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Author Archives: Metro Council

A Decent Factory (2004)

79m

Director: Thomas Balmès

Synopsis (Icarus Films): In an increasingly globalized economy, more corporations are ‘outsourcing’ their production to countries with cheaper labor costs and less legal protection of workers’ rights. Some corporate managers, whether out of sincere moral concern or because they must respond to the considerations of investors and shareholders, are attempting to balance profit-making with social morality.

A Decent Factory focuses on such an effort by Nokia, the Finnish electronics firm, which sends a team led by two business ethics advisors to examine conditions at a Chinese factory that supplies parts to Nokia. Filmmaker Thomas Balmès, having conducted three years of research on the subject, follows them on their investigative journey.

 
 

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The Deer Hunter (1978)

182m; U.S.

Director: Michael Cimino

Cast:  Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale

Synopsis: An in-depth examination of the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA.

 
 

Defying the Law (1997)

47m; Canada

Director: Marta Nielsen-Hastings, David Wesley, Micheal Allder

Synopsis: On July 14, 1946, a group of steelworkers poured out of Hamilton’s Playhouse Theatre and set up pickets around the country’s largest steel mill. Their action sparked one of the most important strikes in our country’s history – a strike which many consider to be the birth of the modern labour movement.

Contact: National Film Board of Canada

http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=33367

 

The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky and His Legacy (2009)

56m; U.S.

Director: Bob Hercules & Bruce Orenstein

Synopsis: Legendary organizer Saul Alinsky led the movement to empower disenfranchised communities through collective actions. Now others have taken up the challenge. The film examines Alinsky’s life and adaptive legacy through work being done by two contemporary “people’s organizations.” Case studies of his work in Rochester and recent IAF organizing work in Texas and Brooklyn.

 
 

Demonlover (2002)

129m; Germany

Director: Olivier Assayas

Cast: Connie Nielsen, Gina Gershon and Chloë Sevigny

Synopsis: Two corporations compete for illicit 3D manga pornography, sending spies to infiltrate each other’s operations.

 
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Posted by on February 21, 2012 in Drama, Global Economy

 

The Deported (2007)

22m; South Korea

Director: Musgtaque Ahmed

Synopsis: Struggle of Bangladeshi and Nepali workers in South Korea and the effects of the government crackdown on these immigrant workers.

 

The Deserter (1933)

105m; USSR

Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin

Cast: Boris Livanov, Vasili Kovrigin and Aleksandr Chistyakov

Synopsis (IMDB): A wise and forgiving communist leader decides to send a young worker, Karl Renn, as an international delegate to the Soviet Union after the worker had deserted a picket-line and had expressed doubts about the methods of class struggle in in his own country

 

Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class (2005)

62m

Director: Loretta Alper

Synopsis (Media Education Foundation): Based on the forthcoming book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television’s beginnings to today’s sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV’s disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants — stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy. :

Website: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=411

 
 

Desk Set (1957)

103m; U.S.

Director: Walter Lang

Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Gig Young

Synopsis (IMDB): Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a TV network’s research department.

 

The Detroit Model (1980)

45m; U.S.

Director: Alan Levin

Synopsis: Study of the decline of the US auto industry in the 1970s and early 80s.