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Category Archives: Construction Trades

Men at Lunch (2012)

80m; Ireland

Director: Seán Ó Cualáin

Synopsis: New York City, 1932. The country is in the throes of the Great Depression, the previous decade’s boom of Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants has led to unprecedented urban expansion, and in the midst of an unseasonably warm autumn, steelworkers risk life and limb building skyscrapers high above the streets of Manhattan. In Men at Lunch, director Seán Ó Cualáin tells the story of Lunch atop a Skyscraper, the iconic photograph taken during the construction of the GE Building that depicts eleven workmen taking their lunch break while casually perched along a steel girder, 850 feet above the ground. For decades, this image has captivated imaginations the world over. But who are these men? And where did they come from?

Contact: http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/menatlunch

Trailer

 

Hombre Maquila (2011) (Machine Man)

Director: Alfonso Moral & Roser Corella
Spain, 2011, 14min
Format: HDCam (screening) – DigiBeta, BetaSP (shooting)
Festival Year: 2012
Category: Documentary
Crew: Editor, Cinematographer: Alfonso Moral
Email: roser.corellagmail.com

synopsis
A reflection on modernity and global development, documenting the use of human physical force to perform work in the 21st century. The film takes place in the capital of Bangladesh, where the ‘machine men’ execute different physical works, a mass of millions of people who become the driving force behind the city.

director
Alfonso Moral and Roser Corella have collaborated on a number of documentaries, shooting in Lebanon, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Kenya and Senegal. They combine this joint work with individual work, making photo and video reports for different media, television and press, including Catalan TV, La Vanguardia or Le Monde. “Machine Man” is their first auteur documentary.

 

Builders and The Games (2012)

57m; U.K.

Director: Margaret Dickinson

Synopsis: “Builders and The Games is a 57 minute feature documentary  about construction workers and the building of the 2012 Olympic Park in Stratford, London. Shot between 2007 and 2012,  it looks at how far the Olympic Site set an example to the construction industry and compares outcomes with early promises  about safety, training, jobs and recruitment.”

Contact: http://constructionandthegames.com/

Trailer

 

The Citadel: Birth of the LeVeque Tower (2011)

Director: Seth Moherman

Synopsis: Documentary about the building of the LeVeque Tower in Columbus, OH.

 

The Concrete Revolution (2004)

62m; China

Director: Xiaolu Guo

Synopsis: A look at life in a rapidly developing new China. Workers recruited from villages into Beijing’s construction industry tell their stories of a culture in flux. Their displacement from loved ones, financial desperation, and hopes are set against the backdrop of the city they are daily transforming in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Prolific young novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo illustrates with reference to her own migration from a provincial fishing village, music, and stories of her own.

 

The GAMA Strike – We Are Workers Not Slaves (2006)

60m; Ireland

Director: Socialist Party of Ireland

Synopsis (Indybay): ”The GAMA Strike – We Are Workers Not Slaves” by the Socialist Party of Ireland describes how Turkish workers took on their employer, Turkish-owned multinational construction giant GAMA. Assisted by the Socialist Party (Ireland), whose members first exposed the scandalous wages and conditions being paid by GAMA to its Turkish workers, they engaged in a bitter and hard fought battle, which eventually brought GAMA to heel.

Contact: Full documentary available to view here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8522850390691204183

 

The Stone Carvers (1984)

30m; U.S.

Director: Marjorie Hunt, Paul Wagner

Cast: Vincent Palumbo and Roger Morigi

Synopsis (IMDB): A look at some of the last stone carvers working in the United States, those completing the sculptures adorning the Washington National Cathedral. They discuss their craft and the cultural forces which helped define it, as well as the fading use of stone ornamentation in architecture and the history of stone carving, and they tour the cathedral to point out the history behind some of the work.

 
 

These Hands (1992)

DVD
45 minutes, 1992, Tanzania, Africa
Director: Flora M’mbugu-Schelling
in Kimakonde and Swahili with English subtitles

http://newsreel.org/video/THESE-HANDS

Who would have suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks, without narration or plot, would offer one of the most unforgettable and rewarding experiences of recent African cinema? Flora M’mbugu-Schelling’s quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the international economic order ultimately deepens into a mediation on human labor itself. These Hands will stimulate viewers to rethink documentary and to question their own role as consumers in a global economy.

 

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Trace of Stones (1966)

139m; East Germany

Director: Frank Beyer

Cast: Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypulkowska and Jutta Hoffmann

Synopsis (IMDB): Hannes Balla is the foreman of a group of building construction workers at the large construction site “Schkona” in the GDR. They spend most of their time working hard and drinking harder – to some they are fun, to some they are a public nuisance. Things get more complicated when the good-looking Kati Klee is employed as a young technician, and the ambitious new Party Secretary, Werner Horrath, aims to boost work efficiency and downsize Balla’s ego. Kati slowly warms up to Werner, but is also attracted to Balla’s nonconformity. A contemporary movie about work, love, and everything in between.

 

Transnational Tradeswomen (2006)

62m; U.S.

Director: Vivian Price

Synopsis: Women construction workers

 
 
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