60m; U.S.
Director: Steven Fischler & Joel Sucher
Synopsis: Documentary of the Jewish Anarchists in the New York garment industry and their newspaper the Freie Arberiter Stimme.
Author Archives: Metro Council
Freedom Road (1979)
186m; U.S.
Director: Ján Kadár
Cast: Muhammad Ali, Kris Kristofferson and Ron O’Neal
Synopsis: Based on the Howard Fast novel, this miniseries tells the story of ex-slave Gideon Young’s trip from freemen to Senator and in doing so tells the stories of the hopes of Reconstruction and its fall.
Freedom Song (2000)
150m; U.S.
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Cast: Danny Glover, Vicellous Reon Shannon and Vondie Curtis-Hall
Synopsis: HBO film based on the organizing of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in McComb, Mississippi and highlights the role of young people in the work
Freedom on My Mind (1994)
105m; U.S.
Director: Connie Field & Marilyn Mulford
Synopsis: Documentary about the civil rights movement, focusing on the Mississippi Freedom Summer voter registration project.
Exit (2008)
41m; U.S.
Director: Sharon Lockhart
Synopsis: Companion film to Lunch Break (2008, 80 min., HD); here, Lockhart reverses the gaze, with a fixed camera and a nod to Lumière.
Everlasting Moments (2009)
131m; Sweden
Director: Jan Troell
Cast: Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt and Jesper Christensen
Synopsis: Sweden, early 1900s. In a time of social change and unrest, war and poverty, a young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery. The decision to keep it alters her whole life. The camera grants Maria new eyes with which to see the world, and brings the charming photographer “Piff Paff Puff” into her life. Trouble ensues when Maria’s alcoholic, womanizing husband, feels threatened by the young man and his wife’s newfound outlook on life.
Cathy Come Home (1966)
75m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Carol White, Ray Brooks and Winifred Dennis
Synopsis: From the BBC’s influential ‘Wednesday Play’ series. This tells the bleak tale of Cathy, who loses her home, husband and eventually her child through the inflexibility of the British welfare system. A grim picture is painted of mid-sixties London, and though realistic the viewer cannot but realise that a political point is being made. One of the consequences of this film was the enormous public support for the housing charity ‘Shelter’, whose public launch came shortly after the programme was first shown.
Can’t Take No More (1979)
29:03; U.S.
Director: Mark Catlin
Cast: Studs Terkel
Synopsis: “Studs Terkel narrates this fast-paced history of occupational health and safety in the U.S. from the Industrial Revolution to the 1970s, which OSHA produced in 1979. Rare archival footage and photos illustrate the problems behind dramatic tragedies as well as the daily dangers that put workers at risk for long-term health problems. It also connects the health and safety movement with the civil rights and environmental movements. This is one of three wonderful films produced and distributed by OSHA during the administration of Dr. Eula Bingham – Can’t Take No More; Worker to Worker; and OSHA. Then in 1981, the new head of OSHA, under the Reagan Administration, Thorne Auchter recalled most copies and they disappeared. A few copies were kept alive by union officials who refused to return their copies. The penalty for being discovered in possession of one of these films was losing all OSHA funding for their safety and health programs.”
Chop Shop (2007)
84m; U.S.
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: ALEJANDRO POLANCO ISAMAR GONZALES ROB SOWULSKI CARLOS ZAPATA AHMAD RAZVI
Synopsis: Latino street orphan lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York.
Contact: Director: Ramin Bahrani raminbahrani@yahoo.com Distributor: Koch Lorber Suzanne Fedak ; Dan Sherman ; http://noruzfilms.com/films/chopshop.html Jeb Brody Big Beach 41 Great Jones St. Fifth Floor New York, NY 10012 P: 212-473-5800 F: 212-473-5805 jeb@bigbeachfilms.com
Trailer
For Man Must Work or The End of Work (2000)
52m; Canada
Director: Jean-Claude Burger
Synopsis: Globalization and the impacts of plant closings.
Contact: First Run/Icarus Films 718-488-8642 f 718-488-8900 v Tom Hyland
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 