Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

From the beginning of moving pictures in the 1890s, when women workers were captured on film leaving the filmmaker’s own factory, to the neoliberal reality of work captured in the 2014 Sundance hit, The Overnighters, documentary films have revealed obscured histories and events and chronicled the struggles and changes that workers, unions, and the U.S. economy have experienced over the last hundred-plus years. These films have made an important contribution to the public's knowledge and understanding of labor, have sought to intervene in the exploitation of workers, and provided compelling tools for new forms of organizing