Over the last several years, there has been an uptick in the number of films that address class, power, inequality, and global capitalism. Writers and directors have taken up these themes in feature-length films and documentaries and against the backdrop of the Great Recession, the Occupy movement, the Movement for Black Lives, #MeToo, and the rise of Trumpian nativism. Eschewing any sense of a monolithic working-class character, the films represent a twenty-first-century class-consciousness rooted in the experiences of workers grappling with how sexism, racism, and power operate under capitalism.
Independent documentarians — not beholden to the whims of Hollywood — have consistently documented class struggle in the United States, and they deserve wide audiences. Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights (2016) is among the best recent documentary films on a labor campaign. The film tells the story of how workers at the Smithfield Pork Processing plant in Tar Heel, North...
