Visionary unionist films from the 1950s have been remastered by the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Film and Sound Archive (NFSA).
The NFSA has provided support in digitizing collection holdings from the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit which will screen at the Cinema Reborn festival in Sydney on 30 April.
The Film Unit, created in 1953 by wharfies Keith Gow, Jock Levy and Norma Disher made a series of films that campaigned for pensions, workers’ rights, housing shortages, workers’ health and safety, and the 1954 waterfront strike. 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of the Waterside Workers Federation’s formation, now the Maritime Union of Australia.
Using a customized Kombi van with rear projection as both a production vehicle and for screening their films at work sites, the Film Unit traveled to unions, community halls and clubs, private homes and in the streets to present the films.
“The films occupy a prominent position within the history of independent filmmaking in Australia and we are delighted to have played our part in the preservation of this very important material,” says NFSA Chief Curator Gayle Lake.
Filmmaker and session programmer, Margot Nash says “the Film Unit made films about working class issues for working class people and in the process showed a rare cinematic and dramatic flair that was unusual for the time.”
Norma Disher, one of the Unit’s original founders and nearing one hundred years reflects on the early years of the Unit’s production, “It was the period of the Cold War, and I was already involved with progressive theatre with Keith Gow and Jock Levy at New Theatre. They were making a film down on the waterfront to support a campaign for pensions for wharfie veterans, they asked me to help them, and I wanted to support this cause.”
The screening of the films coincides with International Workers Day on 1 May – a worldwide celebration of worker achievements and marches in the streets demanding fair pay and better working conditions.
Included in the program is the highly acclaimed documentary Film-Work (1981), a 43-minute documentary by John Hughes on the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit.
Gayle Lake and Margot Nash are
