Communiqué

POV, the multi-Emmy® and Peabody award-winning documentary series, opens its 38th season with UNION, directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story. The documentary follows a group of Amazon workers, led by Chris Smalls, as they spearhead a bold and often controversial unionization campaign against one of the world’s largest corporations.

Produced by Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, Stephen Maing, Brett Story, and Martin DiCicco, UNION will make its national broadcast premiere on Monday, June 23, 2025 at 10 pm on PBS Television. It will then be available to stream until August 31, 2025 at pbs.org, and the PBS App. Now in its 38th season, POV remains America’s longest-running nonfiction series.

Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Under the direction of the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The odds are stacked against them, as the group finds itself up against a tech industry giant with unlimited resources, without major support from national unions or politicians, and while navigating internal divisions within their own ranks. Filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing document the struggle from day one, offering a gripping human drama about the fight for power and dignity in today’s globalized economic landscape. The film’s participants are Christian Smalls, Angelika Maldonado, Connor Spence, Derrick Palmer, Jason Anthony, Gerald Bryson, Jordan Flowers, Natalie Monarrez, and Madeline Wesley.

Co-directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing said: “The entire UNION team could not be more thrilled for the film to be released on PBS’s POV. As labor issues and working-class concerns move to the forefront of national conversation—touching families and communities everywhere—we’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to share this powerful chronicle of grassroots organizing with viewers throughout the country. PBS is a national treasure and the perfect home for our film.”

“We’re so excited to have UNION opening POV’s 38th season. The level of access these filmmakers have in this film is awe-inspiring and we can’t wait for more audiences to see it and to understand what it takes to start a movement,” said Erika Dilday, Executive Director, American Documentary and Executive Producer, POV, and America ReFramed.

UNION made its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change. It made the Best Documentary Feature Shortlist for the 2025 Academy® Award, won the 2025 Cinema Eye Honors Production Award, and was a SIMA Impact Award Finalist in 2024. The film won Best Documentary Feature Audience Award at the Indie Memphis Film Festival (2024), the Change Award at the Adelaide Film Festival (2024), Best Canadian Pitch Prize at the Hot Docs Pitch Forum (2022) and has been featured at over 100 film festivals across the globe including: Sheffield DocFest (2024), CPH:DOX (2024), Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival (2024), True/False Film Fest (2024), Traverse City (2024), Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2024), UnionAID New Zealand (2024), and the Austin Film Society (2024). Other key victories include winning the Maysles Documentary Center’s Albie Award (2024) and the Anthem Gold Award’s Film & Television (2024). The documentary also received nominations for Best Feature Documentary at the Gotham Awards (2024) and Direction at Cinema Eye Honors (2025).