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Category Archives: Immigrants/Immigration

Anak (2000)

22 Mar

Director: Rory B. Quintos
Writers: Ricardo Lee (story), Raymond Lee (story)
Stars: Vilma Santos, Claudine Barretto, Joel Torre
Phillipines

The main character is a Filipina overseas contract worker, one of the many residents of the archipelago who is forced to leave her family and take a higher paying job in a more prosperous Asian country. While she is working her employer refuses to let her take a vacation, nor does he deliver her mail to her. She is unaware, therefore, that her husband has died. When she finally returns to the Philippines she is met with resentment and hatred by her children. The movie studies how she overcomes these feelings and rebuilds the relationship with her family.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in A: New/Just Added, Drama, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Service Workers, Women

 

Milan (2004)

22 Mar

Director: Olivia M. Lamasan
Writers: Raymond Lee (story), Raymond Lee (screenplay)
Stars: Claudine Barretto, Piolo Pascual, Ilonah Jean
Phillipines

Trials and tribulations of Filipino workers dreaming of a bright future in a foreign land.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in A: New/Just Added, Drama, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Service Workers, Women

 

A Mother’s Story (2011)

22 Mar

Director: John-D Lazatin
Writer: Senedy Que
Stars: Pokwang, Noni Buencamino, Rayver Cruz
Phillipines

Make-up artist grabs a chance to work as illegal immigrant in the US and finds that the grass is not greener on the other side.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in A: New/Just Added, Drama, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration

 

Dreamwork China (2013)

13 Mar

55m
written/directed by Tommaso Facchin and Ivan Franceschini
website

The dreams and rights of a new generation in the world’s factory. In the suburbs of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, young workers talk about their lives, existences built on a precarious balance between hope, struggles and wishes for the future. Around them activists and ZNGOs strive to give sense and meaning to works like rights, dignity and equity.

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2013 in A: New/Just Added, Communism/Socialism, Consumerism, Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Technology

 

The Second Cooler (est 2013)

04 Dec

Writer / Director Ellin JimmersonThe Second Cooler
Narrated by Martin Sheen
Run time: approximately 87 minutes
Anticipated release date is Winter, 2013
Sub-titled in English and Spanish

SYNOPSIS
Documentary about illegal immigration shot primarily in Alabama, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The premise is that Arizona is the new Alabama, the epicenter of an intense struggle for migrant justice. The documentary’s purpose is to bring basic immigration issues into focus. Those issues include the impact of free trade agreements on migration, the lack of a legal way for poor Latin Americans to come to the United States, the inherent abuses of the guest worker program, the fact that many migrants are indigenous people, anti-immigrant politics, the reality of thousands of migrant deaths at the border, and an escalating ideology of the border.
The Second Cooler raises the question “Who benefits?” from illegal migration. It has interviews with 25 illegal migrants, including three children under the age of 12. It follows several of them throughout the film. In addition, it includes interviews with 55 professionals including historians, lawyers, clergy, labor union organizers, politicians, a Border Patrol agent, human rights advocates and others who untangle the threads of a complicated issue. When a viewer reaches the end of The Second Cooler, he or she will understand why 12 million migrants are in the United States illegally and will be able to offer an informed answer to the question, “Who benefits?”

 
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Posted by on December 4, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration

 

Living As Brothers (2012)

26 Nov

Time: 90 min.
Director: Kevin Fraser
Producer: Kevin Fraser
Country: Canada
Language: English

“Living as Brothers” looks at the lives of Jamaican migrant men toiling in the orchards of Niagara-on-the-Lake, unseen by the thousands of tourists who descend on the small town each year. In their own words, these men, some of whom have been returning for over twenty years, tell of the second life they’ve created for themselves in Canada, the reasons for their making this journey, and their struggles back in rural Jamaica. Told over a season of picking fruit, their story is arduous, stressful, and precarious, one that offers few second chances.

http://www.kevinfraser.ca/index.html
www.kevinfraser.ca/livingasbrothers/
http://www.whatsupyukon.com/article-view.cfm?ArticleID=1484
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2012/11/16/filmmaker-tells-niagara-farmings-untold-stories

Contact: Kevin Fraser 

 

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2012 in Farm & Food, Immigrants/Immigration

 

A Day’s Work (2008)

20 Nov

2008
written/directed by Rajeev Dassani
35mm in color, 17m
screening formats available: 35mm print, HDCAM, Digibeta, Betacam, DV or DVCAM, and DVD.

Alone in Los Angeles, Enrique doesn’t speak a word of English. Forced to work as a day laborer to earn money for loved ones back home, his loyalties are put to the test when a simple job escalates into a matter of life and death.

Synopsis: Enrique is a young man far from home trying to make a living wage as a day laborer on the streets of Los Angeles. He thinks he has finally caught a break when Marcus and Kathy pick him up, along with two other immigrant laborers, to help them move. On the job Enrique meets and befriends their teenage son Zack as he helps pack up his childhood room. But things quickly take a turn for the worst when Marcus attempts to pay the men with a check, unaware that day laborers are often cheated out of their wages with bad checks. A simple misunderstanding explodes into a violent standoff with Enrique stuck in the middle.

“A Day’s Work” examines the hopes and fears inherent to the immigrant story, both on the part those crossing the border and those learning to live in a rapidly changing America. When violence erupts, the prejudices of all involved are brought to light and mistrust, assumption and language stand as barriers to an easy resolution.

http://www.daysworkfilm.com/index.html

 
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Posted by on November 20, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Migrant workers

 

Men at Lunch (2012)

17 Oct

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

 
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Posted by on October 17, 2012 in Construction Trades, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

 

The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the UFW (2010)

13 Jun

60m; U.S.

Director: Marissa Aroy

Synopsis: The Delano Manongs tells the unknown history of a group of Filipino farmworkers in Delano, California who toiled under the yoke of racism for decades, then rose up in their twilight years to fight for fair wages and ethical work conditions to help create the united farmworkers union (UFW).

Contact: http://www.delanomanongs.com/

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Farm & Food, Immigrants/Immigration, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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The Gatekeeper (2002)

13 Jun

103m; U.S.

Director: John Carlos Frey

Cast: John Carlos Frey, Michelle Agnew and Anne Betancourt

Synopsis (IMDB): Adam Fields is a rage-filled U.S. Border Patrol Agent who often crosses the line in his job. A member of a vigilante group, Fields decides to go undercover with a hidden camera and cross with a group of undocumented immigrants. His plan goes awry, however, when the group is forced to work for a drug ring. Suddenly, Fields realizes that he has more in common with the migrants and their search for home, family and freedom than he thought.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Migrant workers

 

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