(Klein, Reichert and Mogulescu, 1976)
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Sitdowns, scabs, goon squads, unemployment, hunger marches, red baiting and finally the energetic birth of the CIO–the 1930s were a landmark period for the American labor movement. Union Maids is the story of three women who lived the history and make it come alive today. It was the first film of its kind–an oral history, using a wealth of footage from the National Archives to chronicle the fight to form industrial unions as seen through the eyes of rank and file women. The film was widely distributed in 16mm, including theatrical dates in about 20 cities.
SELECTED AWARDS AND SCREENINGS
- Academy Award Nomination, Best Feature Documentary
- Recently restored by the Women’s Film Restoration Fund
- Chosen as one of only 15 films screened at the 40th anniversary retrospective of the Flaherty Film Seminar
- American Film Festival, Blue Ribbon
- Leipzig International Film Festival, Special Women’s Prize
- Lille International Film Festival
- Chicago International Film Festival, Certificate of Merit
- Sydney, Australia Film Festival
- Edinburgh International Film Festival
- Mannheim International Film Week
- Festival de Cinema, Nyon, Switzerland
- Public Television Film Seminar
- Pacific Film Archive
- Portland Art Museum
- San Francisco Art Museum
- Chicago Art Museum
- Walker Art Gallery
»Union Maids in Teaching A PEOPLE’S HISTORY: Zinn Education Project
»View article “Union Maids: Working Class Heroines” by Linda Gordon
Sylvia, Stella and Kate are three naturals, characters whose hearts and minds leap off the screen with a kind of grace and nobility I haven’t seen in a documentary since Jerry Bruck’s “I.F. Stone’s Weekly.”Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES»Read full review
This inspiring film will be a classic. It makes the 1930s live. It makes you laugh, makes you cheer. It’s going to be shown through the years, to millions.Pete Seeger
An inspiring film about three magnificent women. This is the best film on labor history I have ever seen. I plan to show it again and again.Howard Zinn, Boston University, author A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE U.S.
Union Maids is the most energizing, exhilarating labor organizing movie imaginable. For the first time I could see for myself there really is ‘joy in the struggle!’Alice Walker, MS MAGAZINE
Union Maids is a work of art. Brilliantly edited, it is a piece of oral history so superbly shaped that it leaves you proud to be a human being.Vivian Gornick, VILLAGE VOICE