It’s not every day you see Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and movie goddess Charlize Theron sitting on the same panel. So when I heard that just such a convergence was happening today here in Denver, I grabbed my camera and headed for the scene.
The occasion was the upcoming release of an important new movie called Battle in Seattle. Directed by Irish actor/director Stuart Townsend and starring Theron, the film remembers the 1999 protests that erupted around the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle that year. A desire to keep communities from being devastated by the WTO’s “free” trade agenda brought together a then-unique alliance between environmentalists and labor activists that some called “Teamsters and turtles” — an alliance that has grown into a key part of labor’s vision for a just economy.
While it is based on real events, Battle in Seattle is not a documentary; it’s a feature film, with a cast of stars including Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta and Andre Benjamin of OutKast. Here’s the trailer:
The panel I attended (organized by Congressional Quarterly) brought together director Townsend and star Theron with two labor leaders who had been directly involved in the real-life Battle of Seattle — Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers of America, and Jim Hoffa of the Teamsters. Both men shared their memories of those turbulent times, and of how the 1999 protests have impacted the conduct of trade ever since. They also stressed how the future they dreamed of a decade ago — a future where workers and environmentalists have a real seat at the trade policy table — could become reality in an Obama administration.
Townsend and Theron, meanwhile, discussed how difficult it was to get a film like Battle of Seattle made — how its subject matter made it impossible to get it financed in the Hollywood system despite its star-studded cast, and how hard it has been to get it distributed in U.S. theaters.
In fact, their solution to the distribution problem is pretty novel — if the movie isn’t showing in your town, you can go to their Web site and demand that it be shown there. If 200 people demand it, they’ll organize a showing there. It’s a clever strategy, and one that echoes directly the film’s theme — that people, organized, can change things.
Also in attendence were several members of Congress who have been fighting ever since Seattle for a fair trade regime that values workers and protects the environment — leaders like Senator Sherrod Brown, Representative Brad Sherman and Representative Mike Michaud.
Anyway, like I said above, I had my camera with me, so here’s a slideshow from the event. Hover your mouse cursor over any picture in the slideshow to see the caption.
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