Synopsis: How the Worker’s Party government in Porto Alegre, Brazil has transformed the city into a model of participatory development.
Author Archives: Metro Council
Dois Perdidos Numa Noite Suja (2003)
Director: Jose Joffily
Synopsis: Illegal Brazilian immigrants in New York City
Contact: http://www.doisperdidos.com.br/pub/index_ing.htm Contact E-mail: filmes@ism.com.br
Dollar A Day, 10 Cents a Dance (1984)
30m; U.S.
Director: Geoffrey Dunn
Synopsis: Filipino immigrant farmworkers in the Pajardo (CA) Valley.
The Dollmaker (1984)
150m; U.S.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Jane Fonda, Mike Bacarella, Etel Billig and Phyllis Boyens
Synopsis (IMDB): Jane Fonda gives an Emmy-winning performance as Gertie Nevels, a pioneer woman and the mother of five from the Kentucky hills who is forced to uproot her children to follow her husband Clovis (Levon Helm) to Detroit when he finds work during World War II. One setback follows another and shattering tragedy strikes the family. It’s all up to Gertie to find new strength, courage and determination to keep her family together and strong.
Down and Out in America (1986)
57m; U.S.
Director: Lee Grant
Cast: Lee Grant, Jeff Farmer and Bob Hanson
Synopsis: Three sectors of American society hit by recession in the mid-1980s: heartland farms, factory workers out of a job, and the new homeless. In Minnesota, 250 family farms are being repossesed each week; men and women talk about their farms, the nature of their bank loans, the onslaught of corporate farming, and their sorrow and despair. In cities where 3,500 jobs per day go overseas, unemployed workers contemplate their options. The newly homeless talk about the jobs they’ve lost, “Justice Ville” in Los Angeles (bulldozed by court order), and squatting in New York’s abandoned buildings. A family living in a welfare hotel tells their story.
Down in Number 5 (2010)
18m; U.S.
Director: Kim Spurlock
Synopsis: Down in Number 5 is the story Carl Short, a terminally ill coal miner, who seeks refuge for his developmentally disabled son Sammy. Carl suffers from black lung, and when money from a class action lawsuit fails to materialize, he realizes his options are running out. Who will take care of Sammy after he is gone? Carl turns to Raymond Atkins, Sammy’s childhood friend and protector. But Raymond is now a middle-aged, single father overwhelmed by his own problems. Rooted in the Southern Gothic storytelling tradition, Down in Number 5 is a tender portrait of a man pushed to his limits for the love of his son and a haunting rumination on family and community in Appalachia. Based on a true story.
Contact: http://www.downinnumber5.com
Dreamtime (Droomtijd) (2007)
20m; Belguim
Director: Tom Van Avermaet
Synopsis: In a work-driven world where time is the ultimate dictator, a mysterious sandman spreads chaos and confusion.
Contact: Found on 2007 Palms Springs Shorts Film Festival: http://www.psfilmfest.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=19323&FID=31
Drifters (1929)
49m
Director: John Grierson
Synopsis (WorldCat): A key film of the British documentary movement; for the first time in the British cinema workers at their jobs (the men of the herring fleets) were the central subject of a film. The emphasis is on poetic images of motion; the influences are Flaherty and editing techniques suggested by Soviet films.
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