It seems not a day goes by that there isn’t a story in the
news focused on worker’s rights around the globe. From Amazon making headlines
every other week due to the exploitation of their warehouse employees, our
current national administration’s anti-union rhetoric, the increasing use of
automation and robotics to take over manual labor jobs, and the very recent
United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors taking place around the
country and right here in Rochester, labor issues are woven into the fabric of
our day-to-day lives.
So it’s no
wonder that the Rochester Labor Film Series has found enduring success.
Celebrating its 30th year (making it among the first of its kind in the country
and the longest-running feature film festival in Rochester), the series
presents labor-themed stories that focus on working class issues and interests.
And its screenings tend to be packed.
When it
comes to labor issues, the surface issues may have changed as technology has
altered methods of production, distribution, and transportation, not to mention
the increased recognition of individual worker’s rights. But many of the
underlying concerns facing workers have remained — from conditions and
exploitation of laborers, to the fight for fair wages.
The Labor
Film Series was created by Jon Garlock, Chair of the Labor Council’s Education
Committee, who’s been co-curator and coordinator of the series since its founding
in 1989. He’s now joined by Vincent Saravallo, associate professor of Sociology
and Anthropology at RIT, and Jared Case, Eastman Museum’s curator of film
exhibitions.
“What’s nice
about our group, is you’ve got someone who has experience with organized labor
and someone experienced in the medium of cinema, and I come from an academic
background,” Saravallo says. “So when we pick films, we know what’s going to
work, and we can talk about its cinematic aspects, and its organized labor
aspects, and the subjects that I would like to get across to my students.”
The
longevity of the series has allowed it to focus on contemporary labor issues
while reflecting on how those issues can resurface decades later. Case credits
the durability of the series to its focus on community and collaboration. “It’s
a partnership between the Labor Council and the Eastman Museum,” he says. “We
both have resources that we bring to that collaboration: us with the venue and
the ability to access the material and have a place to show it, and the Labor
Council with its access to an audience these films are specifically geared for,
as well as the expertise in the labor issues.”
Beginning this
year on Friday, October 11 (a later start than normal due to renovations at the
Eastman Museum), the Labor Series kicks off with a screening of Bill Duke’s
1984 drama “The Killing Floor.” Telling the true story of efforts to organize
an interracial union of Chicago packing house workers during and after World
War I, it was the film that first inspired the creation of the Rochester Labor
Film Series.
All films
are shown at the George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre (900 East Avenue),
which will host weekly screenings through December 13. Organizers often invite
speakers to come and talk about the movie, either with an introduction or a
panel discussion afterward to discuss the issues and supplement each picture
with other perspectives on the issues it raises.
On Saturday,
October 26, following the premiere of “At War” — a French drama about the
closing of an auto plant despite wage concessions by the workers — local UAW
leader Dan Maloney will discuss the picture in the context of his union’s
strike at GM. Blending live music and classic cinema, the Alloy Orchestra will
accompany the screening of the 1929 film “Man with a Movie Camera” on Friday,
November 1.
The series
has a mission to screen motion pictures that educate as well as entertain,
showcasing films from countries around the world in addition to the United
States, which can range from documentaries to science fiction and comedies. Many
among its most popular selections over the years tie into other social
concerns, whether that be immigration, women’s rights, or LGBTQ issues. Garlock
points to the diversity of subjects and cinematic approaches as the source of
the program’s strength. And it’s not just audiences that have taken note: in
honor of its series’ 25th anniversary, the New York State legislature passed a
resolution honoring the contributions of the Rochester Labor Film Series to the
city’s cultural landscape.
Every one of
us is a laborer in one way or another, and the issues raised in these films
touch us all, in ways we may realize, and others we may not. Which means
there’s no fear of the well running dry for filmmakers searching out new angles
on these subjects.
“We’re all
doing a job, as a passion or as a position to make our lives better, either
because of what we’re doing directly or because of the benefits that we get
from it,” Case says. “There’s an overarching recognition that labor is not just
something you do, but something important to everyone’s existence. Labor is
life.”
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2019.
