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Connections is a New York Times word game that’s all about finding the “common threads between words.” How to solve the puzzle.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for October 20’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

Yellow: News writing

Green: Loud

Blue: Table Tennis

Purple: Homophones

Here are today’s Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:

Yellow: Bit of Newspaper Writing

Green: Noisy Disturbance

Blue: Table Tennis Needs

Purple: Homophones of Coordinating Conjunctions

Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today’s Connections #495 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

Bit of Newspaper Writing: ARTICLE, COLUMN, FEATURE, STORY

Noisy Disturbance: CLATTER, RACKET, ROW, RUCKUS

Table Tennis Needs: BALL, NET, PADDLE, TABLE

Homophones of Coordinating Conjunctions: BUTT, FORE, OAR, SEW

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.

If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.

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The horror sequel starring Naomi Scott earned $9.4 million on its opening day.

Horror continues to dominate the box office this October, with new release Smile 2 taking in $9.4 million from its Oct. 18 opening day and preview screenings. Variety says that’s more than the original Smile‘s $8.2 million.

The pop star-centric sequel — which Mashable’s Monica Castillo called “even more fun and gory this time around” in her review — isn’t the only horror movie to crack the box office top five this week. Gore-fest Terrifier 3, which topped the box office last week, is poised to come in third after earning $2.9 million this Friday.

Meanwhile, Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot continues to hold strong at second, and will likely cross the $100 million domestic mark over the rest of the weekend, even as the film lands on digital. Rounding out the top five are We Live in Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is on track to become the fourth highest-grossing film of 2024 in the US.

As for Joker: Folie à Deux? It continues to underperform, falling out of the top five with a whimper.

Smile 2 is now in theaters.

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Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner star in this reboot of a horror classic from Leigh Whannell (“The Invisible Man”).

Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner star in this reboot of a horror classic from Leigh Whannell (“The Invisible Man”).

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Answers to each clue for the October 19, 2024 edition of NYT’s The Mini crossword puzzle.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times‘ revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player’s flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

Here are the clues and answers to NYT’s The Mini for Saturday, October 19, 2024:

Across

Lawyer’s assignment

The answer is Case.

“I’m outta here!”

The answer is Later.

Be a nuisance to

The answer is Bother.

Net flicks?

The answer is Volleys.

Pop star Grande

The answer is Ariana.

Awaits a final judgment

The answer is Pends.

On the boundaries of acceptable behavior

The answer is Edgy.

Down

Taylor Swift, per the signature on her endorsement of Kamala Harris

The answer is Cat Lady.

Capital of Greece

The answer is Athens.

“I’m outta here!”

The answer is See ya.

Makes a mistake

The answer is Errs.

Cracking up, to a texter

The answer is LOLing.

Totally uninterested in a lecture, perhaps

The answer is Bored.

Use an e-cigarette

The answer is Vape.

If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Mini Crossword.

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Andrea Arnold’s latest coming-of-age fable, “Bird,” comes up slightly short. Review.

Andrea Arnold lobs everything including the kitchen sink at her latest tale of realism, though she can’t quite balance its highs and lows. Bird follows a poor 12-year-old’s coming-of-age in Southeast England, and her friendship with a mysterious stranger. It’s as much about grimy, tangible details as it is about ethereal ideas of what the lens can (and cannot) see, but this self-reflexivity is, at once, the movie’s most breathtaking facet, as well as its undoing.

Arnold has long employed a roving lens to explore rural and suburban landscapes. Bird, her first fiction film is nearly a decade, is no exception, though she affords herself too much aesthetic liberty at times. This time around, her handheld style is more chaotic than exploratory. It often obscures more than it reveals. However, her actors help her in capturing just enough vulnerability to make up for this misstep.

The film doesn’t quite fit together, but its individual pieces can be dazzling. Some even border on the divine, and they work to remind us that even a lesser Arnold is still a cut above most people’s best.

What is Bird about?

Hard-as-nails Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old biracial Black girl, lives with her young, wayward white father, Bug (Barry Keoghan, Saltburn), in a dilapidated apartment project in Kent, England. In fact, their town is called Gravesend, a murky name that echoes their dead-end prospects, though this doesn’t stop Bug from planning a wedding celebration he can’t afford. To Bailey’s chagrin, Bug’s girlfriend of three months and now fiancée, Kayleigh (Frankie Box), is about to move into their home with her infant daughter. The pre-teen lashes out, and attempts to join the vigilante gang run by her 14-year-old half-brother, Hunter (Jason Buda).

Arnold often takes an oblique, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it approach to establishing some of these relationships, which often come to light through quick and muffled dialogue. This is, in essence, the point. It can be initially hard to tell whether the heavily tattooed, high-energy Bug is Bailey’s father or her sibling, or where Bug and Hunter are related at all — they barely share the screen — which speaks to how young and ill-prepared Bug is for fatherhood, and the family’s fractured nature.

Hunter and his scrawny friends try to take the law into their own hands by attacking domestic abusers and recording their assaults for social media, and while this could make its own intriguing feature, it’s but a passing detail in Arnold’s jagged-edged world — for better or worse. While it does eventually pay off in the plot (and has at least glancing thematic relevance), it can’t help but feel like a morally intriguing aspect of Bailey’s story has gone unexplored.

After Bailey is ousted from these missions for her safety, she comes across an awkward, friendly figure who goes only by the name Bird (Franz Rogowski, Passages). Bird claims to have come to Gravesend to track down his parents, from whom he was separated as a child. In keeping with the film’s persistent issue, this saga is also sidelined as soon as it gets interesting, but the ephemeral nature of Bird’s arrival is, in its own way, wondrous.

Franz Rogowski brings a shimmering warmth to Bird.

From the moment he appears, Rogowski’s soft physicality brings dazzling contrast to Bailey’s rough-and-tumble world, building intrigue in the process. Their initial connection is built on commonalities; Bird defies gender binaries with his lengthy skirt, as does Bailey with her short hair and boisterous attitude, and they happen to meet in the wide-open isolation of a lonely field, as if they’re each escaping from something. However, Bird also represents a sense of wide-eyed possibility that Bailey’s surroundings don’t often allow her to feel.

Something as simple as Bird’s quiet smile, and his seeming friendly demeanor with no ulterior motives, feels entirely alien to Bailey, though it might to most people. Rogowski plays Bird with one eye towards rejecting all things cynical, whether to maintain optimism about his familial search or simply because this is some innate quality Bird happens to possess.

Bird often rides the line between character and idealistic symbol, especially when Bailey begins capturing him with her phone camera, and projecting his images on her bedroom wall. On occasion, he’ll stand perched on the roof of a nearby building, unmoving, looking down at her like an angelic being. The way he carries himself is beautiful and breathtaking. He’s a breath of fresh air that Bailey and the movie sorely need.

Bird is almost self-reflexive about its images — but not quite.

Unfortunately, Bailey’s proclivity for capturing scenery is yet another idea left unexplored, even though Bird is at its most potent when dipping its toe into her perspective. Her pictures and videos are gentle in a way her surroundings are not, and the question of whether she’s projecting this gentleness out into the world or finding it in places others might not seek it remains largely untouched.

Arnold is usually adept at capturing the rhythms and invisible hues of any place she films, but her framing here is often so off-kilter as to be nauseating. Bird is too quick and chaotic to ever ruminate on its images — Arnold’s own, or the ones she creates for Bailey — which makes her protagonist’s own point of view feel fleeting, even when the movie delves further into her family.  

However, Bird’s enigmatic presence, as briefly seen through Bailey’s eyes, is just alluring enough, and allows Arnold to keep an observational distance without the movie coming apart at the seams. Along the way, as teenage drama comes to the fore, it’s also complemented by strange happenings verging on magical realism, thanks to the strange behavior of animals. While these can be chalked up to coincidental oddities, they’re framed with just enough mischief to pose delightful doubts about the movie’s true nature.

Whether or not Bird represents or possesses some kind of divinity is practically irrelevant in the face of whether or not Bailey can recognize this or capture it. However, rather than exploring its latent symbolism, the film soon begins straying into awfully literal territory. It can’t seem to maintain its sense of mystery for very long. In the process, even its most life-affirming moments tend to lose their impact, even though Rogowski’s otherworldliness is a marvel to behold.

Bird was reviewed out of its NewFest premiere in New York. It will be released in theaters Nov. 8.

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Bruce Campbell. Anna Camp. Emjay Anthony. Milly Shapiro. They’ve scared you before. An explainer on where you’ve seen the stars of Peacock’s new “Hysteria!”

Maybe you’re watching Peacock’s Hysteria! and twitching on the verge of recollection: WHO is that familiar face screaming on your TV screen? The new horror-thriller series from Matthew Scott Kane not only delves into the Satanic Panic of the ’80s with a fresh murder mystery to unearth but also boasts an ensemble cast studded with genre luminaries.

So whether you’re a die-hard Deadite, an appreciator of elevated horror, or new to scary movies, here’s a guide to where you’ve seen the cast of Hysteria! before.

Emjay Anthony

Hysteria!’s plotline features a variety of characters, from the pestered police chief and the fretful Christian girl to the queen bee obsessed with Satan. At its emotional center is long-ignored misfit Dylan Campbell, whose last name is a nod to the show’s most legendary horror star, Bruce Campbell. When a local beloved jock turns up ritualistically murdered, Dylan finds an unlikely path to popularity by pretending to be a Satanist — and a way to promote his heavy metal band to boot!

In pursuit of his devilish dream girl Judith (Jessica Treska), Dylan puts his whole family at risk. This is similar to the plotline of Anthony’s most memorable horror role, Krampus. In this Yuletide horror, a young Anthony played a little boy so fed up with his family’s in-fighting that he makes a terrible Christmas wish. Everything from snowmen and gingerbread cookies to holiday ornaments become deadly threats in this over-the-top treat from writer/director Michael Dougherty.

Julie Bowen

Mostly known as Claire Dunphy on the long-running sitcom Modern Family, Bowen has dipped into her dark side since the series finale in 2020. Just last year she starred opposite Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘s Kiernan Shipka in the time-traveling slasher-comedy Totally Killer.

Now as Hysteria!’s Linda Campbell, she’s playing a mom who’s plagued by paranormal threats, unexplained blisters, and fears that her son could be a killer Satanist.

Bruce Campbell

Long before Campbell lent his world-weary swagger to Hysteria!’s no-nonsense Chief Dandridge, he made his first major mark on horror as the lead in Sam Raimi’s grimy classic Evil Dead. As the hard-to-kill everyman (who sometimes has a chainsaw for an arm), Campbell’s scream king Ash returned in the sequels Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the spinoff series Ash vs Evil Dead.

This self-proclaimed B-movie actor has gone on to appear in a slew of movies and TV shows, including the spy drama Burn Notice and the Elvis Presley-centered mummy romp Bubba Ho-Tep. Superhero movie fans might recognize his trademark chin from his cameos in other Raimi offerings, like all three Tobey Maguire-fronted Spider-Man movies, plus Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Milly Shapiro

As Dylan and his friends build their cult to cater to Judith’s desires, they rope in “goat girl” aka Ingrid, a farmer’s daughter who has no embarrassment about her animal buddies. If you looked at this lovable outcast and thought for sure you’ve seen her before, perhaps you’re thinking of Hereditary? Yup. The 22-year-old Shapiro is all grown up now. But back in 2018, the Broadway baby who headlined Matilda the Musical scared the bejesus out of audiences as Charlie, the strange, seemingly haunted girl in writer/director Ari Aster’s disturbing feature-length debut.

Coincidentally, both Shapiro and Anthony’s breakout horror roles were in movies where Toni Collette played their mom! And — uh — without spoilers, that didn’t bode well for either family.

Garret Dillahunt

This prolific actor is introduced on Hysteria! by voice alone. But as a fan of the critically heralded Western drama Deadwood and the wacky sitcom Raising Hope, I know the voice of Garret Dillahunt when I hear it! To me, he’s best known in the double role of the cowardly killer Jack McCall and the suave but villainous Francis Wolcott or the lovable himbo Burt Chance. However, Walking Dead fans will know him as Fear The Walking Dead‘s former cop turned rugged survivor John Dorie, while others may recognize him from his offbeat role as Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney in The Mindy Project.

With Dillahunt regularly showing all kinds of range in his TV roles, from lovable to harrowing, his presence on Hysteria! is exciting exactly because it’s hard to predict where his mysterious Reverend may land by season’s end.

Anna Camp

Maybe she’s best known as Barden Bellas leader Aubrey Posen in Pitch Perfect, but Anna Camp is no stranger to serial horror. Back in 2009, she sunk her teeth into HBO’s True Blood, a sexy soap opera inspired by Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries. In that long-running series, she played a perky but menacing televangelist’s wife named Sarah Newlin. In Hysteria!, she’s back in the habit (as it were) as Tracy Whitehead, a fiercely religious mother whose view on faith and parenthood are flat-out scary.

Chiara Aurelia

Did you pick out this one? In Hysteria!, Chiara Aurelia brings a snarling wit and big heart to goth girl Jordy, best friend of the embattled Dylan. But back in Fear Street Part Two: 1978, this actress played a mean teen in the summer camp slasher. As pretty and popular camper Sheila Watson, Aurelia bullied and even burned Shadysider Ziggy (Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink). This time around, she’s using her sneer for good, scaring off the cool kids whose peer pressure could actually get her friends killed.

Jamie Flanagan

The sibling of horror auteur Mike Flanagan, Jamie has appeared in small roles in several of their brother’s movies, including Absentia, Oculus, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep. As a writer, they’ve also had a hand in Mike’s Netflix series, with credits on The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Jamie Flanagan pulls double duty on Hysteria!, not only as a screenwriter on Season 1 but also as the mild-mannered Father Mathis.

Nikki Hahn

Before she was the tormented Christian teen Faith Whitehead on Hysteria!, Nikki Hahn played a creepy kid on the second season of American Horror Story. In American Horror Story: Asylum, Hahn appeared as little Jenny Reynolds, whose girlish pigtails and angel face hid a murderous past. Will Faith prove to be a bad seed like Jenny? Hysteria!’s finale may have the answer.

Any other horror-casting connections you can find in Hysteria!? Sound off in comments.

Hysteria! is now streaming on Peacock.

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Following the Amazon Labor Union’s organization efforts in 2021, the documentary film “Union” provides a mirror of the larger labor movement, including the uprising against streamer consolidation.

In mid-July, in a sun-baked lot outside of Amazon Studios in Culver City, California, a group of writers and creatives were up in arms. They were four months into what would be a 6-month strike and picketing effort spanning the summer of 2023, fighting for a fair contract with studios. “It’s not content,” read one red and black sign. “Amazon Crime,” read another, punctuated by a depiction of the signature Amazon logo in an uncharacteristic frown.  

One week prior, the National Labor Relations Board had filed a formal complaint against the manufacturing arm of that same global giant, alleging that the business had violated the law in refusing to bargain with the fledgling Amazon Labor Union representing fulfillment center workers. 

A cross-sector labor resurgence, prompted by global crisis after global crisis, was well on its way. Corporations — including those blurring the lines between manufacturing, entertainment, and technology — were on notice.

The efforts of the Amazon organizers are depicted in Union, an observational documentary on the Bezos-opposed unionization of Staten Island fulfillment center JFK8 and their now-famous figurehead Chris Smalls, who led a 2020 worker walkout and was eventually fired. The film begins its theatrical run on Oct. 18.

The 100-minute film drops viewers straight into the 2021 work of then-employees, recently fired organizers, and specially hired union salts (union organizers who seek jobs at companies just to unionize them) to draw a picture of a cross-class, multiracial effort to take back a corporate economy slipping out of the people’s control. It has only a few named subjects, no talking heads, no heroes, and, really, no villains. It, in the words of directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing, is a story of complicated people power. 

Despite premiering at Sundance, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change, and its headline-generating subject matter, the Level Ground Production film received no studio distribution interest. Over the last 8 months, it’s screened at nearly every major film festival and at national and international labor events; it’s now going to theaters under a full self-distribution plan. “Amazon Studios has a lot of power,” Story told Mashable. “We don’t know if that’s a factor behind why our film hasn’t been picked up, but it certainly adds to a nervousness and a conservatism around the choices distributors are making.”

The struggles and ethos of the workers are replicated on screen and off, with Union and its distribution strategy presenting a concerning reality and a call to action for its audiences. Touching on the rippling effects of corporate consolidation, the increasing necessity of historic documentation, and the fate of art amid conflict, the film pounds on Hollywood’s locked doors. 

Union and its place in the labor revival

The first moments of Union introduce its audience to the concept of scale. A massive cargo ship filled with towering containers slowly engulfs the first frame. A rocket ship — specifically, the Blue Origin flight carrying Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — shoots through a cerulean sky into space. On the ground, employees wait for a bus.  

These elements, combined with the nonstop pace of the union organizers in the film thereafter, are designed to feel all-consuming, Maing (the Academy Award–nominated director behind documentary film Crime + Punishment) explained to Mashable. Viewers watch as the film jumps from Zoom calls in cars to contentious discussions over firepits to confusing cross-borough commutes by the underdog union’s leaders; it’s all for the purpose of forward momentum. Unlike the massive scale used to set the stakes, urgency is communicated through minute details — leaders address the personal needs of workers and assuage fears of being fired.

While the social issue documentary spans more than a year of organizing, the directors were aware of the urgency of the moment, painted against the backdrop of a wave of worker movements, including in Hollywood. They saw the need to present the interconnected, complex, and messy nature of labor organizing against corporations that all pull from the same set of anti-worker — and anti-art — tactics. 

Story — one of Variety’s Documentary Filmmakers to Watch, known for documentaries like climate warning The Hottest August and Camper Force, about the Amazon workers depicted in the book as well as the feature film Nomadland — wanted to explore the larger labor movement through the complicated characters behind the ALU. “In the 21st century, when unionization is at an all-time low, when many people have no generational experience being part of a labor movement or a union, their parents might not even have been part of a union, who brings themselves to an effort like this?” she asks. “Politically, how do people decide that that’s the form of political activism that they want to engage in? And then how do they learn how to do it in real time?” 

The documentary as a mirror 

As more people join the cause, organizing becomes increasingly complicated. Organizers negotiate over who the face of the movement should be. We see Smalls, the union’s de-facto leader and later president, representing a more common working-class experience as a father and warehouse employee. He’s juxtaposed by his young, white, college-educated comrades, like Madeline, a hired “salt.”

Other organizers fight to keep Smalls and other Black and brown members safe from potential violence at the hands of security personnel, balancing the need to use his name and image for press attention with the reality of structural racism and police brutality. By the end, many are questioning whether their leader is the right choice, and ardent supporters have changed their tune.

As the ALU negotiates PR spin, the optics of their movement, and the need for third-party support among major labor unions, morals clash, and morale is threatened. 

The companies that govern what gets seen are run like tech companies…We’re feeling that in what’s being bought and distributed and made available.
– Brett Story

Union‘s production team face some of the same battles, mirroring the ALU in the documentary’s efforts to get its message out to the public — Smalls has traveled abroad for film screenings, appeared as an honored guest for the Time 100, and joined the documentary press tour at the Sundance and New York Film festivals — while adhering to the ethos of the movement the film is representing. “There were a lot of voices in the room from an early stage. It was always very collaborative, in ways that, at times, mimicked the group of people we were watching on screen. Because, it turns out, it’s really hard to do things collectively,” said Story. 

Just like their on-screen counterparts, the film’s team — backed by what are known as impact partners, like Red Owl, and independent film funders, like the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms — are strategizing a play against their own disinterested corporate giant. 

The future of “impact films” in the digital age

“The companies that govern what gets seen are run like tech companies,” said Story. “They’re not even run by film people anymore, or media people, who watch stuff because they care. They’re run by people who are thinking about their stock options and running things like a startup. We’re feeling that in what’s being bought and distributed and made available.”

Not only that: The state of the “social issue documentary,” or “impact film” as they’re often called these days, is nebulous. While independent films are growing in popularity among viewers, distribution markets for social issue films have collapsed, being slowly built back up by nonprofits and social organizations. Documentaries are now commonly paired with impact campaigns designed to hit social media audiences with resources or calls-to-action, Union included — not previously a norm. 

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“What a documentary film is and how it functions in the world is actually very mysterious to most people,” she said. “Unless you’re in the film world and you go to film festivals, your idea of a documentary film is just something that’s on Netflix.”

The decline in political cinema, the preferred term Story uses for work like hers, isn’t just an issue among artmakers. It’s a democratic concern. To filmmakers like Maing and Story, working out of a storied history of documentarians like Diary of a Harlem Family director Gordon Parks and Primary director Richard Leacock, long-form cinema is just as important a tool to political action as the written word. Citing Parks specifically, Maing refers to the camera as a “weapon of choice” in implicating the most urgent of social issues. It’s supported by the rising importance of digital documentation of the world’s crises, from citizen journalists in war-torn areas and activists armed with smartphones.

Political cinema, Story added, is “not just a vehicle synonymous with a pamphlet or an essay. Political films are also entertaining, to use the language of the media world — they make us feel alive, they make us feel connected, they pose interesting questions that we keep thinking about.” So why won’t studios put more investment in them? And what do we lose when they don’t?

Historic houses for social issue documentation that support artistic work, like the newsroom, are also losing the corporate consolidation battle, which Story says is concerning. While local news outlets are being lost and capitalism’s interests take over decision-making, media and news literacy worsens among consumers. The social media warehouses of modern audiences churn out assembly lines swamped by memes and misinformation, while films like Union struggle to get to viewers. And where streaming services could have been democratizing forces in filmmaking, getting previously inaccessible or uninvested films into the homes of audiences, corporate-owned services are now shutting the gates to audiences and artists. 

The current distribution landscape would have us believe that, without a major distributor or streamer studio, you’ll be hard pressed to get national exposure for your little documentary.
– Stephen Maing

“What does it say about the world, and our capacity to become more intelligent actors in it, if the media we consume is governed by a set of cynical calculations about how we can’t stand to watch a single image for more than two seconds, and how audiences don’t want to see anything except for celebrities and true crime?” asked Story. 

Documenting conflict, protest, and change freely is the first hurdle. Getting audiences in community to view the work is another. In Union, organizers crash mandatory meetings of Amazon employees held by union busters, a tactic known as captive audience audience meetings, in order to get out the word on the ALU. In theaters, where audience are similarly held to one space for an extended amount of time, Union hopes to convince viewers to reclaim political power. “It’s the only captive audience viewing that is actually beneficial to the people who get to view it,” said Maing.

Seeding a people-first film environment 

Union’s campaign team, like the ALU’s, views their situation as an organizing opportunity, not in economic terms. “When you don’t see your needs being met by the existing landscape — whether it’s a corporate landscape of jobs or it’s a landscape of big unions that you feel like have abandoned you — then you take things into your own hands,” said Story. 

Union‘s self-distribution in limited theaters across the country is matched by a wave of guerrilla marketing. The team has and will continue hosting Amazon worker screenings across dozens of Amazon “chokepoint” warehouses vital to the movement. They will launch a five-day screening pegged to Black Friday, inevitably hitting one of Amazon’s most profitable days of the year, and even project opportunities to see the film on the sides of Amazon warehouse buildings, just like the ALU did with its own messaging: “You are not a number. You are not disposable. You are a human being.”

“This has been a really exciting experience, to call the shots and allow us to be impact and community forward in our distribution ideas,” Maing explained, “as opposed to watching our relationship to the actual release of the film be broken and taken out of our control.”

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“The ALU was a nascent grassroots organization that was told they would never be able to pull off organizing Amazon. Amazon was an un-organizable space,” said Maing. “The current distribution landscape would have us believe that, without a major distributor or streamer studio, you’ll be hard pressed to get national exposure for your little documentary. I think the contrary has been proven.” Maing says that with the alignment of audiences and filmmakers, big studio and streamer gatekeepers could be taken to task. Amazon, increasingly at the center of both industries, could be hit from all sides. 

Such attempts at independent, morally-aligned theatrical campaigns aren’t trying to sneak by the industry’s gatekeepers, but rather reach the people outside the gates.

“People are hungry for stories that describe and reflect the desire to feel like we have power over our lives,” said Story. “That these beasts, these power conglomerates that we’re faced with, are not insurmountable. That we can take them on.”

Union is in select theaters through October.

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The best live streaming services to watch the LSU vs. Arkansas college football game without cable.

The LSU Tigers vs. Arkansas Razorbacks football teams go head-to-head this weekend at Folsom Field Stadium in Boulder Colorado. The match will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, and is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. 

LSU vs. Arkansas football kickoff time and network

The LSU vs. Arkansas football game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT start on ESPN on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Best streaming services for LSU vs. Arkansas football game

You need to choose a streaming service to watch college football without cable or satellite TV. We’ve found some of the best streaming services to consider for Saturday’s LSU vs. Arkansas football game on ESPN. 

Most affordable: Sling TV

Getting Sling TV for the LSU vs. Arkansas football game could work for you. You’ll need the Orange Plan, which comes as low as $20 for the first month and $40 for subsequent months.

Sling TV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPNU, FOX, FS1, FS2, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network.

Best for single game: FuboTV

With FuboTV, you can watch more than 250 channels of live TV and the option to watch on 10 screens at once. You can try FuboTV with a seven-day free trial period. 

Visit the FuboTV website to see if your zip code includes the ESPN broadcast. If it does, then you’re good to go – you’ll be able to get ESPN with the FuboTV Pro plan, which has a one-month introductory rate of $59.99/month and a regular subscription rate of $79.99 per month. 

FuboTV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, FOX, FS1, FS2, Golf Network, Marquee Sports Network, Monumental Sports, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network. 

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The best live streaming services to watch the Colorado vs. Arizona college football game without cable.

The Colorado Buffaloes vs. Arizona Wildcats football teams go head-to-head this weekend at the Arizona Stadium in Tuscon, Arizona. The match will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, and is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. 

Colorado vs. Arizona football kickoff time and network

The Colorado vs. Arizona football game is scheduled for a 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT start on FOX on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Best streaming services for Colorado vs. Arizona football game

You need to choose a streaming service to watch college football without cable or satellite TV. We’ve found some of the best streaming services to consider for Saturday’s Colorado vs. Arizona football game on FOX. 

Most affordable: Sling TV

You can only access FOX through Sling TV in certain markets, including Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Gainesville, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tacoma, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. 

If you’re not in one of those markets, unfortunately, Sling TV isn’t an option to watch the Colorado vs. Arizona football game. 

However, if you’re in one of those markets, getting Sling TV for the Colorado vs. Arizona football is a great option. To watch, you’ll need to purchase the Blue Plan, which comes at $35 for the first month and $45 for subsequent months.

Sling TV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPNU, FOX, FS1, FS2, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network.

Best for single game: FuboTV

FuboTV offers you more than 250 channels of live TV and the option to watch on 10 screens at once. You can try FuboTV with a seven-day free trial period. 

Visit the FuboTV website to see if your zip code includes the FOX broadcast. If it does, then you’re good to go – you’ll be able to get FOX with the FuboTV Pro plan, which has a one-month introductory rate of $59.99/month and a regular subscription rate of $79.99 per month. 

FuboTV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, FOX, FS1, FS2, Golf Network, Marquee Sports Network, Monumental Sports, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network. 

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The best live streaming services to watch the Georgia vs. Texas college football game without cable.

The Georgia Bulldogs vs. Texas Longhorns football teams go head-to-head this weekend at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. The match will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19, and is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. 

Georgia vs. Texas football kickoff time and network

The Georgia vs. Texas football game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT start on ABC on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Best streaming services for Georgia vs. Texas football game

You need to choose a streaming service to watch college football without cable or satellite TV. We’ve found some of the best streaming services to consider for Saturday’s Georgia vs. Texas football game on ABC. 

Most affordable: Sling TV

You can only access ABC on Sling TV in certain markets. Those include Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Gainesville, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tacoma, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. 

If you’re not in one of those markets, unfortunately, Sling TV won’t allow you to watch the Georgia vs. Texas football game. 

If you’re in one of those markets, getting Sling TV for the Georgia vs. Texas football game would work for you. You’ll need the Orange Plan, which comes at $30 for the first month and $40 for subsequent months.

Sling TV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPNU, FOX, FS1, FS2, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network.

Best for single game: FuboTV

FuboTV offers you more than 250 channels of live TV and the option to watch on 10 screens at once. You can try FuboTV with a seven-day free trial period. 

Visit the FuboTV website to see if your zip code includes the ABC broadcast. If it does, then you’re good to go – you’ll be able to get ABC with the FuboTV Pro plan, which has a one-month introductory rate of $59.99/month and a regular subscription rate of $79.99 per month. 

FuboTV’s sports channel offerings include ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, FOX, FS1, FS2, Golf Network, Marquee Sports Network, Monumental Sports, NBC, NFL Network, and SEC Network. 

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