ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU)—a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island—takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.

LONG SYNOPSIS

On April 1, 2022 a group of ordinary workers made history when they did what everyone thought was impossible: they successfully won their election to become the very first unionized Amazon workplace in America. This feat would be extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who did it with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Heralded as the most important win for labor since the 1930s, this highly cinematic documentary captures the ALU’s historic grassroots campaign to unionize thousands of their co-workers from day one of organizing.

Described by ALU President Christian Smalls as the “N.W.A. of the organizing world,” the group’s persona and strategies are highly unconventional: from wearing Money Heist costumes at press conferences to distributing free marijuana to workers. A core emotional arc arises out of the journey of these worker-turned organizers through a series of political battles, pivotal strategic events, and interpersonal tensions that test their commitments and their solidarity. Up against a corporate superpower and with legal protections at a drastic low for workers, all odds are against the ALU. Yet this rag-tag ensemble remains unswayed in their beliefs in collective action and the dignity and power of the working-class.

Directors Brett Story, Stephen Maing

Producers Brett Story, Stephen Maing, Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, Martin DiCicco

Executive Producers Jenny Raskin, Lauren Haber, Geralyn White Dreyfous, The Villa Family, David Levine, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker, Dawn Olmstead

Co-Producers Kelsey Koenig, Barbara & Eric Dobkin, Paula Froehle & Steve Cohen, Natasha & David Dolby, Meryl Metni, Pierre Hauser, Chelsea Halligan, Ryan Parker, Alexander Carpenter, Andrew Neel

Associate Producers Hana Elias, Wyatt Winborne

Editors Blair McLendon, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Stephen Maing

Cinematographers Martin DiCicco, Stephen Maing

Music Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

Cast Christian Smalls, Angelika Maldonado, Connor Spence, Derrick Palmer, Jason Anthony, Brett Daniels , Gerald Bryson, Armani Bryson , Jordan Flowers, Natalie Monarrez, Nilah Smalls, Gianni Smalls, Jeremiah Butler, Madeline Wesley, Cassio Mendoza, Josiah Maldonado, Aaron Novik , Tristian Martinez, Mat Cusick, Karen Ponce, Justine Medina, Josiah Morgan, Julian Mitchell-Israel, Michael Aguilar, Brima Sylla, Nannette Plascencia

FESTIVALS
2024: Sundance (World Premiere), True/False, CPH:DOX (International Premiere)

AWARDS
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change (Sundance)

AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World

EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download