Made in LA...in DC

Here is a review of the film event from Sarah Sattelmeyer, Research Assistant, and Emily Groene, Program Assistant. -- Margy Waller

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October has been a busy and productive month for us here at Inclusion!

Last night (October 10th) we co-sponsored a screening of the documentary Center for Social Media at American University as part of the DC Labor Film Festival (whew!).

Here is the flier:

For those of you who are movie buffs, Made in L.A., which documents the interrelationships between garment workers in L.A and their struggle to gain and maintain basic workplace rights, made its debut at documentary film festivals across the country this year, including SilverDocs in Silver Spring, MD. It also aired on the PBS program POV on September 4th. So needless to say, we were pretty lucky to have this (free!) opportunity and be able to share it with others from the DC area.

In case you are not convinced yet, here is what some other "movie buffs" thought about the film:
LA Times
New York Times

Over 100 people were present for the screening and many stayed after the movie to engage in discussion and dialogue about low-wage work in America. Margy was joined on the discussion panel by the film’s director Almudena Carracedo (who, I must add, was wearing amazing boots from Spain!) and its producer Robert Bahar, as well as by Rich Stolz from the Center for Community Change’s Immigration Team.

As a panelist, Margy offered a broader look at the state of the low-wage workplace and explained to an audience composed of students, professors, and community members why Inclusion promotes an economy that works for and allows participation by everyone in society. Perhaps the most salient point made by the discussion panel (to us, of course!) was when Almudena and Robert acknowledged that the story of illegal and unhealthy work practices told in Made in L.A. could have been told about many other parts of the service industry.

The message to us at Inclusion was loud and clear: the struggle for job quality and higher labor standards is universal. While the film did a beautiful job of interweaving the personal narratives of three female garment workers with their struggle for justice in the workplace, it also addressed issues experienced by Americans in every part of society. We hope that the many film students who were in the audience took note of how a film can exist as a symbiotic effort between filmmaker and community and how a strong social message can be portrayed to an audience through documentary film.

We enjoyed the opportunity to bring this dialogue out of our downtown Washington policy wonk-y office and into the community and the chance to use a different form of media to explore and project social messages.

Please see this list of things you can do to help!

-- Emily Groene and Sarah Sattelmeyer