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Doc Stories

Union

Directed by Brett Story, Stephen Maing

USA | Documentary | 104

19 Oct
Sat, Oct 19 at 1:30 pm PT

Guests Expected

Directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing are expected to attend.

Description

Among other dubious business practices, Amazon is notorious for being anti-union. Some brave workers in various locations are taking organizing matters into their own hands however, and this rousing and immersive documentary takes a deep dive into the efforts of one such group in Staten Island. Dismayed over the inadequate provisions of PPE equipment for workers, a charismatic aspiring rapper named Chris Smalls walks off the job, forms a group called the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), and convinces others to join via motivating speeches and offers of free marijuana. In order to bring the matter to a vote, ALU needs to get 30% of the workforce signed on amid predatory anti-organizing tactics by their bosses, and directors Story and Maing depict the ALU’s ups and downs with a bird’s-eye view as the group strives to reach the magic number.
—Rod Armstrong

Director/Producer Brett Story

Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based in Toronto. Her films have screened in theaters and festivals internationally, including at CPH-DOX, SXSW, True/False, and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is the director of the award-winning films The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019), and author of the book Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power Across Neoliberal America (2019). Brett has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Sundance Institute, and was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Media Praxis at the University of Toronto.

Director/Cinematographer/Editor/Producer Stephen Maing

Stephen Maing is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer based in New York City. His feature documentary Crime + Punishment which he also filmed and edited won a 2018 Sundance Special Jury Award, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary, and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His film Dirty Gold (2020), featured in Netflix’s Dirty Money series, immersively reveals US involvement in the illicit mining and trading of gold and was filmed on location in Peru’s Amazon rain forest and Miami, Florida.

Film Details

Language English

Year 2023

Runtime 104

Country USA

Director Brett Story, Stephen Maing

Executive Producer Jenny Raskin, Lauren Haber, Geralyn White Dreyfous, The Villa Family, David Levine, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker, Dawn Olmstead

Producer Brett Story, Stephen Maing, Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, Martin Dicicco

Editor Blair Mclendon, Malika Zouhali-worrall, Stephen Maing

Cinematographer Martin Dicicco, Stephen Maing

Closed Captions Closed Captions are confirmed for this film

Audio Description Audio Descriptions are confirmed for this film

American Sign Language (ASL) Interpretation American Sign Language Interpretation is not currently scheduled for this film