Saturday, October 26, 5:45 p.m. & Wednesday, October 30, 8:30 p.m. | Single mother Norma Rae Wilson (Sally Field) works long hours at the cotton mill in her hardscrabble factory town in North Carolina. Working alongside her on the sweaty, loud factory floor are her aging parents and community members who have no option but to accept their fate as poorly treated laborers. When Norma Rae meets Reuben Warshowsky, a union organizer from New York City, she joins him in the fight to unionize the mill. Met with skepticism from her coworkers, cruelty from her supervisors, and union busting tactics by the mill owners, Norma Rae defiantly pursues the cause, risking her relationships, her reputation, and her job in the process. In Martin Ritt’s powerful classic, based on the real life story of union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton, and for which Field won an Academy Award, much of the drama takes place on the factory floor, where sweat-soaked characters must yell to be heard, making the film’s famous scene, in which Norma Rae stands above her coworkers and silently calls for support, all the more striking (pun intended).

Awards & Nominations

Nominee - Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Academy Awards
Winner - Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sally Field), Best Original Song, Academy Awards

Workers of the World, Unite! offers films that portray American organizers, unionizers, and labor rebels who speak up, speak out, and fight back against unfair working conditions and nefarious bosses in order to be treated (to quote Lily Tomlin’s character in 9 TO 5) “equally, with a little dignity, and a little respect.” Read more

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu