Morristown: In the Air and Sun

Thematic Chair-Making, Ship-Breaking, Pole-Dancing, Coal-Mining, Thread-Cutting, Cart-Pushing, Cane-Cutting, Chain-Forging: Films on Work & Labor Curated by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert

There is a seeming paradox in the flow of Mexican labor to the U.S.: as manufacturing jobs move south and Americans lose jobs, more and more Mexican workers move north in search of work. This complex issue is writ small in Morristown, Tennessee, where American displaced workers and Mexican immigrants live in uneasy proximity. Humanizing—and muddying—the extreme viewpoints on both sides of the immigration and free-trade debates, this film shows sympathy for all caught up in the drive for globalization. Filmmaker Anne Lewis takes us to the fields and factory floors where Mexicans work at “jobs that Americans won’t do,” and presents their struggles to organize. We see that the links between Morristown and Mexico are being strengthened, sometimes in surprising ways, by the global economy and multinational corporations that influence the flow of labor and capital. The way the inhabitants of both places live and work (or don’t) is a testament to how the dislocating effects of so-called free-trade agreements have over the past two decades cemented into place a permanent, migratory underclass within our borders, and within Mexico’s.  AK

Director

Anne Lewis

Producers

Appalshop, Inc.

Editor

Anne Lewis

Cinematographer

Peter Pearce

Release Year

2007

Festival Year

2010

Country

United States

Run Time

60 minutes