Documentary Spotlights Employee-Owned Businesses

Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young’s film “SHIFT CHANGE” will premiere at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 6 on KCTS 9. The documentary explores employee-owned businesses succeeding in today’s economy.

Dworkin and Young filmed six worker cooperatives in the U.S. and in the Basque Country of Spain. The pair has filmed documentaries for 25 years, including “Argentina – Hope in Hard Times” in 2005 and “Good Food” in 2008. Film festivals, theaters and universities screened “SHIFT CHANGE” film in 2012, but this is the first time it will be available on PBS.

The two filmmakers were inspired by the successful venture in Spain called Mondragon Cooperatives. They wanted to make a film looking at a different type of business for people during the current hard economic times.

“People are so concerned about jobs — decent paying jobs — and about the growing economic inequalities in the country,” Young said. “Really I think people are looking for some creative new solutions that will work, and businesses that will stay put in a community and not move away.”

Read the full article at the South Whidbey Record site