30m; U.S.
Director: Peter Argentine
Synopsis: About the greatest loss of life as the result of a coal mine disaster in American history, the December 6, 1907 the Monongah Mine Disaster
Contact: www.argentineproductions.com http://www.monongahmovie.com/
124m; U.S.
Director: Charlie Chapin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll and Allison Roddan
Synopsis: Leaving the Little Tramp behind, Charles Chaplin plays a soft-spoken French gentleman who supports his children and crippled wife by marrying rich widows and killing them. Chaplin’s theme — that if war is the logical extension of diplomacy, then murder is the logical extension of business — is delivered in a series of darkly hilarious and elegantly staged comic sequences, culminating in another of the director’s poignant conclusions. Almost unanimously vilified upon its original release, it today takes its rightful place among Chaplin’s masterpieces.
97m; U.K.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Eugene Lipinski and Jirí Stanislav
Synopsis (IMDB): A Polish contractor, Nowak, leads a group of workmen to London so they can provide cheap labor for a government official based there. Nowak (Irons) has to manage the project and the men as they encounter the tempations of the West and loneliness and separation from their families. Nowak is the only one of the group who speaks English, and he uses this as a tool over his team. When the unrest in Poland leads to a military takeover, Nowak is faced with a much more difficult situation than he expected.
60m; U.S.
Director: Anne Lewis
Synopsis: Making the connections between immigration and the global economy In this hour-long documentary, director Ann Lewis chronicles nearly a decade of change in Morristown, Tennessee, through interviews with displaced or low-wage Southern workers, Mexican immigrants, and workers and families impacted by globalization. The film shows how working-class people in Mexico and eastern Tennessee are caught in the throes of massive economic change, challenging their assumptions about work, family, nation and community. “Morristown” is in Spanish and English with subtitles
88m; U.S.
Director: Joseph Seiden
Cast: Chaim Tauber, Seymour Rechzeit and Yetta Zwerling
Synopsis (IMDB): Motl, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide.
Contact: Based on a play by Chaim Tauber Music by Sholem Secunda Yiddish with New English Subtitles; two suggestions from the National Center for Jewish film sharon rivo ncjf@brandeis.edu; co sponsor with Josh Speisier and teh DCJCC screening room;http://www.jewishfilm.org/motl.html
121m; Germany
Director: Phil Jutzi
Cast: Alexandra Schmitt, Holmes Zimmermann and Ilse Trautschold
Synopsis (IMDB): A masterpiece about a working-class family in the late twenties in Berlin. You see Mutter Krauses fight for survival shown in such a modern way that you feel close even if it is nearly ninety years away. The way the camera (operated by the director himself) films the scenes and sometimes just the everyday life on the streets of Berlin is so energetic and real. The actors are playing very physical and natural (which was surprising for me as i expected acting in silent movies as much more stiff and awkward). All characters are very pure and just like in a documentary. Ilse Trautschold as the daughter is unforgettable. Whenever you get the chance to see this film go and watch it. Faßbinder once said it was his favorite film.
89m; U.S.
Director: Sturla Gunnarsson
Cast: Barbara Williams, Timothy Webber and Rob Lee
Synopsis: Women making it in trucking.
90m; U.S.S.R.
Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Synopsis: Set in Russia during the harsh winter of 1905. A mother finds herself caught in emotional conflict between her husband and son when they find themselves on opposite sides of a worker’s strike. The son is a supporter of the workers but the father has been blackmailed into supporting the bosses and blacklegs. Despite the grief which follows the mother gradually comes to support the strikers and eventually is prepared to risk everything in standing up to police and Cossak troops in a demonstration endangering both herself and her precious son.
Looks at the obstacles facing working mothers and families and the employer and 
public policy changes needed to restore work-life balance.
58 minutes
Directed by Laura Pacheco
Produced by John de Graaf and Laura Pacheco
Writer – John de Graaf
Executive Producer – Joan Blades
Photographer/Editor – Diana Wilmar
Music – Claudia Schmidt
Narrator – Mary Steenburgen
Did you know that…Only four countries in the world – Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States – fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers? Canada now guarantees a full year of paid parental leave and California recently became the first state in the U.S. to provide such paid leave? Businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced and their bottom line is improved?
Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and their families in America. See how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic living wages a reality for American families.
The film is based on the book The Motherhood Manifesto by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.
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