Washington Post: Where Labor Holds The Upper Hand!!!!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101002566_pf.html

With More Films to Choose From, D.C. Fest Organizer Was Working Overtime

By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007; C01

The American labor movement has been in decline or disarray over the past 20 years, as it seeks to respond to increasing moves toward privatization, globalization and weakened labor laws. But while the working class may be embattled in real life, it's enjoying something of a golden age on the big screen.

When Chris Garlock, a coordinator with the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, started the DC Labor FilmFest seven years ago, the pickings were slim. "Everybody thought we'd be showing 'Silkwood,' 'Matewan,' 'The Salt of the Earth' and maybe 'Hoffa,' " he recalls. "And the truth was that there were plenty of films from around the world that dealt with workers and workers' issues, but it was still a narrow field."

In recent years, Garlock says, he's seen more feature films dealing with labor issues, from "Fast Food Nation" to "Blood Diamond." But this year, he says, "it just exploded. I must have screened 150 films, and for the first time, it was really difficult to get the list down. I wound up choosing 30 films, which is more than twice as many as we've ever shown before."

The movies in this year's festival, which begins today, include a comedy about a Japanese mining town trying to recover from the loss of 2,000 jobs and a French drama about a young consultant preparing a company for downsizing. But the centerpiece is this evening's opening night film, "It's a Free World . . . ," by the granddaddy of labor films, Ken Loach. Set in contemporary London, the movie tells the story of Angie (played by Kierston Wareing in a sensational breakout performance), a labor subcontractor who becomes gradually embroiled in the world of illegal migrant labor.

The subject has driven feature films before, most notably in "El Norte," "Dirty Pretty Things," "In This World" and the upcoming "Under the Same Moon," not to mention Loach's own union organizing drama, "Bread and Roses." In some ways, "It's a Free World . . . " serves as a sequel to that 2000 movie, examining how globalization and trade liberalization have with dizzying speed transformed the lives of working people.

Loach's longtime collaborator, screenwriter Paul Laverty, explains that after working on a period piece, the team was eager to get back to the present. "We were very keen after 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' to try to capture something that was very contemporary and had the whiff of the moment about it," Laverty said recently from his home in London. "There are so many changes happening now, in matters of transport and distribution, and we've always wondered what's going on in these warehouses and distribution centers and supermarkets."

FULL story at link.