Website
Founded 2017.
Latest: Nov. 14-16, 2025: Malmö, Sweden
Talat Bhat talat@nlff.se
Process Leader @ Nordic Labour Film Festival (NLFF)
Process Leader @ RåFILM Film collective.
Producer – Documentary Rocking the Birger Jarl www.birgerjarl.info
http://www.nlff.se
+46 (0)735 001972
talat@rafilm.se
tmbutt (Skype)
http://www.nlff.se
Founded: May 1, 2002
Venues: California: various venues throughout Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties. Click here for complete list.
Latest: April 24 through May 18, 2025, schedule at reelwork.org
Synopsis: Reel Work presents cultural events, bringing together award-winning documentary film producers, workers, activists, students, and the public with the goal of increasing community awareness of the central role of work in our lives, to discuss economic and global justice issues, and to bring alive the history and culture of the labor movement in the US and abroad.
Contact:
Reel Work Labor Film Festival
170 Hagemann Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Email: info@reelwork.org
Submissions: submissions@reelwork.org
Webmaster: jeffrey@reelwork.org
Founded: 1989
Latest: 2025
Website
Venue: Eastman House Dryden Theater, Rochester, NY
Series Synopsis: A joint effort of the Rochester Labor Council and the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House, the Rochester Labor Film Series presents motion pictures that celebrate workers. The first annual film program of its kind in the nation, it shows feature films and documentaries depicting important aspects of work usually marginalized or absent on the screens of commercial theaters. These films from around the world are selected to inform, provoke and inspire.
The series celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014; click here for the ROCHESTER’S LABOR FILM SERIES AT 25 essay.
Every year’s schedule since 1989 — including film write-ups — is available on the website.
Introducing Labor Films: Introductions to films in the Rochester Labor Film Series: From A Grin Without a Cat to Trash Dance, introductions intended to supply background on the issues raised in a film, offer insight into the film’s production or the filmmaker’s intent, or help viewers to understand the film during or after the screening. A great tool for labor film festival organizers, viewers or anyone interested in labor films.
Contact: Vincent Serravallo vssgsp@rit.edu
Jon Garlock jgarlock@igc.org
Rochester, NY U.S.A.
Founded: 2006
Latest: 2025
Venues: Multiple, including Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir
Website
Synopsis: The Festival’s aim is to bring all the workers‘ lives and their struggle experiences from Turkey and all around the world to the the public and to encourage films on labor, workers and poor people in our country. This festival is being managed by the biggest labor unions in Turkey.
Contact:info@iff.org.tr
Website: www.iff.org.tr
Latest: July 2025
Founded: 1994
Venue: multiple
LaborFest website
Synopsis: LaborFest was established in 1994 to institutionalize the history and culture of working people in an annual labor cultural, film and arts festival. It begins every July 5th, which is the anniversary of the 1934 “Bloody Thursday” event. On that day, two workers Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise were shot and killed in San Francisco. They were supporting the longshoremen and maritime workers strike. This incident brought about the San Francisco General Strike which shut down the entire city and led to hundreds of thousands of workers joining the trade union movement. The Organizing committee of LaborFest is composed of unionists and unorganized workers, cultural workers and supporters of labor education and history. We encourage all unions not only to support us with endorsements and contributions but also to include activities about their own union members, their history and the work that they do.
We support the establishment of LaborFests around the country and internationally. The need to build local, national and international solidarity is critical, if labor is going to face the challenges it faces on all fronts. LaborFests help bring our struggles together in art, film and music.
Contact:
Steve Zeltzer
laborfest@laborfest.net
415-282-1908
Founded: 2012
Latest: October 17-20, 2025
2026 edition will be held October 23rd to November 5th, 2026 at Cinema Village NYC
Website
Venue: Multiple
Synopsis: The Workers Unite Film Festival is a celebration of global labor solidarity.
Contact: Andrew Tilson, Executive Director
PO Box 1525 – Radio City Station
New York, NY 10101
212-675-5518
www.workersunitefilmfestival.org
andrew@workersunitefilmfestival.org
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 