Everything except her camera.
"My dad had been an aircraft mechanic for 38 years, 23 with Northwest Airlines, and I knew that regardless of the (strike\'s) outcome, the events were going to be huge for my family, the future of unionized airline workers and the airline industry," Koch said.
Sensing a filmmaking opportunity "that had many layers of meaning for me," Koch started gathering video footage of the mechanics, their picket lines and their internal meetings from Day 1 of the ill-fated strike.
That footage became the basis for a larger documentary project, "The Red Tail," which Koch and the film\'s senior director, Dawn Mikkelson, hope to submit to the Sundance Film Festival this summer.
The Labor and Community Film Series will screen excerpts from the film-in-progress Monday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. in Macalester College\'s John B. Davis Auditorium. The screening is free and open to the public.
Meeting of two minds
Although the roots of "The Red Tail" lie in Koch\'s decision to bring her video camera to her father\'s picket line, the project took a more global approach after the two filmmakers teamed together about two months into the strike.
While participating in a union rally, Suzan Koch, Melissa\'s mother, saw a flyer about a planned documentary about the strike, and she brought it home to her daughter. Melissa saw an opportunity for collaboration, and she reached out to Mikkelson, a University of Minnesota graduate and founder of St. Paul-based Emergence Pictures, Inc.
Mikkelson, drawn to "something universal and timely" in the AMFA strike, was looking to document the mechanics\' struggle within the global context of outsourcing and globalization.
"Airplanes are a visual representation of globalization," Mikkelson said. "The airline industry is not only experiencing it, but they also make globalization possible to a large extent."
Mikkelson initially hired Koch as an intern for "The Red Tail" project, but Koch\'s personal attachment to the subject matter lent valuable intimacy to the documentary. The two soon agreed to share the role of director.
"It became clear that her family personalized this story, so that it wasn\'t just a film about an issue anymore, but a film about people, just trying to make it through these changing times," Mikkelson said.
Global solidarity
"The Red Tail" not only documents the effects of outsourcing on the Koch family, it also offers the Kochs a unique opportunity to explore the complex issue for themselves.
In a segment of the film that St. Paul viewers will be privy to Monday, Roy Koch and his family meet the workers who now hold the jobs he and his Local 33 co-workers once held. These "benefactors" of outsourcing hail from Hong Kong and the southern U.S.
The cameras roll as the Koch family emerges from a local labor struggle and discovers its global outcome. Melissa remembers a strike rally in Hong Kong, where a Chinese ironworker tied a red bandana that read "strike" in Cantonese around her head.
The ironworker\'s gesture "really highlighted the power of something that seems so basic and simple: caring about the well being of others," she said. "It was the same feeling that I had when individuals showed up in support of AMFA mechanics during the strike.
The filmmakers make no attempt to hide their interest in forcing the issue of labor solidarity.
"What would this situation look like if the workers were as globally connected and organized as their employers?" Mikkelson asked. "As globalization is inevitable, how can we work globally, while still protecting our local eco-nomies? As cliché as it sounds, this project has reinforced my personal belief that solidarity is vital to the future of worker\'s rights – global solidarity."
Michael Moore is editor of The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. Used by permission. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org
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Everything except her camera.
"My dad had been an aircraft mechanic for 38 years, 23 with Northwest Airlines, and I knew that regardless of the (strike\’s) outcome, the events were going to be huge for my family, the future of unionized airline workers and the airline industry," Koch said.
Sensing a filmmaking opportunity "that had many layers of meaning for me," Koch started gathering video footage of the mechanics, their picket lines and their internal meetings from Day 1 of the ill-fated strike.
That footage became the basis for a larger documentary project, "The Red Tail," which Koch and the film\’s senior director, Dawn Mikkelson, hope to submit to the Sundance Film Festival this summer.
The Labor and Community Film Series will screen excerpts from the film-in-progress Monday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. in Macalester College\’s John B. Davis Auditorium. The screening is free and open to the public.
Meeting of two minds
Although the roots of "The Red Tail" lie in Koch\’s decision to bring her video camera to her father\’s picket line, the project took a more global approach after the two filmmakers teamed together about two months into the strike.
While participating in a union rally, Suzan Koch, Melissa\’s mother, saw a flyer about a planned documentary about the strike, and she brought it home to her daughter. Melissa saw an opportunity for collaboration, and she reached out to Mikkelson, a University of Minnesota graduate and founder of St. Paul-based Emergence Pictures, Inc.
Mikkelson, drawn to "something universal and timely" in the AMFA strike, was looking to document the mechanics\’ struggle within the global context of outsourcing and globalization.
"Airplanes are a visual representation of globalization," Mikkelson said. "The airline industry is not only experiencing it, but they also make globalization possible to a large extent."
Mikkelson initially hired Koch as an intern for "The Red Tail" project, but Koch\’s personal attachment to the subject matter lent valuable intimacy to the documentary. The two soon agreed to share the role of director.
"It became clear that her family personalized this story, so that it wasn\’t just a film about an issue anymore, but a film about people, just trying to make it through these changing times," Mikkelson said.
Global solidarity
"The Red Tail" not only documents the effects of outsourcing on the Koch family, it also offers the Kochs a unique opportunity to explore the complex issue for themselves.
In a segment of the film that St. Paul viewers will be privy to Monday, Roy Koch and his family meet the workers who now hold the jobs he and his Local 33 co-workers once held. These "benefactors" of outsourcing hail from Hong Kong and the southern U.S.
The cameras roll as the Koch family emerges from a local labor struggle and discovers its global outcome. Melissa remembers a strike rally in Hong Kong, where a Chinese ironworker tied a red bandana that read "strike" in Cantonese around her head.
The ironworker\’s gesture "really highlighted the power of something that seems so basic and simple: caring about the well being of others," she said. "It was the same feeling that I had when individuals showed up in support of AMFA mechanics during the strike.
The filmmakers make no attempt to hide their interest in forcing the issue of labor solidarity.
"What would this situation look like if the workers were as globally connected and organized as their employers?" Mikkelson asked. "As globalization is inevitable, how can we work globally, while still protecting our local eco-nomies? As cliché as it sounds, this project has reinforced my personal belief that solidarity is vital to the future of worker\’s rights – global solidarity."
Michael Moore is editor of The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. Used by permission. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org