Film Screening: Union

Film Screening:

Union

Directed by: Brett Story and Stephen Maing

• Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 7 PM

• Auditorium (Room 190), 100 McCaul

• Free Admission

   

When some workers make history by becoming the first unionized Amazon workplace in the United States, their victory stands as extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which succeeded with no prior organizing experience, institutional backing or substantial budget. These leaders, including the charismatic Chris Smalls, embraced their group’s unique persona and highly unconventional strategies, like wearing Money Heist costumes at press conferences or distributing free marijuana to workers, and did not back down in the face of near-impossible hurdles, including a dire lack of resources, interpersonal tensions, and the ruthless tactics of a corporate giant.

In this vérité documentation of their organizing, what emerges is a surprising turn of events led by an unwavering determination and a belief in labour-power. Heralded as the most important win for labour since the 1930s, ALU’s historic grassroots campaign demonstrates the profound ability of collective action to awaken the inherent power of the working class.

Director Brett Story will be in attendance for a post screening Q&A

Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her films have screened in theatres and festivals internationally, including at Sundance, New York Film Festival, CPH-DOX, and IDFA. She is the director of four feature films, including The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019), and the author of the book Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power Across Neoliberal America. The Hottest August was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and was called one of the best documentary films of 2019 by Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, among others. Her most recent feature documentary, Union(2024), co-directed with Stephen Maing, premiered at Sundance 2024 where it won a Special Jury Prize. Union has screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and was shortlisted for an Academy Award.

Brett has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Sundance Institute, and was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch. In both 2020 and 2025 she was nominated for a Cinema Eye Award for Best Director. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Media Praxis at the University of Toronto.