Labor Filmfest Celebrates Activism

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“If film is going to be an art, it’s going to have to be an art that does something,” AFTRA President John Connolly (and FilmFest Advisory Board member) said Sunday night at the DC Labor FilmFest screening of North Country. The FilmFest amused, provoked and entertained nearly 1,000 enthusiastic activists and film fans over five days of screenings of films about work and workers (the FilmFest continues Monday and Tuesday at the AFI with repeat screenings; see http://www.dclaborarchives.org/ for schedule). “It is different for me to see my own story up on the screen,” said Pastor David Rocha at Sunday’s screening of Farmingville, which was co-sponsored by the National Capital Immigration Coalition, CASA of Maryland, the Virginia Justice Center and Tenants & Workers United (watch our website for updates on an important immigrant rights action in Gaithersburg this Wednesday). “I’ll never look at a pushcart vendor the same way,” said a moved filmgoer after the Opening Night screening of Man Push Cart with director Ramin Bahrani.