Free online screenings this week focus on MLK-labor connection
(Jan 16, 2023) In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, the DC Labor FilmFest is proud to team up this week with the Workers Unite! Film Festival (New York City), the Rochester Labor Film Series (Rochester, NY), and the Socialist Labor Party Hall in Barre (VT) to present three MLK-related films – including one of special interest to DC-area viewers -- as part of the Global Labor FilmFest Network (GLFF) 2023 Online Screening Series. All three are available online for free screening beginning Monday, January 16 (starting at 5p EST) and running through Friday, January 20 (11:45p EST); CLICK HERE now for details; you can watch anytime in the Jan 16-20 window!
WHO CARES ABOUT DC? When director Stephen Kolb moved from California to Washington, DC in 2007, he didn't realize he was giving up his citizenship. He learned that the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution didn't apply to DC, because DC isn't a state! Most Americans don't know much about DC except that it's the nation's capitol. And they don't know that real people live, work and pay very high taxes in the District of Columbia. Who Cares About DC? tells the story of DC's status as America's last plantation through the voices of activists who have been working for decades to make DC the 51st State, realizing the dream of full American citizenship for its more than 700,000 residents. (57 min, 2022) CLICK HERE to watch trailer.
AT THE RIVER I STAND During two eventful months in 1968, what began as a local labor dispute between African American sanitation workers and the white power structure of Memphis grew into the devastating tragedy of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a national struggle for racial and economic justice. It marked a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. (56 min, 1993) See below for trailer. LOVE & SOLIDARITY An exploration of nonviolence and organizing through the life and teachings of Rev. James Lawson. Lawson provided crucial strategic guidance while working with Martin Luther King, Jr., in southern freedom struggles and the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968. Moving to Los Angeles in 1974, Lawson continued his nonviolence organizing in multi-racial community and worker coalitions that have helped to remake the LA labor movement. Through interviews and historical documents, acclaimed labor and civil rights historian Michael Honey and award-winning filmmaker Errol Webber put Lawson's discourse on nonviolent direct action on the front burner of today's struggles against economic inequality, racism and violence, and for human rights, peace, and economic justice. (38 min, 2016) See below for trailer.