Independent Lens
Camp Widow
At Camp Widow, every attendee, volunteer, speaker, and staff member has lost their partner; together they find camaraderie and unexpected joy.
Untitled Solidarity Project
As the deadline for a historic strike nears, UPS Teamsters across the United States navigate the challenges of building solidarity with their 340,000 co-workers.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Director
Yael Bridge
Yael Bridge is an Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker. Her feature documentary, The Big Scary “S” Word, tracing the history and resurgence of socialism in the U.S., premiered at Hot Docs 2020 and on Hulu in 2022. Previously, she produced Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, and Saving Capitalism, which was nominated for an Emmy.
Producer
Yoni Golijov
Yoni Golijov is an Academy Award-nominated producer. Recent films include the Golden Lion Award-winning film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed directed by Laura Poitras, and When We Fight. He has received fellowships from Sundance, Impact Partners, and NBC Original Voices. He previously worked across features and shorts at Field of Vision.
Producer
Jeremy Flood
Jeremy Flood is a filmmaker, producer, and editor. Recent films include A Company Town about fracking and The Facility, cataloging abuses at a private immigration detention center. Flood currently works as a video producer for the United Auto Workers union.
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The Film
UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company, occupies a vital role in the U.S. economy—moving 6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) on a daily basis. In 2023, the stage was set for a national labor battle as the expiration date neared for the contract covering the 340,000 Teamsters who work at UPS. What does this national negotiation mean for the individuals involved? And what do individual choices mean amidst a collective movement?
This film joins UPS workers across the country—a budding UPS driver in California, a veteran of the 1997 strike in New York, a part-time warehouse worker juggling college and multiple jobs in Kentucky, and their co-workers—as they organize, vote, picket, and navigate the challenges of solidarity before their contract expires. In the process, there are debates about whether they should accept the new contract proposal negotiated by their union and the company, or vote it down and go on strike. Their decisions will have lasting implications as the United States’ largest private sector union workforce faces off against their employer, UPS.
In a coda, the film explores alternative futures where everything could have gone in another direction. What might have happened had the UPS Teamsters decided to reject the contract, i.e., to go on strike? Archival and verité material investigate the implications of these decisions and what it means to have one’s fates bound together with people across the country.
