Screening: The Take (2004, USA, 87 min.)

After Argentina’s economic collapse of 2001, Latin America’s most prosperous middle class faces a bleak landscape of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. That is, until the former employees of the Forja auto plant reclaim the space and run the factory themselves. This simple but daring act shows how workers are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of a failed system. Avi Lewis’s documentary is set against the backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic disaster is the frontrunner.

7 pm screening
8:30 pm post-film discussion with members of NYC worker cooperatives

Text and image: courtesy Icarus Films