Dear Documentary Community,
We are thrilled and grateful to announce that today, Friday July 21, 2023, Documentary Workers United (DWU) unanimously voted to ratify our first union contract with International Documentary Association (IDA).
Our contract, our union, and our victorious ratification is a labor of love and care that would not have been possible without the continuous work of IDA workers, past and present. We are workers who defied the odds and who, despite continued challenges, have stayed committed to our union’s mission of equity and justice.
We are proud of the work that we do at IDA. We are honored to be able to share the expertise and resources we all hold with an often under-funded and under-resourced film community, from educational events and workshops; fiscal sponsorship and granting; to providing access to films, screenings, and industry events that would normally be inaccessible.
As cultural and arts nonprofit workers, our efforts are often unseen and under-valued by the organizations that employ us. But amongst filmmakers and other industry professionals, we know that we are appreciated. We love our work and want to be able to continue our work without fear of retaliation or exploitation. We’d especially like to recognize and thank the founders of DWU – Bedatri Choudhury, Eddie Hustleby, Hansen Bursic, and Kristal Sotomayor – who organized with compassion and bravery, and whose vision for a better IDA sparked them to exercise their right to unionize on March 14, 2022. We would not be here without them. Because of their work, we have a Union that allows us to be formally acknowledged with structural and legal protections.
We believe DWU is the first step in building true collaboration and trust at IDA. So today, we ask the filmmaking community to stand with us as we fight to have a seat at the table where decisions are made, create an inspiring workplace, and invest in sustainable careers for all arts nonprofits workers. We ask that you continue to work with IDA and continue to support us, the workers behind the institutional collaborations. Stay allied to us because we need you. We need you to lovingly hold us and our leadership accountable for the promises we make and the values we claim to hold.
With the simultaneous SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, now is a time of industry-wide collective action. Along with our actor and writer union siblings, we must stand beside film workers at all levels – projectionists, cinema workers, programmers, festival workers, and film administrators, alike. Now is the time for documentary filmmakers, funders, and supporters to show up for documentary film workers at all levels of the field, as we are vital to the success and sustainability of this industry. We implore film institutions across the board to take note. Now is the time to make our field a place that champions its laborers. The world is watching. Our collective fight is only beginning.
With solidarity and love,