Kino Lorber is distributing a 4K restoration of the documentary The Wobblies. This is a 1979 film that premiered at the New York Film Festival that year. The restoration was done by the Museum of Modern Art at the DuArt Digitization Center.

The Wobblies tells the story of the labor union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which created a union for all unskilled laborers regardless of race, gender, or field of work. The union was formed in Chicago in 1905.

The film was created with interviews of survivors at the time (1970's), newsreel footage, cartoons, posters, artwork and songs from IWW's Little Red Songbook.

The Wobblies was directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer. In a prepared joint statement, they said the following:

"When we started production on The Wobblies in 1977 our goal was to rescue and record an almost completely neglected chapter of American history as told by its elderly survivors. We never imagined then that the themes of labor exploitation, anti-immigrant legislation, and racial and gender discrimination would resonate as strongly today. We couldn’t be prouder to have the film included last year in the National Film Registry, and to have Kino Lorber present the new 4K MoMA restoration nationwide on International Workers Day."

As their statement points out, the film is being released at a few theaters nationwide on International Workers Day, which is May 1. The film is also starting a couple days earlier in New York with screenings starting April 29 at Metrograph.

Here's the trailer: