Metro Council

Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter

47m; U.S.

Director: Brad Osborne

Director: Glenn Bradley, Lindsey Holloway and Evan Mason

Synopsis: RISING FROM THE RAILS: THE STORY OF THE PULLMAN PORTER, a documentary based on the best-selling book by Larry Tye, chronicles the relatively unheralded Pullman Porters, generations of African American men who served as caretakers to wealthy white passengers on luxury trains that traversed the nation during the golden age of rail. Unbeknownst to most of their white passengers, porters played critical political and cultural roles, becoming trailblazers in the struggle for African American dignity and self-sufficiency, patriarchs of black labor unions, and helping give birth to the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, however, their greatest legacy is that which they left to future generations.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Blacks, Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Transportation, Working Class

The River Ran Red

26 Apr

Director: Steffi Domike and Nicole Fauteux.

Synopsis: Blair Brown narrates this gripping account of a community’s struggle to preserve its way of life. In the summer of 1892, a bitter conflict erupted at the Carnegie Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The nation’s largest steelmaker took on its most militant labor union, with devastating consequences for American workers. Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick head a fascinating cast of characters which includes 300 armed Pinkerton guards, and the would-be assassin, anarchist Alexander Berkman. To evoke the strike and its century old legacy, the film employs documentary techniques, primary sources, dramatically staged scenes shot on location in the Pittsburgh area, and lyrical commentary found in poetry, song and fiction.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Tags: Strikebreaking

Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

26 Apr

168m; Italy

Director: Luchino Visconti

Cast: Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori and Annie Girardot

Synopsis (IMDB): The widow Rosaria moves to Milano from Lucania with her 4 sons, one of whom is Rocco. The fifth son, Vincenzo, already lives in Milano. In the beginning, the family has a lot of problems, but everyone manages to find something to do. Simone is boxing, Rocco works in a dry cleaners, and Ciro studies. Simone meets Nadia, a prostitute, and they have a stormy affair. Then Rocco, after finishing his military service, begins a relationship with her. A bitter feud ensues between the two brothers, which will lead as far as murder.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Working Class

Rocking the Foundations (1986)

26 Apr

92m; Australia

Director: Pat Fiske

Synopsis: Australian documentary about the New South Wales Builders’ Labourers’ Federation, 1940-1975 — a union that broke the rules.

Contact: Ronin Films PO Box 1005 Civic Square Canberra, ACT 2608 Australia Phn: +61 2 6248 0851 Fax: +61 2 6249 1640 http://www.roninfilms.com.au orders@roninfilms.com.au

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Construction Trades, Documentary, Labor History

Rocky (1976)

26 Apr

119m; U.S.

Director: John G. Avildsen

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire and Burt Young

Synopsis (IMDB): Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a “nobody” to become a “somebody”. The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time

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

Rocky Road to Dublin (1967)

26 Apr

99m; Ireland

Director: Peter Lennon

Cast: Sean O’Faoláin, Conor Cruise O’Brien and John Huston

Synopsis (Wikipedia): A brief sketch of Irish history since the Easter Rising of 1916 is drawn, in which the hopes of the revolutionary founders of the Irish Free State for a republican society are dashed. The writer Seán Ó Faoláin argues that what emerged was a society of “urbanized peasants” without moral courage who observed a self-interested silence in a “constant alliance” with an “obscurantist” and “uncultivated church”.

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

Rome, 11 O’Clock

26 Apr

105m; Italy

Director: Giuseppe de Santis

Cast: Carla Del Poggio, Lucia Bosé, Raf Vallone

Synopsis (Wikipedia): The film is based on a real story, an accident that happened in Rome, when a staircase fell down because of the weight of hundreds of women waiting for a job interview as a secretary

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

The Roof (Il Tetto) (1956)

26 Apr

Director: Vittorio De Sica
Italy; 91m

Natale, an apprentice bricklayer, and Luisa, who has no skill, marry and try to live with Natale’s parents and other relatives in one apartment, what might happen in the poorest classes in Rome about 1950. After a quarrel Natale and Luisa precipitately leave without a place to live. The remainder of the film is devoted to their finding housing. The solution is building a one room brick dwelling as a squat on unused railway land on the outskirts of Rome. As this is illegal Natale gets his workmates to assist him during the night. Provided a dwelling has a door and a roof the householder cannot be evicted. At dawn when the police arrive to remove them the dwelling is complete except for part of the roof, but a humane policeman looks the other way. We suppose that Natale and Luisa, now pregnant, live happily ever after. (Wikipedia)

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Class, Construction Trades, Drama, Working Class

RopeWalk: A Cordage Engineer’s Journey Through History (2008)

26 Apr

57m; U.S.

Director: Steve Fetsch

Synopsis: Prehistoric tools, Ben Franklin, trust busting, railroads, drug laws, plastics, nanotubes and space travel? What ties these things together in a movie? Rope, of course!

Contact: athensmovie@yahoo.com 740-594-7848 (Private)

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Manufacturing