75m; France
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Martin LaSalle, Marika Green and Jean Pélégri
Synopsis: Michel is released from jail after serving a sentence for thievery. His mother dies and he resorts to pickpocketing as a means of survival.
Author Archives: Metro Council
Picture Bride (1994)
95m; U.S.
Director: Kayo Hatta
Cast: Youki Kudoh, Akira Takayama and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Synopsis (IMDB): The story of 16-year-old Riyo who journeys to Hawaii in 1918 to marry a man she has never met, except through photographs and letters they have exchanged. Hoping to escape a troubled past and to start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age and Hawaii is not the paradise she expected. As Riyo comes to terms with her new home, she discovers a land full of hardship, struggle–and unexpected joy.
Picture Man: The Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin (2009)
20m; U.S.
Director: Mark Rogovin (Producer)
Synopsis: Life of world renowned social documentary photographer Milton Rogovin.
Contact: Mark Rogovin (708) 366-5535; markrogovin@gmail.com; http://www.miltonrogovin.com
Pigpen (1969)
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Alberto Lionello
Synopsis (IMDB): Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm’s pigs, because he doesn’t like human relationships.
Libby, Montana (2004)
124 min
Directors: Doug Hawes-Davis, Drury Gunn Carr
Synopsis (PBS): Libby, Montana is first of all the story of an ideal American community in what early explorers called “the land of the shining mountains.” Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies along the crystal-clear Kootenai River, Libby is the archetypal backpacker’s, hunter’s and angler’s paradise, as well as a picture-perfect example of the American wilderness that environmentalists want to save. At the same time, the town’s remoteness and its logging and mining economy nurtured conservative, self-reliant family and community values.
But Libby, Montana is also the story of an ideal betrayed in a way that crosses political lines and raises alarming questions about the role of corporate power in American politics and the environmental pollution that extracts its highest costs from ordinary citizens. In Libby, 70 years of strip-mining an ore called “vermiculite” and marketed as the wonder material “Zonolite” exposed workers, their families and thousands of residents to a toxic form of asbestos, creating what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called the worst case of industrial poisoning of a whole community in American history.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/libbymontana/film_description.php
La Americana (2008)
65m;
Director: Nicholas Bruckman, John Mattiuzzi
Synopsis: When nine-year-old Carla suffers a life-threatening accident, her mother, Carmen, must leave her behind and make the dangerous and illegal journey from Bolivia to the U.S., where she hopes to earn enough to save her daughter’s life. Working in New York to support Carla’s medical needs, Carmen struggles in vain to legalize her immigration status, and wrestles with the prospect of never seeing her daughter again. Then, after six years of separation, Congress proposes “amnesty” legislation that could allow Carmen and Carla to be reunited at last… Filmed across three countries in a captivating cinematic narrative, LA AMERICANA is Carmen’s story, and the story of millions of illegal immigrants who must leave their families behind to pursue the elusive American dream. An intimate and powerful story, LA AMERICANA shows how immigration policy affects families on both sides of the border, putting a human face on this timely and controversial issue. Winner of multiple awards at film festivals across the country, La Americana is now being used as the centerpiece for a nationwide campaign to engage and inspire audiences to dialogue about immigrants’ rights and immigration reform.
La Belle Equipe (1936)
101m; France
Director: Julien Duvivier
Synopsis: Five unemployed workers unsuccessfully attempt to pool resources to get a music hall running.
La Bete Humiaine (1938)
90m; France
Director: Jean Renoir
Synopsis: Railroad workers and love, lust, and the murder.
La Ciudad (The City) [1999]
88m; U.S.
Director: David Riker
Synopsis: Construction workers/immigrant workers.
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