LIVES/LABOUR/LOST is an evening of free films themed around factory work and the people who are affected by working conditions, plant closures, and job loss.
Films to be screened include:
SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Philip Hoffman, 2014, 15 mins.
This multi-framed work weaves several inter-connected threads of loss: of land and agriculture, of property and business, through political, social, economic and environmental slaughter. The materials in this archive are gleaned from public and personal sources such as the National Archive of Canada, in the story of a nineteenth century aboriginal woman and land rights activist Nahnebahwequay (1824-65) and more recently organic farmer Michael Schmidt, from excerpts of the Farmer’s Advocate and Family Herald publications 1958-1968, also a trip into the artist’s familial past, and the rise and fall of his family’s slaughterhouse and pork processing plant, Hoffman Meats (1951-81), in Kitchener, Ontario.
CURSE CURES
Lesley Loksi Chan, 2009, 10:43 mins.
The arrival of a new worker to a jeans factory causes changes to the rhythms of the workplace. This mysterious narrative integrates personal and collective history with fiction. The visuals were created with both found images and original photography reproduced on acetate sheets which were subsequently sewn together and projected onto a wall and video-taped. This mixed-media work is a reflection on the repetitive labour and materiality of textile work and the im/possibilities for resistance to challenging working conditions.
STAND UP FOR STEEL
John Bartley, Chantel Silveria, Monika Benkovich, 2016, 5:14 mins.
Local steelworkers and retirees march together to fight for their pensions and other benefits owed to them by U.S. Steel Canada. A collection at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre shows the importance of this work and the history of labour in Hamilton. This short documentary was created by students in Factory Media Centre’s ‘Take 1, 2, 3 Workshop Series’ facilitated by Cher Obediah.