Labor Film Series 2025
A joint effort between the Dryden Theatre and the Rochester Labor Council, the Labor Film Series presents motion pictures celebrating workers of the world. The first film program of its kind in the United States, the series includes dramas, comedies, and current documentaries on important issues relating to work and workers, especially aspects of work often marginalized or absent in dominant commercial media. Our films from around the globe are selected to inform, provoke, and inspire. This year’s selection features five Rochester Premieres, as well as films from Hollywood’s past.
What is a labor film? One quality of a labor film is that it presents the workplace as contested terrain: a dynamic social setting ever shaped and reshaped by opposing interests and practices between workers and employers. We take the results for granted (e.g., the right to unionize, the eight-hour day…), but a labor film foregrounds the confrontations from which they arise. Lilly and Sorry to Bother You are recent and historical examples of the contested terrain. A labor film also depicts wider forces shaping the workplace such as the everchanging national policy on immigration and immigrant labor, as seen in Souleymane’s Story, A Thousand Pines and Anywhere Anytime, and gender, as seen in East of Wall as well as in Lilly. And, as depicted in Goodnight and Good Luck, a labor film includes the work of professionals who uphold the integrity and the hope that their occupation offers for a just society.
Dates and Titles:
September 5: Lilly (Rachel Feldman, US 2024, 93 min., DCP)
September 12: Souleymane’s Story (L’histoire de Souleymane, Boris Lojkine, France 2024, 93 min., DCP, French, Fulah, and Malinka with English subtitles)
September 19: Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, US 2005, 93 min., 35mm)
September 26: A Thousand Pines (Sebastian Diaz Aguirre, Noam Osband, US 2023, 77 min., DCP, Spanish and English with English subtitles)
October 3: The Librarians (Kim A. Snyder, US 2025, 88 min., DCP)
October 10: East of Wall (Kate Beecroft, US 2025, 97 min., DCP)
October 17: La Cocina (Alonso Ruizpalacios, Mexico/US 2024, 139 min., DCP, Spanish and English with English subtitles)
October 24: Anywhere Anytime (Milad Tangshir, Italy 2024, 82 min., DCP, Italian and Wolof with English subtitles)
October 31: Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley, US 2018, 112 min., DCP)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Holidays The popular Vacation franchise hit its apex with this holiday favorite featuring an all-star cast of veterans and soon-to-be household names.
The Waltz Dream (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays Inspired by Oscar Strauss’s operetta of the same name, The Waltz Dream tells a tale of unrequited love and arranged marriages in the court of a fictional European country.
Too Late (35mm)
From Rochester, With Love A twisty, non-linear narrative into the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. Private investigator Mel Samson (John Hawkes) agrees to protect Dorothy Mahler (Crystal Reed), a stripper fearful for her life.
Anywhere Anytime
Labor Film Series 2025 Contemporary experiences of undocumented immigrants in Italy are poignantly portrayed in this story of a young Senegalese immigrant, Issa (Ibrahima Sambou).
A Christmas Story
Holidays Based on the childhood experiences of narrator, writer, and radio personality Jean Shepard, the holiday trials and tribulations of Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and the rest of the Parker clan have entertained audiences for decades.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Holidays The popular Vacation franchise hit its apex with this holiday favorite featuring an all-star cast of veterans and soon-to-be household names.
La Cocina
Labor Film Series 2025 It’s the lunch rush at The Grill in Manhattan, and money has gone missing from the till. All the undocumented cooks are being investigated, and Pedro (Raúl Briones) is the prime suspect.
Gift Planning
Research Resources
Individual Giving
Queen of Spades (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays | Halloween Protazonov’s pre-revolutionary film is based on Aleksandr Pushkin’s short story of the same title. A young man (Ivan Mosjoukine) who is hesitant to gamble for fear that he will lose hears a story about an old noblewoman with a secret to quick gambling success and wealth.
Passenger / Tango / Labyrinth (35mm)
Polish Films from the Harvard Film Archive Director Andrzei Munk died in a car crash before he could complete Passenger. Fellow director Witold Lesiewicz used the completed footage and still photography to assemble a version of the film that could be released.
Aeolian Pipe Organ Recital with Joe Blackburn
An hourlong recital during which Joe Blackburn will play a selection of music on George Eastman's historic Aeolian pipe organ.
Technicolor Online Research Archive
Silk Stockings (16mm)
Silent Tuesdays Sam and Molly Thornhill (John Harron and Laura La Plante) are the platonic ideal of a married couple—ardently devoted to each other, but still quarreling in a playful way. On the eve of their wedding anniversary, Sam fails to notice a pair of stockings placed in his pocket by a client, which Molly discovers when he gets home.
Member Movie: The Phantom of the Opera
Silent Tuesdays | From Rochester, With Love | Halloween | Member Movie Night One of cinema's early horror classics, this expressionistic silent film tells the melodramatic tale of Erik (Lon Chaney), the deformed outsider who dwells in the murky cellars beneath the Paris Opera House, haunting the theatre's patrons.
It’s the Old Army Game (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays | From Rochester, With Love The hilarious W. C. Fields, in his first starring vehicle, plays put-upon pharmacist Elmer Prettywillie. Endlessly suffering the abuse of overbearing relatives and petty drugstore customers, Elmer finds a number of comically inventive ways to cope.
The Dead Zone
From Rochester, With Love | Halloween Democracy has never been as dangerous as when Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) touched the hand of politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) and received a vision of the apocalypse.
Chopin, Chopin!
Polish Film Festival Who is this young daring pianist? Who is this Polish composer transcending the power of music? Who is this star that makes all Parisian eyes turn? They call him Chopin. He is the talk of the town, the most romantic figure of decadent Parisian nights.