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Author Archives: iwwggrandson

The Help (2011)

146m; U.S.

Director: Tate Taylor

Cast: Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer

Synopsis (IMDB): Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives — and a Mississippi town — upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen (Davis), Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, is the first to open up — to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter’s life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories — and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly — and unwillingly — caught up in the changing times.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Service Workers

 

The Herd (SURU) [1978]

118m; Turkey

Director: Yilmaz Guney

Cast: Tarik Akan, Melike Demirag and Erol Demiröz

Synopsis (IMDB): Because of a local blood feud, a peasant family decides to sell its sheep – a most precious commodity – in far away Ankara. During their long train ride, bribes must be paid to petty officials, sheep are stolen or die in the packed, airless wagons, and the sick wife of one of the family’s sons becomes deathly ill.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Drama, Farm & Food

 

The Infinite Border (2007)

99m

Director: Juan Manuel Sepúlveda

Synopsis: Immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua look upon Mexico as a hostile environment they must brave before facing the ultimate challenge: the U.S. border.

Contact: http://www.imcine.gob.mx/

 

The Inheritors (1998)

95m; Germany

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky

Contact: Simon Schwarz, Sophie Rois and Lars Rudolph

Synopsis (IMDB): Austria, a little farming valley. Beginning of the century. When one of the farmers is found murdered one day, his labourers know of nothing, but are relieved, as the tyranny has ended. Then, something new happens for the first time in history: The farm workers inherit the whole farm together, as the farmer himself was childless. Now, conflicts come up, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Farm & Food, Working Class

 

The Informant (2009)

108m; U.S.

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Matt Damon, Tony Hale and Patton Oswalt

Synopsis: “The Informant” is a true story that parallels a mixture of “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Insider” — where real life Ph.D.s had done something extraordinary. Based on Kurt Eichenwald’s 2000 book, “The Informant” is the tale of Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon), an Ivy League Ph.D. who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. The bipolar hero wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price fixing tactics and became the highest-ranked executive to ever turn whistleblower in US history. Whitacre secretly gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes over several years to present to the FBI which became one of the largest price fixing cases in history. In the story — a dark comedy / thriller in director Steven Soderbergh’s hands — Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions and struggle with severe bipolar disorder.

 
 

The Invisible Force: Women Workers in Pakistan (2007)

28m; Pakistan

Director: Aisha Gazdar

Synopsis: This film highlights the issues concerning women workers in Pakistan including factory workers, domestic workers as well as home based workers, their problems are the same. Working at extremely low wages women not only face harassment on the roads but also at work, this film gives an overview of the plight of the woman worker. – http://www.filmsdart.com/yeh_hath_salamat.shtml

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Women, Working Class

 

The Internationale (2000)

30m; U.S.

Director: Peter Miller

Cast: Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg

Synopsis: Idealism, socialism, and the power of music in people’s lives.

 

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The Kingmaker – Don Blankenship (2005)

30m; U.S.

Synopsis: This documentary focuses on Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. Anna Sale of West Virginia Public Broadcasting produced “The Kingmaker.” It first aired Nov. 3, 2005, as part of the program “Outlook” on West Virginia PBS.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary

 

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The Journey: The Greek American Dream (2007)

87m; Greece

Director: Maria Ilou

Synopsis: “A meticulously researched story of how the 400,000 Greek immigrants who flooded through Ellis Island from the 1890s to the 1920s played a key role in making America great without losing sight of who they were and from whence they came.”

Contact: Proteus T: 30 693 240 0632 proteusnonprofit@earthlink.net http://www.thejourneygreekamericandream.org

 

The Job (2007)

3m; U.S.

Director: Jonathan Browning

Synopsis: Winning more than 30 awards at film festivals around the world, Browning’s short is a biting satire on US immigration policy and the global economic crisis.

Contact: http://www.thejobtheshort.com/