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THE FILM
Claiming Our Voice is a short documentary film by Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel sharing the stories of Andolan, a Queens-based workers center founded and led by South Asian immigrant women low-wage workers as a means to support each other and collectively organize against exploitative work conditions.
THE ISSUE
Domestic work includes childcare, cleaning and cooking and takes place in the home. The majority of domestic workers are female, foreign born and persons of color. Claiming Our Voice’s main characters work in this industry, are prone to low wages, long hours, no benefits, and extreme isolation. While the issue of domestic work has received increased attention, we rarely hear from domestic workers themselves. Through the course of the film, our characters are revealed as their own heroines – challenging stereotypical images of immigrants and low-wage workers as well as notions of culture, race, gender, and class.
Take a look at the video and I hope you will join the fight to make these women’s voices heard! Support in whatever way you can.
The image that best represent Louise Bourgeois’ spunk and sense of humor is this one, taken by Robert Maplethorpe in 1982 when she was 71 years old. She was born in Paris in 1911 and was 98 when she died in New York City in 2010.
