Introduction of the International Labor video & Film Festival


The works of this international labor video & film festival, which shows 18 pieces of work from 9 different  countries, focus on presenting outcome which labor video movement has been building for several years in various context. Working on making an image in the labor movement by using the visual media has been gradually expanding its field from a full-length documentary to a newsreel. Especially, the distribution of the video technology and internet has been providing the very strong technical method to such a labor visual media movement.

<Flickering flame> directed by Ken Loach, which was selected as the opening, is one of three selections that capture the life and struggle of liverpool dockers who has been protesting against privatization and performing as a model. <Port in a storm> directed by Anne Marie Sweeney is originally consisted of four episodes but this labor video & film festival shows two episodes that focus on the act of worker's wife group. On the other hand, <All for one>, which U. S labor video network group, UPPNET produced and Larry Duncan of Labor Beat, labor video group in Chicago directed, describes especially the international solidarity struggle. With the help of the wide distribution of the video technology, Larry Duncan calmly traced the simultaneous solidarity struggle in U. S, Sweden, U. K, and Japan.

Through the middle of nineties, workers struggle has been rising still or even more intensively and particularly in the quite developed countries the organized workers' struggle has been becoming the daily event. According to this, the activity of newsreel which records these struggles and distributes them has been used more widely. <Metro days of action>, which was produced by Working T.V, a labor video group in Canada and screened as a weekly program, and <Urgent report on general strike vol 2.> produced by LNP(Labor News Production) dramatically demonstrate the point which is attainable. Of course, there is a difference. In a case of Canada, <Metro days of action> is one of T. V program having already achieved the individual part of cable broadcasting, however only copying the videos makes the distribution of the labor video possible in Korea. In spite of this difference, both videos equally mirrors the live outcome created by labor video movement which has been intervening the process of struggles and practising. 

This labor video & film festival also includes the videos based on the long-term covering which stands just on the opposite of newsreel. Michael Moore's comic documentary, <Roger & Me>, which has been already the classic documentary, is formally screened for the first time in Korea and LNP's <Discharged workers> screened in Yamagata Film Festival is shown as a completely new work through reediting. Similarily to <Roger & Me>, Video Press's <Human rights for Japan national railway Union>, which deals with the issue of fire, describes calmly how the winds of privatization drive workers to the cliff of survival. <Out At Work> which uniquely deals with the life of homosexual workers has created many things to talk about not only because of its excellence but also because of the fact that its screening on a public broadcasting was canceled just because it had been supported by trade union. 

There are some works dealing with the issue around women workers which often turns up as a main topic among the labor issues. In <Occupation : Mill Workers> and <We are not your monkeys> directed by Anand Patwardhan, we can find the maturity of the director who has been recording the labor movement for more than 20 years. <Arab women textile workers in Galilee fight Israeli companies>, which was produced by a broadcasting in Israel  under the support of Arab workers organization, makes us observe the real condition of Arab workers whose rate reaches 1/4 of whole Israeli population, which has been unknown to us. <Fastfood Women> produced by Appalshop reveals the reality of women workers in U. S. who desire the stable employment, under the condition that part time work is getting common.

Besides, there are some more selected videos. Those are Chris Reeves's <The Cause of Ireland> where the analytical depth is splendid, Mike Konopacki's <Mouseconsin> which persuades into obtaining political influence by workers using the technique of the simple satirical animation, <Fisheries Debate> by F.A.W.U (Food and Allied workers Union) which at length describes the conflict around the condition of fishing workers, Cine Club's  <KAROSHI> dealing with the reality of workers' dying of the terrible degree of labor intensity in Japan, and the classic independent film in Korea, <Night before strike>. 
