20m; U.S.
Director: Julian Roffman
Synopsis: Discusses the need for unions for agricultural workers to help maintain price and wage control.
Author Archives: Metro Council
Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001)
60m; U.S.
Director: Deborah Kaufman/Alan Snitow
Synopsis: Temp workers/high tech workers
The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet) [2007]
151m; France
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benkhetache, Farida Benkhetache, Abdelhamid Aktouche, Leila D’Issernio
Synopsis: An idiosyncratic story about life, ambitions, frustrations, courage and indolence among North African migrant families in the south of France. After he’s laid off from the shipbuilding wharf, the ageing Slimane wants to start a restaurant on a ship.
Contact: International Film Festival Rotterdam Production Department: production@filmfestivalrotterdam.com Distributor: Pathe: florian.genetet@pathe.com Catherine MONTOUCHET: Catherine.Montouchet@pathe.com
Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (2002)
60m
Director: Katerina Cizek, Peter Wintonick
Synopsis: The impact of consumer video equipment on international political activism efforts.
Seeds of Peace (2008)
50m; Holland/Palestine
Director: André Kloer
Synopsis: Seeds of Peace: workers’ rights in a legal no-mans’ land tells the story of Palestinians who work in the Israeli settlements on the West Bank. One of these settlements is Nizzane Ha Shalom (Seeds of Peace). Because of the questionable juridical status of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, it is unclear which laws apply to Palestinians who work there. There is also a weak enforcements of the few laws that do exist. The consequence of this juridical no-man’s land is that Palestinians work in the settlements without minimum wage and legal protection. Despite of this, more and more Palestinians are turning for work to these settlements, because the Palestinian economy is unable to create enough jobs. Jawdat Talousy was one of these workers and defended his rights for all he was worth. He tried to unite the workers in order to demand better labour conditions and was fired by the boss.
The Shaft (Dixia de tiankong) [2008]
98m; China
Director: Chi Zhang
Cast: Deyuan Luo, Xuan Huang and Luoqian Zheng
Synopsis (IMDB): A film about the lives of Chinese miners is not likely to attract mainstream viewers, but I suspect that this is the closest glimpse into contemporary China we are likely to get. And touchingly universal. Visually, it is a series of marvelously-framed photographs and brief snatches of dialog, to which the viewer must gradually develop a narrative line. In the background — the effects of the one-child policy, which puts a premium on marriageable females, who must sell themselves to the highest bidder; then the lure and inaccessibility of the big city (Beijing); the incapability of small-town gossip as well as the town’s only employer — the coal mines
The Shipbuilders
90m; U.K.
Director: John Baxter
Cast: Clive Brook, Morland Graham and Nell Ballantyne
Synopsis: Clydeside shipbuilder and a loyal riveter fight to keep Britain a seapower
Severance
96m
Director: Christopher Smith
Cast: Danny Dyer, Laura Harris and Tim McInnerny
Synopsis (IMDB): A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division of the multi-national weapons company Palisade Defence when they become the victims of a group of crazed killers who will stop at nothing to see them dead.
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