Grassroots Rising

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GRASSROOTS RISING, directed by Robert C. Winn, explores the re-emergence of Asian Pacific American labor activism in Los Angeles among people from all walks of life, from a Pilipino American domestic worker, a Chinese American laundry worker-turned-union activist, a Korean American restaurant waitress fighting wage theft, a group of Thai women forced to labor in an underground sweatshop, to Korean American and Mexican American grocery store workers fighting for safer working conditions. The film offers a moving tribute to the working class roots of the Asian American experience, focusing on the resurgence of grassroots political activism among the City of Angels’ Asian, Latino, and other working class families.

Produced in 2005 as a Visual Communications production, GRASSROOTS RISING marks its 20th anniversary in 2025, juxtaposing poetry by spoken word artist Alison de la Cruz with the stories of immigrant workers, slave laborers, and activists alike. Koreatown restaurant workers arbitrarily fired despite being too ill to work, Pilipino home health care workers exploited for their cheap labor, and Thai women held captive in a virtual prison sweatshop share their stories along with supermarket workers picketing for better wages and working conditions. The film profiles how the sharp reality of life for working class immigrants in Los Angeles is being redirected into grassroots activism through innovative organizations such as the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, Garment Worker Center, Pilipino Worker Center, Thai Community Development Center, and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

Director’s Statement
I vividly remember when Linda Mabalot, the formidable and much-missed Executive Director of Visual Communications, asked me to direct a documentary about Asian American worker organizing. More than an invitation to make a film, it was a call to step into a legacy of community-based storytelling at the heart of VC’s mission.

I was excited to contribute to VC’s work. From its roots in the 70s, as the first Asian American media arts center, VC has created a vital, caring and inclusive space where media-making intersects with community memory and movement-building. And Grassroots Rising was a direct continuation of VC’s fierce commitment to telling stories of the Asian American experience from the ground up and the inside out.

In making Grassroots Rising, we wanted to explore the centrality of working class struggles and labor organizing to the Asian American experience. We were so fortunate to collaborate with powerhouse grassroots organizations like Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance, Pilipino Workers Center, Garment Worker Center, Thai Community Development Center and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, who continue to do groundbreaking work organizing low wage workers overlooked by larger institutions.

We also wanted to connect this work to a powerful lineage of AAPI labor organizing and collective action, drawing upon unique visual archives that VC has carefully preserved despite limited resources. The stories captured in these archives illuminate a continuum of resistance, from railroads and agricultural fields to garment factories, restaurants and home health settings, from grassroots campaigns to union halls. Across generations, Asian American workers have fought—and continue to fight—for a dignified and just America.

Creating this film was a rich convergence of talent, vision and passion. Linda—whose own early VC productions included deeply rooted stories about Filipino agricultural workers in California’s Central Valley—was the catalyst, the generous spark that made this project take flight. Leslie Ito, as producer, was the connective force keeping everything in motion. Alison de la Cruz’s poetic voice brought lyrical depth to the film’s narration. Tim Jieh’s editorial skill shaped the raw footage into a cohesive whole. Glenn Omatsu, a true people’s historian, grounded the film in historical insight. Abe Ferrer brought his unmatched curatorial sensibility to the project, while Woody Pak’s evocative score infused the film with emotional weight.

Together with our participants, and Amy Kato, John Esaki, Lushun Quon and so many others in the VC family, we made a beautiful film. Which is to say: we harnessed our storytelling skills to build community, strengthen bonds of solidarity, and ensure that voices long marginalized were heard and valued.

Years later, Grassroots Rising remains dear to me, as a filmmaker, as a community member, as a son of a Japanese mother, as a parent. This collective project profoundly shaped my understanding of what it means to tell stories, and deepened my belief in the power of documentaries not only to reflect history but to build community and shape the future.

Telling our own stories—including stories from the archives—is necessary and powerful cultural labor, a vital act of preservation, collective meaning-making, and defiance. Our histories breathe and move with us, illuminating paths toward the future we are still working to build. At a time when marginalized voices are increasingly erased or contested, reclaiming and amplifying our stories is not just about memory, it is about power. It is an act of resistance and solidarity, an insistence that our stories shape the present and future, not just the past.

Grassroots Rising is a testament to the power of community, of organizing, and of the stories we choose to hear and to tell. I hope it continues to ignite conversation, fuel action, and remind us that justice—like storytelling—is a process that is never finished.

Credits
Writer: Alison M. De La Cruz
Producer: Leslie A. Ito, Robert C. Winn
Executive Producer: Linda D. Mabalot
Director of Photography: Robert C. Winn
Editor: Timothy Jieh
Production Designer: Visual Communications
Composer: Woody Pak
Sound Designer: Jon K. Oh
Music: Woody Pak