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The Establishment Brewing Company
4407 1 Street SE, Calgary, AB, T2G 2L2

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Please join us at the Establishment Brewing Company on the first Tuesday of every month for this ongoing series of free NFB films. This month’s edition is in honour of Labour Day, and features classic NFB films celebrating labour and the Canadian worker. The films are:

 

24 Days in Brooks – directed by Dana Inkster (2007, 42 min)

Over the course of a decade Brooks, Alberta, transformed from a socially conservative, primarily white town to one of the most diverse places in Canada as immigrants and refugees flocked to find jobs at the Lakeside Packers slaughterhouse. This film is a portrait of those people working together and adapting to change through the first-ever strike at Lakeside.

 

The Structure of Unions – directed by Morten Parker (1955, 11 min)

This animated film examines the organization of labour unions today. While the narrator in all seriousness outlines the structure of a union and the larger bodies to which it is affiliated, the animator ad libs his own views with abandon. Examples are given to illustrate the functioning of a union at its various levels, from union local to national body to labour congress.

 

Where You Goin’ Company Town? – directed by Stephen W. Dewar (1975, 27 min)

This short documentary examines the changing relations between labour and management in the long-established company town of Trail, BC, in which 90% of the workforce is employed by Cominco, the world’s largest lead-zinc smelter. The metal workers in the town are outspoken about the health risks associated with their line of work, and a debate about unionization ensues. The days of paternalistic management are gone, and the emphasis is now on participation and involvement. An eventual strike over dissatisfaction with labour relations turns violent when management, union executives, and workers clash over competing interests.

 

“They Didn’t Starve Us Out”: Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s – directed by Patricia Kipping (1991, 21 min)

For 200 years, coal mining had been a way of life in Cape Breton. By 1920 things were looking up: miners were unionized and paid decent wages. Then the British Empire Steel Corporation arrived and bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. BESCO cut wages by a third, setting off a bitter labour dispute. The miners settled in for a long strike. Finally, in 1925, the military ended the unrest with brute force. But the miners, in one sense, had won. They broke up the monopoly and provided an example to workers across the country.

 

Join your host, writer/researcher for The Alberta Advantage Podcast and masters history candidate William Gillies as he dives into the Canadian cinematic treasure trove that is the National Film Board Archives, curating selections according to different themes each month.

More info at https://establishmentbrewing.ca/events?view=calendar&month=09-2024

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