Behind the velvet curtains with AFI’s Todd Hitchcock
With the 2021 DC Labor FilmFest launching yesterday with Work Songs (now available on demand), I sat down for a chat with Todd Hitchcock, Director of Programming at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, our partner from the days 20 years ago when the DC Labor FilmFest was just a glimmer in Tony Mazzocchi's eye.
In Part 1 of our chat on the Labor Goes to the Movies podcast, he talks about how AFI has kept the movies coming during the pandemic, and we get a peek behind the glitz and glamour of attending star-studded film festivals at Cannes, Berlin and Toronto, as Todd reveals some of the workaday details of being a film programmer at one of the nation’s premier movie art houses.
Also, be sure to check out our interview with Work Songs director Mark Street here and join me and Elise Bryant -- and special surprise guests -- next Thursday at 8p for a freewheeling discussion of the films in this year's DC Labor FilmFest! Click here to RSVP.
As always, our thanks and kudos to American Income Life, which has also been there with us from the very earliest days, has enabled the DC Labor FilmFest to reach our 20th anniversary and continues to be a steadfast and visionary partner in cinematic solidarity.
See you at the labor movies!
Chris Garlock, Director, DC Labor FilmFest
The 2021 Global Labor Film Festival presents
HAYMARKET
The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle
Watch free now!
Join the May Day discussion!
THE FILM (available now to watch free online): The Chicago Haymarket Affair in 1886, where a bomb thrown into the ranks of police, was followed by an eruption of panic and violence resulting in a trial and execution of presumably innocent workers' rights activists. In this feature documentary, expert historians and professors present the history of the bomb, the anarchist movement of the 19th century, and the labor struggle of working people fighting for a shorter workday during the industrial might of America's Gilded Age.
THE DISCUSSION (8pm ET Saturday, May 1; click here to RSVP): Join Haymarket director Adrian Prawica and labor historians Joe McCartin (Georgetown University) and Steven Brier (CUNY School of Labor) for an online discussion moderated by DC Labor FilmFest director Chris Garlock.
Presented by the DC Labor FilmFest, Workers Unite! Film Fest, the Rochester Labor Film Series, the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee, the Haifa International Labor Film Festival, the Labour in Motion Movie Club, the LAN Festival, the Nordic Labour Film Festival and the Green Mountain Labor Council, as part of the 2021 Global Labor Film Festival.
PLUS: West Coast screening/discussion by the Reel Work Labor Film Festival!
Labor Studies Professor Dana Frank will moderate a conversation with filmmaker Adrian Prawica and audience Q&A on the significance of May Day to the labor movement (screening starts at 6:30pm PDT on May 1; discussion at 8p PDT). RSVP here: bit.ly/RWMayDay
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Published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members. DYANA FORESTER, PRESIDENT.
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