The 9th Workers Unite Film Festival Honors and Salutes the Black Lives Matter Movement

It has been a month since the tragic public murder of George Floyd and so many other murders of black and non-white men and women at the hands of police. This abuse has ignited great anger and we, at the Workers Unite Film Festival, stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of brothers and sisters of every color and ethnic background who march at great personal risk to their own safety at the ongoing Black Lives Matter demonstrations nationwide.

We are deeply saddened by the ongoing murders of unarmed citizens of color, some of whom, like Breonna Taylor, an EMT – a frontline worker in service to the safety of our society - was shot to death in her own apartment, in her own bed. Elijah McClain was murdered for just walking down the street after buying something from a convenience store. This must stop now.

We are dedicating this next virtual film festival to highlighting several films about race in America, overzealous policing, and racism at work. Please join us for any online discussions/Q&A’s after these films. At the festival, we showcase, advise, and teach new filmmakers and amateurs to become ‘citizen’ filmmaker journalists, and feel directly connected to the efforts to publicize the reality of constant harassment and violence that people must endure as they protest and otherwise. Social media clips (even on TikTok) highlight how frequent and geographically widespread the pattern is of police escalating minor interactions into deadly conflicts with innocent citizens. Judge, jury and executioner was never the intended role for our police officers.

Hopefully, this movement is just at the beginning of reversing a terrible trend towards the militarization of our police and the unacceptable point of view that we live in an ‘Us vs. Them’ world. We need a well-trained and respectful police force that actually ‘Protects and Serves’ every citizen, every day - not just the ones who are white.

Thank you for joining us for this second WUFF Virtual Film Festival 2020.