Labor goes to the Movies

The Disney Revolt

Among those turning out to support the strike by Hollywood writers -- now in its 10th week-- have been members of the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839); back in March, the animators staged a “solidarity walk” around Walt Disney Studios in Burbank with dozens of the studio’s animation production workers protesting Disney’s refusal to voluntarily recognize its unionization efforts. Those who know their Hollywood labor history will have recognized the echoes of another Hollywood strike, the 1941 walkout by hundreds of animators at Walt Disney Studios.On today’s show, animation historian Jake Friedman joins us to discuss his book The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age. Produced by Chris Garlock
@dclabor @jakesfriedman #thedisneyrevolt @WGAWest #WGAStrike

Americonned

The new documentary Americonned traces the history of the labor movement, as well as the devious political tactics of a select few who have influenced the course of history. But radical inequality leads to radicalization, and this powerful documentary depicts what happens when America hits its tipping point.Labor Goes to the Movies co-host Chris Garlock talks with director Sean Claffey about the film, which is now screening at selected locations around the country, including Tuesday, June 6 at the AFI Silver in Silver Spring, Maryland, where it’s being co-sponsored by the DC Labor FilmFest. We have a limited number of free passes available; CLICK HERE or email info@laborheritage.org.Produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @AFISilver @americonneddoc

2023 DC Labor FilmFest preview

AFI Silver Theatre’s Todd Hitchcock and Abbie Algar preview the first week of this year’s DC Labor FilmFest, including the Opening Night screening of BLACKBERRY with director Matt Johnson on Monday, May 1 at 7p. FREE for Labor Heritage Foundation Supporters & AFI Silver Cinema Club Members; you must CLICK HERE to RSVP and admission is first-come-first-served; doors open at 6p.  Hosted by Elise Bryant and Chris Garlock; Produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @AFISilver #BlackBerry

Class struggle at White Lotus and the Oscars

Carnegie Mellon professor Kathy M. Newman on how White Lotus muddies the class struggle, and argues that most of this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees are about working class characters.
Produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @_kathymnewman
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Screen Actors Guild Award labor picks

Actor Harold Phillips sorts through this year’s Screen Actors Guild Award nominees for laborific films and television shows, from Everything Everywhere All At Once to The Fabelmans, Severance, The Bear and Abbott Elementary.
Produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @haroldPDX @sagaftra #SAGAwards @netflix
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Eric Alterman on “She Said”

"It's definitely a woman's story and I think that's appropriate, obviously, because the story of the Me Too movement is also a woman's story, but also because journalism is increasingly a woman's story."
Award-winning journalist Eric Alterman, The Nation’s “Liberal Media” columnist for 25 years, on “She Said,” the “embattled craft of journalism” and his favorite films about journalism. Click here for his December 2022 At the Movies column in The American Prospect.
Produced by Chris Garlock
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @TheProspect
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Dead Labor in the Age of Streaming

“It’s intriguing that two biopics of the 20th century’s most famous —and most working-class—superstars have appeared in 2022,” says our guest on today’s show, Carnegie Mellon professor Kathy Newman, who wrote about the films “Blonde” and “Elvis” on the Working-Class Perspectives blog in a piece entitled Marilyn and Elvis: Dead Labor in the Age of Streaming. But Elise wants to know Where are all the Black biopics, What have they done to Norma Jean, and anyway, “Black people wouldn't be crazy screaming for Elvis the way they’re portrayed in the film.” Listen to this podcast; it could save you six hours of your life!
Edited/produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1@_kathymnewman
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5 unsung films that dramatize America’s rich labor history

Peter Dreier on "5 unsung films that dramatize America’s rich labor history": Northern Lights (1978), North Country (2005), The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002) and Salt of The Earth (1954).
Dreier is E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, and Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Edited/produced by Chris Garlock.
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @PeterDreier
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A Working-Class Christmas Story Christmas

"I don't love economic exploitation, but I do love Christmas and Christmas movies. They work to sell me stuff and ideology, but they also critique commercialism and exploitation. See what subversive messages you can find in a holiday classic. I triple dog dare you!"
That’s Kathy M. Newman, a frequent guest here on Labor Goes to The Movies; Kathy’s an associate professor of literary and cultural studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where she writes about radio, television, and contemporary media. Our discussion today is based on her terrific article A Working-Class Christmas Story Christmas posted this week on the Working-Class Perspectives blog.
Produced by Chris Garlock
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @_kathymnewman
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Julia Reichert: “Documentarian of the Working Class”

Julia Reichert’s death from cancer on December 1 at the age of 76 made headlines across the country. Most of them called her an “Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker” and that was certainly true: she was a four-time Academy Award-nominated director, for 1977’s Union Maids, Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists in 1984, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant in 2010 and American Factory, for which she won an Oscar in 2020.
But we thought Julia would have really got a kick out of The New York Times, which called her “Documentarian of the Working Class.” Back in 2020, Julia talked with 9 to 5 co-founder Karen Nussbaum about how her working-class upbringing informed her work as much as her left politics; she offered advice for chronicling the pandemic, and told what it was like to give her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards that year.
The interview, originally published in The American Prospect in April 2020, ran in two parts on the Labor History Today podcast; you can hear the first part here today on Labor Goes to the Movies, and the second part will run in this Sunday’s Labor History Today podcast.
Produced by Chris Garlock
@dclabor @LaborHeritage1 @karenbnussbaum @TheProspect
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