Saturday 11:40am LNS

84 min.

2014

McNabb Connolly

thehandthatfeedsfilm.com

Filmmaker: Robin Blotnick

At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. Behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick.

Risking deportation and job loss, the workers team up with innovative young organizers and form their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers battle in back rooms and workers walk the picket line with support from the “Occupy” crowd. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent. But whatever happens, these workers will never be the same. Audience Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; Audience Award, DOC NYC; Best of Fest, AFI Docs