28m; Mexico
Director: Tami Gold
What began as a teacher’s strike in May of 2006 against privatization and for better wages and more resources for students, erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Government repression brought even greater popular resistance, which ultimately brought the state government to a standstill.
107m; U.S.
Director: Wayne Ewing
Synopsis: “The Last Campaign” – a sequel to Ewing’s legendary first film in 1972, “If Elected…” – covers the 2004 campaign of Justice Warren McGraw for the re-election to the West Virginia Supreme Court, dubbed the ‘nastiest’ judicial race, if not the most expensive in the nation. Scenes from “If Elected…” -which covered Warren McGraw’s 1972 race for the West Virginia State Senate and was originally broadcast by Bill Moyers in 1973 – are interspersed with the story of McGraw’s 2004 Supreme Court race to create a unique, cinema verite portrait of American politics over a 32 year span. One man’s struggle to resist corporate interference in the electoral process is the continuing theme. In 2004, the US Chamber of Commerce is suspected, of funneling millions of dollars from multi-national corporations into West Virginia in the primary and general election in a successful effort to defeat Justice Warren McGraw as a part of what Forbes Magazine described as a “secret war” against judges in America. The Chamber’s shadowy efforts were joined in the general election by a group calling itself “For the Sake of the Kids” which spent millions, supplied from a coal company executive to wage a smear campaign against McGraw alleging that he let a sexual predator loose to work in a school. That same coal company executive has a pending 50 million dollar judgment against his company on appeal before the West Virginia State Supreme Court.
Contact: http://www.thelastcampaign.com/
102m; U.S.
Director: Uli Edel
Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Lang and Burt Young
Synopsis (IMDB): Taken from Hubert Selby, Jr.’s controversial novel. A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.
77m; Germany
Director: F.W. Murnau
Cast: Emil Jannings
Synopsis: An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society.
150m; Romania
Director: Angus MacQueen
Synopsis: THE LAST PEASANTS tracks three families through a remote village in Romania’s Maramures area. the film looks at the changes imposed on the local community by the collapse of Communism and the new relationship with Western Europe.
30m; U.S.
Director: Richard Brick
Synopsis (IMDB): Filmed in Orange County, Vermont, featuring Kenneth and Helen O’Donnell and their draft horses, Last Stand Farmer, is a documentary record, filmed through four seasons, of the life and philosophy of an elderly hill farmer and his struggle to keep his 19th century farm operation going. Soon after he viewed the finished film, Kenneth O’Donnell died, his widow sold the farm and moved away the following spring.
82m; China/Canada
Director: Lixin Fan
Synopsis: Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Last Train Home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration.
Contact: http://www.eyesteelfilm.com/?page_id=60 info@eyesteelfilm.com 4475 St. Laurent, suite #202 Montreal, Quebec CANADA H2W 1z8 Phone directory: phone: +1 (514) 937-4893
44m; France
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Cast: Dieye Ma Dieye, Aminata Fall and Demba Bâ
Synopsis (IMDB): A penniless, fast-thinking musician buys a lottery ticket which he glues to his back door, in hopes of eventually retrieving his instrument from his exasperating landlady. The ticket wins, and our hero begins a harrowing odyssey throughout his shanty town, carrying the door on his shoulder all the time
120m; Cuba
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Cast: Nelson Villagra, Silvano Rey and Luis Alberto García
Synopsis (IMDB): A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
92m; U.S.
Director: Stacy Title
Cast: Courtney B. Vance, Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard and Annabeth Gish
Synopsis (IMDB): A group of idealistic, but frustrated, liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits for their political beliefs.
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