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Author Archives: Labor Film Database
Still Working 9 to 5
Neptune Frost
Stream it on the Criterion Channel. Rent or buy on most major platforms. Some science fiction experiments with plot and some with form; Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams’s “Neptune Frost” does both.
Some science fiction experiments with plot and some with form; Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams’s “Neptune Frost” does both. Set in Burundi, the story centers on Matalusa (Bertrand Ninteretse), whose brother was killed in the open-air mine where they worked, and the intersex hacker Neptune (Elvis Ngabo then Cheryl Isheja).
The movie, which incorporates songs by Williams, is a head trip that refuses to be tamed into convention yet eschews the “wackiness for the sake of wackiness” that provides a safe, noncommittal refuge to so many directors. Fluidity is key here, starting with dialogue and songs in languages that include Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, English and French. Similarly porous are the borders between genders, various dimensions, even between man and machine — the costumes look as if they were made of recycled electronic parts. The film often feels like an overly cryptic flight of fancy, but it also offers a startling vision of a realistically chaotic near-future (or alternate present), made up of jury-rigged scraps and hardy souls fighting off oppression. This is the rare pamphlet that feels equally political and poetic.
The Assistant (2020)
Julia Garner is “magnificent” as the personal assistant to a TriBeCa-based film executive whose sexual harassment of hopeful young starlets is an open secret. The name “Weinstein” is never once uttered, and it doesn’t have to be; the writer and director, Kitty Green, uses what we already know to fill in the blanks. We don’t even see the monster in question — he’s just a presence and a voice, in snatches of overheard dialogue and muffled fits of rage, and Green’s beautifully controlled film captures, with brutal, pinpoint accuracy, how that presence infects a workplace, and what happens when someone decides not to play along.
CURRENT LABOR FILM FESTIVALS
As of February, 2022. If you have info about a missing labor film festival — or updated info on one of those listed below — please email cgarlock@laborheritage.org
Barre, Vermont: Labor Film Night at the Socialist Labor Party Hall
Bilbao, Spain: LAN Festival Audiovisual Obrero
Bristol, South West England: Bristol Radical Film Festival
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Construir Cine Film Festival
Canada: Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLIFF)
Dublin, Ireland: Dublin Workers Film Festival
Dublin, Ireland: Progressive Film Club
Haifa, Israel: Haifa International Labor Film Festival
Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir: Turkey International Labor Film & Video Festival
London, UK: London Labour Film Festival
Madrid, Spain: Muestra de Cine y Trabajo (Labor Film Program)
Malmö, Sweden: Nordic Labour Film Festival
Milan (Sesto San Giovanni), Italy: Labour Film Festival
New York City, New York: Workers Unite! Film Festival
Rochester, New York: Rochester Labor Film Series
San Francisco, California: LaborFest International Working Class Film and Video Festival
Santa Cruz, Monterey & Santa Clara, California: Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival
Tolpuddle, UK: Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
Vicenza, Italy: Working Title Film Festival
Washington, DC: DC Labor FilmFest
ON HIATUS/INACTIVE (as of Feb, 2022)
Dundalk, MD: Epic Moments In U.S. Workers’ History
East Lansing, Michigan: MSU Film Studies Series on “Work/Place”
Glasgow, Scotland: GMB Glasgow General Apex Branch Labor Films
Homestead, Pennsylvania: Battle of Homestead Foundation Movie Program
Honolulu, Hawaii: LaborFest Hawaii
Huntington, West Virginia: Blair 100 Labor Film Festival
Liverpool, England: North West Labour Film Festival
London, UK: London Socialist Film Co-op
Missoula, Montana: Montana Labor Film Festival
New South Wales, Australia: Australian International Labour Film Festival
New York City, New York: Labor Goes To The Movies
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Americans in Struggle
Pioneer Valley, MA: Pioneer Valley Labor Film Festival
San Diego, California: May Day Workers Film Festival
Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Mexico Labor Film Festival
Sao Paolo, Brazil: Brazilian International Labour Film Festival
Seattle, WA: MayWorks
Taipei, Taiwan: Taiwan International Labor Film Festival
#Blair 100 Labor Film Festival
| Labor Film Festival commemorating the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial A one-day film festival was held at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center at Marshall University in Huntington, WV on Thursday, September 2nd, 2021, where selected films in each category were screened as part of the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial event-series. Films were also screened online for those who could not be present at the event. This labor-focused film festival showcased films from Central Appalachia that highlight the struggles, successes, and daily lives of workers. Some themes or topics included efforts to unionize, organizing for better living conditions, social justice, civil rights, wages & the company store, and many more. This film festival is made possible by Marshall University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications and Video Production Program in the College of Arts and Media, and is being presented as part of the Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial Events in partnership with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum. You can read more details about the event and learn how to submit a film here. Find the event on Facebook and on the #Blair100 website. Check out the schedule of events release here, and www.blair100.com or“liking” our Facebook page. Festival Lead Organizer: Tijah Bumgarner, tijah.bumgarner@gmail.com |
The Great Strike 1917
Genres: Documentary
Duration: 1 hour 9 minutes
Availability: Worldwide
To this day, the Great Strike of 1917 is still Australia’s largest industrial upheaval. The story of the Strike has long been dormant in archives, and is now re-told with original film footage from the era.
Sydney, 1917: thousands had joined protest marches through the streets, the government recruited volunteers to break the strike, issuing some of them with guns; unions were deregistered and union leaders charged with conspiracy. It was a time of violent emotions, state violence and individual acts of violence by and against strikers. A striker, Mervyn Flanagan, was shot and killed.
With the introduction of a new ‘timecard’ system, known as Scientific Management or Taylorism, originating from the United States, transport workers stopped work, triggering the strike.
The documentary examines the industrial, social and political context of a struggle that had lasting consequences for the labour movement in Australia. Personal stories and legacies filtered through generations of families for years to come, reflecting on the fight for decent conditions and fair treatment in the workplace, which still strongly resonate today.
Featuring:
Professor Lucy Taksa, Centre for Workforce Futures, Macquarie University
Sally McManus, Secretary, ACTU
Frances Morgan, Writer, The Folded Lie
John Graham, Labor MLC, NSW Parliament
Laila Ellmoos, Historian, City of Sydney Council
Simon Drake, National Film & Sound Archive
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Antenna Documentary Film Festival
FINALIST! ATOM AWARDS, Documentary (History)
Writer, Director, Editor Amanda King
Producers Amanda King, Fabio Cavadini
Director of Photography Fabio Cavadini
Graphic Designer Miriana Marusic
Sound Designer Anthony Marsh
Production Company Frontyard Films
mandy king
cavadini@tpg.com.au
Night on Earth
R 1991 ‧ Drama/Comedy ‧ 2h 9m
Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Cab drivers, in the US and elsewhere.
Release date: May 2, 1992 (New York)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Music composed by: Tom Waits
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography: Frederick Elmes
Kaza Değil Cinayet (Murder Not Accident)
2019
Turkey
Apparently no English subtitles
Murder Not Accident documents the collective struggle against ‘work-related serial murders’ in Turkey. In 2018, at least 1,872 people died due to preventable causes while working. In 2008, a group of families mourning loved ones, victims of work- related murders, came together as Workers’ Families Seeking Justice (WFSJ). They translated their shared grief into a demand for justice: “We are the families of workers who lost their lives in preventable work-related accidents and occupational diseases. That is why we call them ‘work-related murders’. Those who are responsible for them were never exposed to a just judicial process and continue to enjoy full impunity. Our claim for justice is to ‘remember the dead and fight for the living.
link: https://vimeo.com/359121582
password: murdernotaccident20
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