American Dream

Aroview: An Oscar-winning documentary about the effects of trade-union-company conflict at a meat-packing plant in Minnesota in 1984.

When workers are offered a paycut by the company, which has just posted a $29 million profit, they go on strike, hiring a 'consultant' to plan their tactics. Effectively sidelined, the national union tries to forge a compromise, but the strike drags on for months, then years. Filmed at the height of the Reagan-era, this examines the bitter paradoxes of idealism vs. economic rationalism with an acute eye for the people involved, their families, sacrifices, motives and dreams.

NZ International Film Festival 1991

more matches…