When Amazon's first labor union was established, workers around not just the US, but the world were given a spark of hope in times when such things are precious. Documenting the hard-fought wins of the ALU, this documentary by Stephen Maing and Brett Story is a wonderfully stirring look at labor organizing and all the possibilities therein. Acknowledging the complexities that come with mobilizing the working class, it’s far from utopian, but still leaves one with hope that a better world is possible through solidarity. It was amazing to speak with producer Mars Verrone about this timely, powerful film. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
How did you get involved with this project? What was the capacity of your involvement?
I got involved with this project way back in 2020 along with the other producer, Samantha Curley. Chris Smalls led a walkout with a few of his coworkers in March of that year to protest the lack of COVID precautions and PPE within their warehouse at Staten Island. They were processing PPE, these things were coming down the conveyer belt, but the workers themselves did not have that protection. It was so extreme and abhorrent. Within two hours of the walkout, Chris was fired. So many people were reorienting their relationship to work during the pandemic, and many of us were for the first time considering how your boss treats you, what the government is providing for you. I really wanted to work on a documentary that spoke to that shift in consciousness and specifically interrogated the category of ‘essential work.’ Samantha and myself wanted to do a project around the notion of essential work and were particularly inspired by Chris. We reached out to him cold in the summer of 2020. We’re both organizers in the labor movement, so there was a clear sense of shared political values. It was easy to build a relationship with him and other people who helped form the Amazon Labor Union. At first, they were mainly interested in organizing essentials, but half a year later that turned into ‘we want to unionize the Staten Island warehouse,’ where Chris was fired and where they worked. That was a really cohesive, concrete idea for a documentary.
A lot of filming takes place on the ground at protests or even in the halls of congress. and I’m wondering if, as a producer, you can speak to any major obstacles that were overcome during the filming process.
In order to get the kind of access that we got, you have to really establish a foundation of trust and comfort and care with the people that you’re filming with and also in the larger environment that you’re in. Practically speaking, to establish that kind of comfort you need some substantial funding so you can have many shoot days to actually be in the field that much. We were lucky as far as getting a lot of early grant funding that worked out really well timing wise so we could be in the field, pay our team and have a lot of shoot days to establish those relationships and build that trust. I also think because myself, the other producer, Sam, and the rest of our team really share the same political values as the participants of the film it was easy to develop a comfort level where we get the access we did. During the time we began the project, no other media was expressing the level of interest that we were. The campaign was very overlooked by mainstream media, so that really meant a lot. Our cinematographers, Martin Dicicco and Steve Maing, who’s also a co-director, did an amazing job not only navigating filming with a lot of care for the participants but also being smart about how they introduced themselves, how they made people aware of the camera, how they framed things. The worst thing you can do filming something like this is getting in the way of the organizing itself. They were brilliant in that regard.
What were some surprises in the production process? How did you as a producer help the directors navigate those surprises?
If you remember in the film, the whole beginning is getting enough sign-on from the workers to even have an election. Getting enough signatures to get to that step is kind of the majority of the campaign. We started filming in May. In November they submitted their petition to have an election, and it was not accepted. They had to withdraw. That was certainly a surprise for us as a team. It was like, “Oh, man, will the film still work if there’s no union election?” [laughs] But I think from the beginning the way in which we were filming wasn’t very plot based. It was very much about the relationships of the participants, observing a group dynamic, observing this interesting and really moving experiment about a multi-racial, multi-generational group of people setting out do to something that seemed so impossible. So, while it would’ve been hard to make the film if they didn’t get the election, the way we approached it was much more about grassroots organizing and the intricacies of that. The fact that they won and it was such a massive historical event was always on the table but still felt surprising when it happened and how the rest of the world responded. The immediate aftermath of that was so exciting but a lot to deal with. From a producer’s standpoint, vérité filmmaking is hard because you have to be thinking ahead but also be very flexible. I think we were doing a good job of having enough check-ins as a team to be planning ahead but also when surprising or intense things would come up we could always pivot.
That kind of flexibility can be hard.
It’s kind of a crazy way to make films, but it’s very thrilling so the reward is worth it. The potential of the film became clear very early on. Even if things were uncertain, even if we were pivoting, it didn’t feel like we were spinning our wheels. There was always a confidence in the story.
The battle is obviously far from over, and I appreciate how the film itself acknowledges that. Do you think documentaries sometimes try to wrap things up too neatly, and is that something that was actively avoided?
Yes, a hundred thousand percent. For us it was really important. If you’re aware of this story, you could do a really easy Disney fairy tale version. We really wanted to avoid that coming from a place of people in the movement, people with organizing backgrounds. It doesn’t feel useful to wrap it up with a pretty bow, and it doesn’t feel honest to what this work is like, to this victory and what the story means within the context of a wider movement. A constant guiding principle for us throughout production was how to maintain this tension of honoring and celebrating this amazing effort and victory but also showing the obstacles at hand, also showing the conflict and how it wasn’t a perfect outcome. We wanted to leave a flexible and nuanced ending. We don’t know what’s going to happen next with the movement and wanted to leave space for people to sieve through the contradictions of what it means to organize. They won this incredible election, but they’re nowhere near a contract, so we don’t want people walking out of the film thinking everything’s solved for Amazon workers forever. That’s not what’s going on. So, we were very much looking to maintain that tension. For me, I think it’s more useful to people and feels more relatable. That’s what life is like.
Union will release in theaters on October 18th, and will also have screenings in Dallas and at the Austin Film Society at the end of the month!
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