Sista in the Brotherhood

I worked as a union carpenter for six years. My apprenticeship was demanding both physically and mentally. The labor required in building construction can be tedious and grueling to a newcomer and every task was something I had never done before. My body ached and I remember coming home barely able to close my hands after gripping tools all day. My co-workers at the time, had never worked with a woman before, let alone a Latina who happened to be gay. One day my boss asked me why I was there. I said, “I’m here to work.” He nodded before sending me to go clean up after everyone else for the rest of the day. I spent a lot of time proving I could hold my own and actual power tools. I loved the work though and eventually, I completed my apprenticeship and “journeyed out,” as they say.

Years later, I watched My Walk Has Never Been Average, a play based on the doctoral thesis of Dr. Roberta Hunte and directed by Bonnie Ratner. The play was an unsettling rundown of the unique difficulties black women in construction trades face, but also moving and inspiring to see how they persevere and support one another. I loved how these women’s stories were brought together as a play, so I approached Roberta—a longtime friend from our days at Oregon Tradeswomen—about creating another tradeswomen story in the form of a film.

Sista in the Brotherhood was an attempt to realistically portray what it’s like to work as a woman of color in the white, male-dominated environment of construction. Not only does the industry’s traditional worker fit into a very thin demographic—a white male— but the culture of the trades itself is a tough one. Hazing, mocking, and teasing are typical forms of communication, possibly an attempt to toughen up workers for the sometimes very physically demanding work of construction.

Times have changed since that culture was created—in addition to technological and safety advances that shift the industry culture, the reality is that the construction trades can no longer consist of primarily white men and still survive. With baby boomers retiring in droves, the industry must seek non-traditional workers to replenish their labor. At the same time, women need access to living wage careers more than ever before, and the trades that can pay rather well and don’t require a college education.

I was drawn to this story because of my own experience in construction. It was a strange kind of therapy to direct actors to play some of the least kind tradesmen I worked with in my years in the field. And it was such a thrill to show one woman’s moment of truth. Laneice is a skilled union, carpenter forced to keep her head down on the jobsite until she can find her allies or at least figure out how this particular crew works. And when the tension between her and her foreman becomes too much, she is forced to decide how to carry herself through. It is this moment of personal decision that I was most fascinated by as it communicates the universal perseverance and preservation of the human spirit.