‘Local One’ Short Documents 2024 Picket

Local One features footage from last year’s action, filmed by the directors of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary about the Amazon Labor Union

The filmmakers behind the Oscar-shortlisted documentary, Union, about the formation of the Amazon Labor Union, are back with a new short film documenting last year’s holiday season strike.

Local One, directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story, is a 10-minute look at the action, which the ALU and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters launched last December. While workers voted to form the ALU in 2022 and soon after received recognition from the National Labor Relations Board, Amazon has yet to begin negotiating a contract with them — a key issue in last year’s strike, along with demands for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. 

While workers at Amazon facilities across the country took part in the strike, Local One primarily focuses on actions in New York City. Much of the footage comes from an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, as well as a delivery station in Maspeth, Queens. The Maspeth footage includes dramatic scenes of organizers successfully encouraging workers not to cross the picket line, as well as members of the NYPD’s “Disorder Control Unit” arresting an Amazon delivery driver and a top organizer for Teamsters Local 804.

In a statement (via Deadline), Maing and Story said of their decision to film last year’s strike and release Local One, “Our commitment to the labor movement, the workers documented in [Union], and those who have joined their efforts since, didn’t end with the film’s release. When we heard about the impending strike, our team knew we needed to document it. As the administration changes hands next week, the rights and dignity of workers have never been in more peril. This is an ongoing story that has implications for all of us. We hope audiences continue to champion workers’ efforts and that our film, and this companion short, might be a small part of that.”

Union — which was one of Rolling Stone’s best documentaries of 2024 — received wide acclaim after it premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for the Art of Change. And despite having no U.S. distribution, it landed on the Oscars shortlist for Best Documentary (the official nominees will be announced on Jan. 23). 

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