Labor Film Database

We are the 99 percent (2012)

Director: Shabnam Hameed

Synopsis: We are the 99% is about (extra)ordinary working people who struggle to change the system in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Nurses, Jill and Maria set up a medical tent disobeying council ordinances to provide care for people who could not afford treatment.
Workers Peter and Julian fight for basic working conditions.
Sparrow faces the dilemma of how to sustain a democracy when racial tensions explode.
Over the course of 2 months, in the microcosm of Zuccotti Park they endeavour to create a good society and ultimately are brutally evicted igniting a world wide movement.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3v6qbZw9o

Shabnam Hameed
+61 (0) 415 817 931 (Australia)
SKYPE: shabnamhameed
shabnam.hameed@gmail.com

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Posted by Labor Film Database on February 21, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Working Class

The One Percent (2006)

08 Feb

doc; 80m, US
Directed by Jamie Johnson

In this hard-hitting but humorous documentary, director Jamie Johnson takes the exploration of wealth that he began in Born Rich one step further. The One Percent, refers to the tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly half the wealth of the U.S. Johnson’s thesis is that this wealth in the hands of so few people is a danger to our very way of life. Johnson captures his story through personal interviews with Robert Reich, Adnan Khashoggi, Bill Gates Sr., and Steve Forbes, during which both Johnson’s and his subjects’ knowledge and humor shine. And he’s not afraid to butt heads with Milton Friedman, the economist who coined the term “the trickledown effect.” He also shows how the other half lives, using real-world examples of the wealth gap: he takes a tour of a dilapidated housing project in Chicago, rides around with an enlightened taxi driver, and sees the human toll of the unfair economics of the Florida sugar industry. Johnson’s film is at its most powerful when it reveals how the super-rich work to preserve their own monetary dominance. As a member of the “Johnson & Johnson” family, he gets rare access to an exclusive wealth conference at which the über rich learn strategies for preserving their fortunes, and learns the personal management styles of some of the countries wealthiest employers. No great society has survived such a massive wealth gap; who knows if ours will? Written by Schafer, Nancy on IMDB

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Posted by Labor Film Database on February 8, 2012 in Documentary, Finance, Politics, Working Class

Indentured (2010)

08 Feb

documentary
10m, US (DVD)

Workers from places like India recruited to work for US contractors in Iraq in indentured servitude conditions

Filmmaker: Cy Kuckenbaker
1080 7th St
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
cykuck@gmail.com
661-670-7327

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Posted by Labor Film Database on February 8, 2012 in Immigrants/Immigration, War

At The River I Stand (1993)

26 Jan

56m; U.S.

Director: David Appleby, Allison Graham, Steven Ross

Synopsis: Documents the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike and the historical forces which came together with the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. NOTE: see I Am A Man for a 10m version.

Opening Sequence

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 26, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Blacks, Documentary, Public Sector, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

Bound for Glory (1976)

25 Jan

147m; USA

Director: Hal Ashby

Cast: David Carradine, Ronny Cox and Melinda Dillon

Synopsis: Film biography of American folksinger Woody Guthrie.

Trailer

Full Film

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 25, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Available Online, Drama, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

Tags: Music

Burn! (1969)

25 Jan

132m; Italy

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo

Cast: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez and Norman Hill

Synopsis: Pontecorvo’s follow-up to The Battle of Algiers tells a story of imperial intrigue on a fictional Portuguese “sugar and slaves” colony in the Caribbean in the 1840s. Marlon Brando plays a British agent who helps convince Jose Dolores, one of the island’s many African slaves, to lead a revolt – which temporarily aligns with the local elite and wins independence. However, the African slaves’ economic and social position remains virtually the same under the new regime. Years later, Brando’s character must return as the Africans are now revolting against their new masters. Pontecorvo uses the story as a metaphor less for any one particular historical incident, but as a left-wing commentary on the full history of slavery, empire, neo-colonialism and resistance for the past two centuries.

Opening Title

Full Film (in 12 Parts)

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 25, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Blacks, Drama, Organizing, Slavery, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

The Bicycle Thief (1948)

25 Jan

93m; Ital

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola and Lianella Carell

Synopsis (IMDB): A poor young father in postwar-ravaged Rome who finally finds work putting up Rita Hayworth posters around town, only to have his precious bicycle stolen the first day on the job. In a light moment as the father and his young son chase after the thief, the boy attempts to relieve himself against a wall, and his father lets him know they don’t have time for that. In another scene, the father tracks the thief into the kitchen of a brothel.

Trailer

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 25, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Working Class

Black Girl (La Noire de…) (1965)

25 Jan

60M; Senegal

Director: Ousmane Sembene

Cast: Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek and Robert Fontaine

Synopsis (IMDB): A Senegalese woman is eager to find a better life abroad. She takes a job as a governess for a French family, but finds her duties reduced to those of a maid after the family moves from Dakar to the south of France. In her new country, the woman is constantly made aware of her race and mistreated by her employers. Her hope for better times turns to disillusionment and she falls into isolation and despair. The harsh treatment leads her to consider suicide the only way out.

Full Film

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 25, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Available Online, Blacks, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Women

Bread and Roses (2000)

25 Jan

110m; U.S.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody and Elpidia Carrillo

Synopsis (IMDB): Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers’ union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its “justice for janitors” campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she’s also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.

Trailer

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 25, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Organizing, Romance, Service Workers, Women

Billy Elliot (2000)

25 Jan

110m; UK

Director: Stephen Daldry

Cast: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters and Jean Heywood

Synopsis (IMDB): County Durham, during the endless, violent 1984 strike against the Thatcher closure of British coal mines. Widower Jackie Elliot and his firstborn, fellow miner Tony, take a dim view of 11 year-old second son Billy’s poor record in boxing class, which worsens when they discover he sneakily transferred to the neighboring, otherwise girls-only-attended ballet class. Only one schoolmate, closet-gay Michael Caffrey, encourages Billy’s desire, aroused by the teacher, who judged him talented enough for private lesson, to train and try out for the world-renowned Royal Ballet audition. Only the prospect of a fancy career unimagined in the pauper quarter may twist pa and big brother’s opposition to indispensable support.

Trailer