UNION

A film by Brett Story, Stephen Maing
2024, 104 minutes
No. 461
Documentary
UNION
$375.00
?
FAQs
Shortlisted | Best Documentary Feature | 2025 Academy Awards

Description
Through intimate cinema vérité, Union chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Led by the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. 

The odds are stacked against them, as the group finds itself up against a tech industry giant with unlimited resources, without major support from national unions or politicians, and while navigating internal divisions within their own ranks. 

Filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing document the struggle from day one, offering a gripping human drama about the fight for power and dignity in today's globalized economic landscape.


Festivals
Winner, U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change, Sundance Film Festival
Winner, Best Documentary Feature - Audience Award, Indie Memphis Film Festival
Winner, Change Award, Adelaide Film Festival
Official Selection, True/False Film Fest
Official Selection, CPH:DOX
Official Selection, Visions Du Reel


Reviews
"A powerful reminder of what’s at stake when companies reduce workers to numbers on a balance sheet." -  Los Angeles Times

"It is hard to capture, on film, the often exhausting work of organizing workplace labor... but UNION does it." - The New York Times

"Stylistically haunting, politically urgent, and guided by its subjects’ journeys rather than a predetermined structure." - Vulture

“A vital and urgent portrait of labor organizing and its enduring possibility." - IndieWire
 
"Captures both the pain and the power of people at the base of a global infrastructure." - Rogerebert.com

Subjects

Related Films