Author Archives: Labor Film Database

This brilliant feature film from Spain provides a rare look at work in today’s society. As it opens, an industrial warehouse has been turned into a stage. Eleven workers from different fields have been hired to perform their normal tasks in front of an audience that comes to see “The Work Show.” At first, they are proud to have their skills recognized, but drama ensues when the faceless producers of the show start demanding drastic increases in productivity.

Spanish with English subtitles

With Josean Bengoextea, Bárbara Santa-Cruz, Marta Larralde, Luis Callejo, José Luis Torrijo, Marina Salas, Daniel Pérez Prada, Edu Ferrés, Esther Ortega, Elisabet Gelabert

An industrial warehouse is turned into a stage. Eleven ordinary professionals are hired to do their work in front of an audience with apparent normality: a mason, a butcher, a seamstress, a teleoperator, a waiter, a mechanic, a computer operator, and a cleaner. Meanwhile, from the darkness of the auditorium, dozens of visitors observe the ‘wonderful’ work show. Work of art, reality show, macabre experiment: they do not know what they’ve got into, nor who is the hand that moves the strings in that wicked theater.

With impeccable performances, and a surprising ending, the adaptation of the novel by Isaac Rosa is an astonishing parable of work in contemporary society.

2016 ‧ Drama ‧ 1h 23m
Initial release: November 5, 2016
Director: David Macián
Producer: David Macián
Music composed by: Paco Alcázar
Screenplay: David Macián, Daniel Cortázar

Details/order here from Pragda

2020 ‧ Drama/History ‧ 2h 1m
In 1962, workers from a small industrial town go on strike when the communist government raises food prices.
Initial release: November 12, 2020 (Russia)
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Russian: Дорогие товарищи!
Nominations: Volpi Cup for Best Actress, Grand Jury Prize, MORE
Producers: Andrei Konchalovsky, Alisher Usmanov

When the communist government raises food prices in 1962, the rebellious workers from the small industrial town of Novocherkassk go on strike. The massacre which then ensues is seen through the eyes of a devout party activist. Dear Comrades! received critical praise out of the Venice Film Festival, with Variety calling it “scintillating” and “meticulous and majestic, epic in scope and tattoo-needle intimate in effect,” and The Playlist describing it as “a fascinating blend of dark satire and bleak archaeology.”

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
Written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Elena Kiseleva
Starring Julia Vysotskaya, Vladislav Komarov, Andrei Gusev, Yulia Burova and Sergei Erlish

“Dear Comrades!” Is Andrei Konchalovsky’s Masterpiece (NYT)

SYNOPSIS : In the autumn, when the leaves are down, it’s the time that folk singing rabble rouser U. Utah Phillips thinks about hitting the rails. As a young man he crisscrossed the country on freight trains in search of teachers that would help to understand himself and where he came from. During this time he experienced the ultimate freedom of having no home ahead and none behind but he also experienced the works of mercy as he faced the difficulties of his journey. He discovered the dynamic struggle of people to organize themselves and demand a quality of life for themselves and those around them that provides bread yes, but roses too.

Tales From the Long Memory follows the people who look to Utah as their teacher now while they continue the work that inspired him throughout his life. In Detroit the Wobbly Kitchen shows how the simple act of feeding someone can spark a community of solidarity in a city struggling to rebuild its glory. In Madison the sweet sounds of labor songs echo through the capital building every day at noon. In Portland the Sisters of the Road Café serve up dignity and nourishment at a price you can afford. And in a quaint northern California gold rush town, a dedicated group of community members grow an idea into a house of hospitality called Utah’s Place.

Charlie Hall
foraiproductions@gmail.com

https://www.dmoffest.com/post/tales-from-the-long-memory
Director – Charles Hall
Genre – Documentary
Duration – 54 minutes
Country – United States
Language – English
Year – 2021