ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
When a shooter committed mass murder in an El Paso Wal-Mart last year, a small yet powerful movement began in Wal-Mart's corporate offices to enact meaningful change in the wake of the tragedy, spearheaded by an entry-level employee. The results led to the most meaningful gun reforms in the decade since Sandy Hook.

SYNOPSIS
WALKOUT is an independent feature-length documentary produced by the subject Thomas Marshall's best friend, who watched from the sidelines throughout both incredible victory and horrible loss. Both the issues of employee rights and common sense gun reform are on trial in this film, capturing the societal dialogue only intensified by the pandemic in the year that followed.

Thomas isn’t an activist by trade; he’s an employee who wants to be proud of his company. When the CEO issued merely “thoughts and prayers” after that weekend of slaughter inside their retail locations, Thomas couldn’t stand by. He drafted an email of protest using company-approved channels, and distributed it to more than 20,000 of his co-workers across the country, many of whom felt the same way.

When Thomas and his fellow employees organized, those who had done so publicly had their computers shut down without warning, and suddenly found themselves in danger. Thomas didn’t intend to be a martyr; he wanted to change his company. Now if that effort failed, Thomas and his collaborators would be fired. He was locked in a corporate chess match, and stakes only got higher as the national news media caught wind of the activity.

In every large company, any number of employees can create effective change, even at the ground level, and it’s happening at other large companies like Amazon and Microsoft. In a country where business interests are put ahead of the interests of voters and taxpayers, changing business can do far more for rapid political change than changing a single politician, even the president.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Rob Smat
PRODUCER Michael Orion Downing, Thomas Kutzler

The Film Collaborative (TFC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing programs and services for independent filmmakers. TFC’s federal tax ID number is 32-0295081. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

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