Metro Council

La Raison du Plus Faible (2006)

116m; France

Director: Lucas Belvaux

Cast: Eric Caravaca, Lucas Belvaux and Claude Semal

Synopsis: Laid-off French steelworkers turn to crime. Explores frustrations of men who find themselves no longer useful members of society but takes a fatal turn into a robbery/thriller and deteriorates into pointless violence.

Contact: almost forgot to mention one film (an excellent fit!!): LA RAISON DU PLUS FAIBLE, by Lucas Belvaux. It is distributed in the US, but there’s no print for now, but there should be one for the fall. You can contact Wendy Lidell on my behalf if you don’t know her at International Film Circuit: 212.777.5690 or wlidell@infc.us. If she doesn’t have a print by then, I might be able to get one from France. – I almost forgot to mention one film (an excellent fit!!): LA RAISON DU PLUS FAIBLE, by Lucas Belvaux. It is distributed in the US, but there’s no print for now, but there should be one for the fall. You can contact Wendy Lidell on my behalf if you don’t know her at International Film Circuit: 212.777.5690 or wlidell@infc.us. If she doesn’t have a print by then, I might be able to get one from France.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages

Ralph Fasanella: Painter Of Working Class People (2007)

26 Apr

4m
Director: John Lett
GoIAM.org – Whether it’s a strike or factory floor, former union organizer Ralph Fasanella devoted his life to painting working men and women. The man who is considered America’s best self taught artist, would eventually complete hundreds of pieces of work dedicated to jobs and justice.
Available online

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

Ralph Fasanella: Song of the City (1979)

26 Apr

30m; U.S.

Director: Jack Ofield

Synopsis: Biography of a working class electrical plant worker/painter/CIO organizer.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Biography, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing

Ramparts of Clay (1971)

26 Apr

80m; France

Director: Jean-Louis Bertuccelli

Cast: Leila Shenna, Kricheche and Jean-Louis Trintignant

Synopsis (IMDB): In 1962, change comes to a Tunisian village on the edge of the Sahara. An entrepreneur sets up a salt mine, hiring village men. When he pays only half the wages agreed upon, they sit down in a field of rocks. The boss calls the army, who encircle the strikers. The women watch, sacrifice a sheep, pray, ululate. During the second night, a young woman hides the bucket and rope of the town’s well to keep water from the army. The strike galvanizes her: she’s learning to read and has studied a city woman who visits the village. Now, as she removes her traditional dress and rejects a ritual to cast out her new rebellious spirit, will she gain independence as did Tunisia and the strikers

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Drama, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Women

Tags: Mining

Rapt (2009)

26 Apr

125m; France

Director: Lucas Belvaux

Cast: Yvan Attal, Anne Consigny and André Marcon

Synopsis: Stanislaff Graff, a rich industrialist and jetsetting playboy with a wife and a lover, is snatched by kidnappers who demand a fifty million euro ransom. The main question for his board is whether his life is worth more than twenty million. Based on a true story. Told entirely from the industrialist’s point of view, there’s really nothing here about work or workers, and even the question about what a life is worth is not explored much or well. While it’s barely hinted that the kidnappers may be disgruntled workers, this too is left unexplored.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, White Collar

Ratcatcher (1999)

26 Apr

94m; U.K.

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews and William Eadie

Synopsis (IMDB): Glasgow, summer, 1973. Dustmen are striking; bags of garbage add to the blight of council flats and a fetid canal. Ryan, who’s about 12, drowns during a play fight with his neighbor, the jug-eared James. James runs home, a flat where he lives with his often-drunk da, his ma, and sisters, who live in hope of moving to newly-built council flats. The slice-of-life, coming-of-age story follows James as he tags along with the older lads; has a friendship with his quirky wee rodent-loving neighbor, Kenny; spends time with Margaret Anne, myopic, slightly older, the local sexual punching bag; and, has a moment or two of joy. The strike may end, but is there any way out for James?

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Children, Drama, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Raven’s End (1963)

26 Apr

101m; Sweden

Director: Bo Widerberg

Cast: Thommy Berggren, Keve Hjelm and Emy Storm

Synopsis: Portrait of working class youth. Portrays family life in Malmo, Sweden in 1930s, tracing relations between an adolescent boy and his father.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

The Real Price Of Military Occupation

26 Apr

20m; U.S.

Director: U.S. Labor Against the War

Synopsis: The vast majority of union members are now solidly against the war, yet most do not know the full impact the wars and occupations, and more broadly the military budget, are having on our troops, social services, national security, the federal budget and national debt, as well as on Iraqis and Iraq.

Contact: US Labor Against The War (USLAW) info@uslaboragainstwar.org http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Politics, War

Tags: Government

The Reason Of The Weakest (2006)

26 Apr

80m; France

Director: Marc-Antoine ROUDIL & Sophie BRUNEAU

Synopsis: Men and women suffering from work-related illness.

Contact: Antoine Sebire frenchcinemawashington@yahoo.com Audiovisual Affairs Embassy of France – La Maison Française 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, 20007 Ph: 202.944.6287 Fax: 202.944.6043 http://www.la-maison-francaise.org

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Safety & Health