Premiering earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival, Union is the latest film from Brett Story (The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, The Hottest August) and Stephen Maing (Crime + Punishment), following the Amazon Labor Union’s historic fight for workplace rights. Now reappearing on the fall festival circuit, where it’ll play at the New York Film Festival ahead of an October 18 release, the first trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “On April 1, 2022 a group of ordinary workers made history when they did what everyone thought was impossible: they successfully won their election to become the very first unionized Amazon workplace in America. This feat would be extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who did it with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Heralded as the most important win for labor since the 1930s, this highly immersive and cinematic documentary captures the ALU’s historic grassroots campaign to unionize thousands of their co-workers from day one of organizing. Up against a corporate superpower and with legal protections at a drastic low for workers, all odds are against the ALU. Yet this rag-tag ensemble remains unswayed in their beliefs in collective action and the dignity and power of the working-class.”
Edward Frumkin said in his review, “Amazon Labor Union (ALU) president Chris Smalls is not the star of the documentary Union. He is just one part of the congregation in Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s co-directed film. An early glimpse of Smalls finds him discreetly flipping burgers and hot dogs at a grill. It took an employee to ask Smalls if he’s the “low-key famous” Smalls for the leader to list his media recognitions. He doesn’t want clout for his union organizing, but rather to be known for making laborers heard, enabling a better society for his children and comrades, and proving to white executives that he can manage a flock in his distinguished streetwear outfits.”
See the trailer below.
The post First Trailer for Union Explores a Historic Battle Against Amazon first appeared on The Film Stage.
