 10:00 AM they began shooting indiscriminately into the tents. That night, some Guardsmen snuck down to the tents. Armed with kerosene, they lit the tents on fire.
Two women and 11 children were hiding in a dugout hole beneath one tent to avoid the flying bullet. They were burnt to death in all between 19 and 25. Men, women and children were murdered despite national outrage. Neither Rockefeller nor any of the shooters were ever held accountable. Two years later, the UMWA purchased the Ludlow site for commemoration. In 2008, it became a national historic landmark.
Singer songwriter Woody Guthrie wrote this tribute to the martyred miners and their families was so afraid you'd kill our children. Douglas, a cave and a seven foot deep carried our young one and a pregnant woman down inside labor history and two, brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. for our final segment, a special trait.
On our Labor Heritage Power Hour radio show, you can catch it Thursdays at 1:00 PM on WPFW 89.3 fm, or on the Labor Heritage Power Hour podcast. Anytime we have a series where we ask folks about their favorite labor song. Here's Nick Juvi, associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston with his well almost favorite labor song.
Hi, this is Nick Juvi. I teach history and labor studies at UMass Boston, and I'm a member of the faculty Staff Union of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. My favorite labor song always has been and always will be solidarity forever. But I wanna highlight a new one today, and that's all you Phonies, which is Woody Guthrie Lyrics set to Music by the Dropkick Murphy's. Uh, I love this one because it's got a great hook.
It reminds us that we need to know our history, and it celebrates a lesser known but radically important union. Of that 1930s era, the National Maritime Union or NMU, give it a listen. Come on. Friends and workers, I tell, tell you of how we built the union. You call the NMU. We fought the coons and gun thugs around the ocean. I guess I got my head in. You lose. You lose. You had a set up, you called the Yes IU. We had roaches. We fought against the weather and the stooges.
Cool to win a clean bunk and mass hall newly comes like you. Oh, you phony. Oh, you. Lose lose. For me to try to change this whole big around by myself, I would last longer than a snowball in hell but me. Now we fought like get so you fight like hell, we for eight hours a day and overtime day we battle it out with ya. Big shot man. We've seen times that look pretty dark. Until we brought the all you to lose, all you lose all you bound to lose, lose, lose all you.
Thanks, Nick. All you phonies bound to lose by the drop cake Murphy's. It's now officially my favorite labor song. Well, that's it for this week's edition of Labor History. Today, You can subscribe to LHT on your favorite podcast app, and if you like what you hear, and we hope you do, please give us a rating, leave a review, and share the show with your friends. It really helps more folks to find us.
Labor history into is a collaboration between the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show. That's a labor themed radio show based in Pennsylvania. Labor history today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Cowman. Its Initiative for Labor and the working poor at Georgetown University. If you wanna keep up with all the latest in labor arts and culture, subscribe to the Labor Heritage Foundation's Weekly [email protected].
It is completely free for labor history today. This has been Chris Garlock. Thanks so much for listening. Keep making history and we'll see you next time.