Triangle: Remembering the Fire (DVD)

From Emmy - winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, this 40-minute documentary recounts the horror of March 25, 1911, when young garment workers perished in the worst industrial accident in New York City history (up until 9/11), triggering widespread reforms and ushering in the birth of modern labor movement. In addition to riveting stories of heart break and courage told by descendents of several of the fire's victims and survivors, the documentary explains how the tragedy occurred in the wake of an earlier strike (initiated by Triangle employees) that unified some 20,000 garment workers, but ended violence and few concessions by labor leaders. The Saturday afternoon fire, in which workers were literally locked inside their workspace by management apparently worried about theft, galvanized the public's outrage against big business and its treatment of employees. It also forced Tammany Hall officials to work with the fledgling International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to enact legislation improving safety, conditions and wages for garment workers -- a trend that climaxed in New Deal reforms twenty years later, and is the foundation of today's labor standards.

• documentary
• drama