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Category Archives: Finance

The Girl from Monday (2005)

13 Jun

84m; U.S.

Director: Hal Hartley

Cast: Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd and Tatiana Abracos

Synopsis (IMDB): In the not-distant-future, the market has taken over everything, thanks to the marketers. The consumer is king, and those who see value outside of the marketplace are “enemies of the consumer”, terrorists, and “partisan” enemies that the state must dispose of. Protagonist Jack seems to be at one with the media corporations (after all, his marketing ideas led to the institutionalization of the exchange of sex for enhanced buying power), but is he somehow involved with the feeble and pathetic resistance movement? Does he love Cecile, his colleague, or is she a pawn in his game? And what of the mysterious girl from Monday? Are immigrants from the star system “Monday” really assisting the partisans?

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Finance, Immigrants/Immigration, SciFi, Technology

 

The Yes Men (2003)

13 Jun

80m; U.S.
Director: Chris Smith, Dan Ollman, Sarah Price

Synopsis (IMDB): A comedic documentary which follows The Yes Men, a small group of prankster activists, as they gain world-wide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on television and at business conferences around the world. The film begins when two members of The Yes Men, Andy and Mike, set up a website that mimics the World Trade Organization’s–and it’s mistaken for the real thing. They play along with the ruse and soon find themselves invited to important functions as WTO representatives. Delighted to represent the organization they politically oppose, Andy and Mike don thrift-store suits and set out to shock unwitting audiences with darkly comic satire that highlights the worst aspects of global free trade

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Finance, Global Economy

 

Trading Places (1983)

13 Jun

116m; U.S.

Director: John Landis

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis (IMDB): Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it’s a person’s environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe’s job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him.

 

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Comedy, Finance, White Collar, Working Class

 

Wall Street (1987)

13 Jun

124m; U.S.

Director: Oliver Stone

Cast: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Hal Holbrook

Synopsis (IMDB): Bud Fox is a Wall Street stockbroker in early 1980’s New York with a strong desire to get to the top. Working for his firm during the day, he spends his spare time working an on angle with the high-powered, extremely successful (but ruthless and greedy) broker Gordon Gekko. Fox finally meets with Gekko, who takes the youth under his wing and explains his philosophy that “Greed is Good”. Taking the advice and working closely with Gekko, Fox soon finds himself swept into a world of “yuppies”, shady business deals, the “good life”, fast money, and fast women; something which is at odds with his family including his estranged father (a good union man) and the blue-collared way Fox was brought up.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Drama, Finance

 

We All Fall Down

13 Jun

65m; U.S.

Director: Gary Gasgarth

Synopsis: This timely and informative documentary chronicles the history of America’s mortgage finance system, from its origins in the 1930s, when the federal government first made available long-term, fixed-rate loans to new American homeowners, to its current state of crisis, after an excess of risky mortgage financing led to the system’s collapse, which in turn triggered a wider economic recession.

Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2009/fall.html lori@icarusfilms.com Sending screener

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Finance

 

The Wilmar 8 (1981)

13 Jun

55m; U.S.

Director: Lee Grant

Synopsis (IMDB): Risking jobs, friends, family and the opposition of church and community, eight unassuming women begin the longest bank strike in American history.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Finance, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Women

 

Working Girl (1988)

13 Jun

113m; U.S.

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver

Synopsis (IMDB): Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Comedy, Drama, Finance, Romance, Women

 

Your Loan is Denied (1992)

13 Jun

 

Synopsis: From Frontline, this production looks at the discriminatory practices by the banks of America and the dire consequences that result when the foremost mortgage-lending institutes set their loan protocol based on any color other than green. Brought to video by PBS, correspondent Bill Schechner introduces two African-American professionals, Peter and Dolores Green who are suing a Chicago area bank for refusing to finance the purchase of the home they have lived in for 30 years. In association with the Center for Investigative Reporting, this documentary shows the tragic effects of racial bias as entire neighborhoods find themselves fighting for economic survival.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Blacks, Documentary, Finance

 

Crossing the American Crises: From Collapse to Action (2011)

13 Jun

82m; U.S.

Director: Silvia Leindecker & Michael Fox

Synopsis: This documentary explores two major developments in recent U.S. history. The first is the impact that the September 2008 financial crisis had on ordinary working people throughout the country. The second is the response of working people to the crises affecting them, including their reaction to the government’s bailouts and Obama’s election. Particular attention is devoted to the emergence of progressive grass-roots movements such as the Vermont Workers’ Center, the Green Worker Cooperative in the Bronx, the Santa Fe Alliance in New Mexico, and the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The film’s overall theme is that the recent economic collapse indicates that it is “the people” themselves who must organize and act to bring about greater economic and social justice. Discussion will follow the film, with comments by Occupy Pittsburgh participants and others.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Class, Documentary, Finance, Organizing, Unemployment-Wages

 

Mumbai Diaries (Dhobi Ghat) [2010]

13 Jun

100m; India

Director: Kiran Rao

Cast: Prateik, Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra

Synopsis (IMDB): The lives of 4 different people in the city of Mumbai get entwined by fate and luck; Shai – an investment banker with a penchant for photography, Arun – a lonely painter, Munna – the “dhobi” who aspires to become an actor and Yasmin – making a video in her camcorder for her brother, who hasn’t been to Mumbai before. The film follows how their lives are changed by the presence of one another. Will it be for better or for worse?

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Finance, Working Class

 
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