Synopsis: Thailand’s booming economy rests on the exploitation of rural women. Through portraits of three women, we see the human cost of the country’s rapid industrialization.
Author Archives: iwwggrandson
Beijing Bicycle (2001)
113m; China
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
Cast: Lin Cui, Xun Zhou, Bin Li
Synopsis (IMDB): A seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
112m; U.K.
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Synopsis: Daughter of Indian emigres in England wants to be a soccer star.
Beneath Black Skies (2009)
Australia
Director: Sandra Pires
Synopsis: A history of coal mining in the Illawarra in Australia, including the 1887 strike at Old Bulli Colliery and Australia’s two most tragic and largest industrial disasters.
Contact: Sandra Pires, Director/Producer sandra@whydocumentaries.com.au Tel: 02 4285 3545 | Fax: 02 4285 7560 | Mob: 0418 452 088 http://www.beneathblackskies.com.au
Bessie Cohen: Survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (2000)
3m; U.S.
Director: Hope Tucker
Synopsis: Life of garment workers.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
172m; U.S.
Director: William Wyler
Synopsis (IMDB): Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Betrayed: The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen (2005)
56m; Canada
Director: Elaine Brière
The story of the little-known struggle of merchant seamen to save the merchant fleet and their livelihood. It traces the history of Canadian shipping from the international strike of 1949 to the globalization of coastal shipping in Australia by Canada Steamship Lines — owned by the family of Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin
Conviction (2009)
107m; U.S.
Diector: Tony Goldwyn
Cast: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell and Melissa Leo
Synopsis: A working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders. Movie alternatively titled “Betty Anne Waters.”
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (1981)
59m; U.S.
Director: Ken Fink
Synopsis: New Yorker filmmaker Ken Fink made this film after interviewing hundreds of coal miners. He eventually interviewed members of three different generations – a retired miner, a black middle-aged miner, and a miner who tried to leave the mountains only to return. They give their attitudes toward their profession, often reflecting the deep frustrations involved with the industry. This film is partially funded by the Humanities Foundation of West Virginia and has been shown on WSWP TV. It was also shown at film festivals throughout the United States. A recent book, “Glass Castles” talks about these filmmakers coming to Welch, the county seat of McDowell County.
Contact: WVLC and Icarus Films
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