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Union, Ink and Paper
(Dir. Alan Grossman & Áine O'Brien, 2009, forthcoming)
This documentary film (in postproduction), narrates the story of Anton McCabe, a trade union activist, and his commitment to equality in the workplace for non-EU migrants on temporary work permits in Ireland. For Anton, the exploitation of migrant workers by unscrupulous employers engenders a passionate engagement with workers' rights. The speed, volume and intensity of Anton's work is reflected in the hand-held close-up camera style of the film, capturing the 'messiness' of labour conditions for migrant workers in the 'low-skilled' economy. Anton is constantly on the move with mobile in hand, accumulating case after case, mediating between migrant workers in the construction, mushroom, meat and catering industries, and employers, immigration departments and the media. The film follows Anton's advocacy of three South African meat workers trafficked into Ireland by an industry preoccupied with the short-term gains of cheap labour from outside the EU. Anton helps to regularise the status of these workers, stranded by their Irish employer and 'undocumented' through no fault of their own, offering them and their families dignity and security. The film also documents Anton as he campaigns for a seat on local council and will feature animated sequences, produced by animator Rory Byrne, and FOMACS' animation supervisor Siobhán Twomey with voice-over by Anton, to narrate the conditions of migrant workers in his immediate locality. To find more information on this part of the project visit the project page here.