"The Man Behind The Labor Film Movement"

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“Film is a great communication medium, because everyone loves a movie,” says DC Labor FilmFest Director Chris Garlock, who calls labor films “great organizing and mobilizing tools” in the Machinists News Network’s video report on “The Man Behind the Labor Film Movement.” “People come out of our films and they’re charged up, they want to know 'How can I get a union in my workplace, how can I get organized?'” And now with over a dozen labor film festivals around the world – including the DC Labor FilmFest, which celebrates it’s 10th anniversary next month (October 12-19) – Garlock says “It’s safe to say it’s a movement now. It’s the labor film festival movement and it’s spreading around the world!” Garlock credits longtime labor film organizers in places as far-flung as South Africa, San Francisco and Rochester, New York, where the Rochester Labor Film Series, curated by his dad Jon Garlock, is this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, with sowing the seeds for the current crop of labor film festivals. Click here to see the MNN report, watch for the complete 2010 DC Labor FilmFest schedule soon, and email streetheat@dclaborarchives.org if you’d like to schedule a free screening of the 30-minute “Working Lunch” compilation of short films about labor.