20m; U.S.
Director: Workers Film and Photo League
Synopsis: The only newsreel coverage of the historic mass march in downtown Detroit in 1932, against the policies of Hoover, and the armed attack by Dearborn police and Ford guards at the unemployed workers at teh gates of the River Rouge plant.
109m; U.S.
Director: David Frankel
Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway,
Synopsis: A naive young woman comes to New York and scores a job as the assistant to one of the city’s biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly.
92m; U.S.
Director: Sam Wood
Cast: Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn
Synopsis: A tycoon goes undercover to ferret out labor agitators at his department store, but gets involved in their lives instead.
100m
Director: Dan Cohen
Synopsis (Diamond Men): Eddie Miller (Robert Forster) has been selling jewelry to small stores in Pennsylvania for 30 years. After suffering a heart attack, he is told that he is no longer “insurable” to carry a line worth over a million dollars. The only way Eddie can continue to work in the business he clings to for support is by breaking in his own replacement, Bobby Walker (Donnie Wahlberg), a brash kid whose every move rubs him the wrong way.
Website: http://www.diamondmen.com/
83m; Peru
Director: Josué Méndez
Cast: Pietro Sibille, Milagros Vidal and Marisela Puicón
Synopsis: Santiago returns home from the Peruvian army ill-prepared to cope with the realities of life. Haunted by his violent military past, he is conflicted by his desire for education and his temptation to join his comrades in a decadent life of crime.
25m; U.S.
Synopsis: Ted Koppel hosts a look at the impact of the automation of the coalfields, the most important development in mining coal in West Virginia since the 1950’s. Chief reporter Barry Serafin and others visit various mine sites in West Virginia and talk to residents as well as mine operators who have been affected by the huge machines now used in the largest mines east of the Mississippi River.
Contact: WVLC
28m; Germany
Director: Alexandra Welt
Synopsis: Digital handcraft is an educational film, a portrait of the process of computer hardware production. It displays the organisation of production in global value chains and investigates the conditions of life and labour for millions of migrant worker in China’s factories, which manufacture the hardware for the immaterial production of the 21st century. This film takes a look at the flipside of globalised computer production, which is incongruous with the “clean” image the industry usually displays. By interviewing both activists and workers, the film investigates the current situation as well as future possibilities for improving their situation. Furthermore, the film looks at issues surrounding the illegal shipping of computer scrap parts from Germany to developing countries.
Contact: http://vimeo.com/18616242 PARKAFILM Alexandra Weltz aw@parkafilm.cc
27m; U.S.
Director: Marc Siegel
Synopsis: Story of 5,000 steelworkers who lost their jobs when Lykes Corporation closed the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The plant reopened under worker-community ownership.
91m; U.S.
Director: Nancy Savoca
Cast: Julieta Ortiz, Deborah Hedwall and John Tormey
Synopsis (IMDB): Dolores is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who works as a housemaid in New York City. Under the constant fear of likely deportation, she wonders whether she should return to her country. Her decision to leave is strengthened when her life is suddenly complicated by a series of unfortunate events.
97m; U.K.
Director: Steven Frears
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou and Sophie Okonedo
Synopsis: An illegal Nigerian immigrant discovers the unpalatable side of London life.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 