Union Maids is a 1976 American documentary film directed by Jim Klein, Julia Reichert and Miles Mogulescu. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[1][2] The film was based on the three women from Chicago in the labor history book Rank and File by Staughton Lynd and Alice Lynd.

Union Maids
Directed byJim Klein [de]
Miles Mogulescu
Julia Reichert
Produced byJim Klein
Miles Mogulescu
Julia Reichert
CinematographyTony Heriza
Sherry Novick
Edited byJim Klein
Julia Reichert
Distributed byNew Day Films
Release date
  • February 4, 1976 (1976-02-04)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3]

Cast

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  • Kate Hyndman
  • Stella Nowicki
  • Sylvia Woods

Production

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Like many of her other films, Julia Reichert used a collaborative, nonhierarchical model of filmmaking during the production of Union Maids. She and James Klein shot the documentary on video rather than film. This allowed them longer interviews with their subjects, which, also, allowed the three women to better shape their interviews, and thus their contributions to and representation in the film. Also, shooting on video allowed Reichert and Klein to use student cinematographers, as they could watch the video live and give real-time direction without wasting expensive film stock.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "NY Times: Union Maids". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2011. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2008.
  2. ^ "The 50th Academy Awards (1978) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  3. ^ Ulaby, Neda (December 14, 2022). "'Iron Man,' 'Super Fly' and 'Carrie' are inducted into the National Film Registry". NPR. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  4. ^ Aitken, Ian (2006). Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. New York: Routledge. pp. 1110–1111. ISBN 1579584454. OCLC 59002598.
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