For Immediate Release
 
Grassroots Rising  to screen at
Aratani/Japan America Theater: Tuesday May 3rd, 7:00 PM
GRASSROOTS RISING: Asian Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles, a Visual Communications production, is a powerful one-hour documentary exploring the lives of Asian immigrant workers through their search for justice, liberty and equality and their innovative contributions to the current worker-led labor movement in L.A.  The evocative film will premiere on Tuesday, May 3rd at 7:00 PM as part of the VC FILMFEST 2005: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
 
            From enslaved garment workers in El Monte to home health care givers throughout Los Angeles, labor continues to be a vital part of the experience of Asians in America despite common misconceptions that Asian Americans homogeneously constitute a “model minority.” These workers toil in sweatshops, restaurants, supermarkets, and in home healthcare, where organizing is difficult, exploitation is rampant, and isolation is stifling. Yet, while mainstream unions have previously neglected these communities due to racism, lack of resources or the perception that they are difficult to organize, “worker centers,” such as the Korean Immigrant Worker Advocates, the Pilipino Workers’ Center, the Garment Worker Center, and the Thai Community Development Center, are creating holistic community environments that nurture unique and necessary approaches to collaborating with workers who want to create change in their lives and their communities.  Mrs. Lee, an activist who worked in a Koreatown  restaurant said, “At KIWA, I learned the bosses couldn’t do that to me, so in 1996 or 1997, I started to work on KIWA’s restaurant campaign.”
Grassroots Rising is not about oppression and victimization.  It is about the ways workers struggle and build lives with dignity in the service and low wage manufacturing sectors that characterize present day Los Angeles.  As Alison de la Cruz narrates, “Do you give up and accept things as they are?  No, you have seen too much, you have come too far.  Something has to change.  You feel this, like the breaths in and out of our chest.” Rather than focusing on the forces that keep workers oppressed and speaking with the traditional  leaders of the labor community, the film focuses on the stories of the workers about the ways that they create change beyond the workplace, on how they reshape their communities and build interethnic alliances. Ongoing campaigns for garment, restaurant, and market workers provide dramatic examples of this process as workers and organizers create a visionary alternative future for Los Angeles. 
            GRASSROOTS RISING is a production of Visual Communications, the oldest premiere media arts center, which has produced many award-winning films and video.  The documentary is produced by Leslie Ito, Executive Director of Visual Communications, and Robert C. Winn and directed by Robert C. Winn, an independent documentary filmmaker whose previous work includes the documentary, Saigon USA.  The project was edited by Tim Jieh, with a musical score by Woody Pak.  The stylistic approach features a spoken word narration by noted performance artist Alison De La Cruz and murals, photographs and art evoking the range of working experiences of Asians in America.

This program was produced by
Visual Communications which is solely responsible for its content. 
c.  2005, VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS. All Rights Reserved