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Category Archives: A: Highly Recommended Labor Films

Reds (1981)

09 Jan

194m; U.S.

Director: Warren Beatty

Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Hermann, Jerzy Kosinski, Maureen Stapelton, Gene Hackman

Synopsis: Reds is the epic biography of early 20th century U.S. communist author and activist Jack Reed and his stormy off-again, on-again love affair with free-thinker Louise Bryant.  The film covers some of Reed’s time in the United States (including relationships with the IWW and the Socialist Party) and their time together in Russia during the Bolshevik revolution which led Reed to write the book Ten Days that Shook the World.  The film also covers attempts to build a communist party in the U.S., the post-World War I “Red Scare” and the early years of the U.S.S.R.  Maureen Stapelton won an Oscar for her portrayal of Emma Goldman and Beatty won for Best Director.  Interspersed throughout the film are interviews with many of the people who knew Reed and Bryant.  Long but highly recommended.

Click here to read Jon Garlock’s introduction to Reds at the Rochester (NY) Labor Film Series.

Trailer

The Russian Revolution Montage

John Reed’s Speech on Freedom and Revolution

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Arts/Culture, Biography, Class, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, War, Women, Working Class

 

Silkwood (1983)

08 Jan

131m; U.S.

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher

Synopsis: Biographical film about Karen Silkwood, a chemical technician at a Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant in Oklahoma.  Silkwood became increasingly concerned about all manner of safety and health violations at the plant and worked with her union, the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers to try to address them.  This led to escalating pressure from the company and eventually Silkwood’s death in a suspicious car accident.

 

 

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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Labor History, Safety & Health, Whistleblowers, Women

 

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The Soul’s Haven (Il posto dell’anima) [2003]

08 Jan

106m; Italy

Director: Riccardo Milani

Cast: Silvio Orlando, Michele Placido and Claudio Santamaria

Synopsis (IMDB): Three workers of a tire factory, in southern Italy, lead the struggle against the American company owner of the factory who wants to close the Italian branch in which they work.

 

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Comedy, Drama, Organizing, Outsourcing, Working Class

 

Salt of the Earth (1954)

08 Jan

94m; US

Directed by Herbert Biberman

Cast: Juan Chacón, Rosaura Revueltas and Will Geer

Synopsis: Salt of the Earth is based on a 1950 strike by zinc miners in Silver City, New Mexico. Against a backdrop of social injustice, a riveting family drama is played out by the characters of Ramon and Esperanza Quintero, a Mexican-American miner and his wife. In the course of the strike, Ramon and Esperanza find their roles reversed: an injunction against the male strikers moves the women to take over the picket line, leaving the men to domestic duties. The women evolve from men’s subordinates into their allies and equals.

NYT: Movies don’t get much more Labor Day-appropriate than a film backed by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. But “Salt of the Earth” was perceived as a dangerous object in 1954, when the principal members of its creative team — the director Herbert J. Biberman, the producer Paul Jarrico and the screenwriter Michael Wilson, working independently of Hollywood — were subject to the blacklist. (The Congress of Industrial Organizations had separately expelled the union from its ranks.) This chronicle of a New Mexico miners’ strike, dramatized from real events and now a favorite of film programmers, looks ahead of its time in its foregrounding of Mexican-American characters; its emphasis on racial and especially gender equality; and its powerful depiction of unity against strikebreaking tactics. BEN KENIGSBERG

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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Available Online, Communism/Socialism, Netflix Watch Instantly, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Women, Working Class

 

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Strike (Stachka) [1925]

08 Jan

82m; U.S.S.R.

Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein

Cast: Grigori Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh and Mikhail Gomorov

Synopsis: In Russia’s factory region during Czarist rule, there’s restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there’s excitement in workers’ households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers.

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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Netflix Watch Instantly, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Time Out (2001)

07 Jan

134m; France

Director: Laurent Cantet

Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard and Serge Livrozet

Synopsis (IMDB): Recently fired from his job, but unable to confess the truth to his close-knit family, Vincent spends his days driving around the countryside, talking into his cell phone and staring into space. Vincent fabricates a new job for himself so his family and friends will not know that he is out of work. At one point, he even sneaks into an office building. As Vincent roams the building’s sterile halls, peeking into meeting rooms where men are busy at work, we see a man who yearns not just for a new job, but also for a place in the world. While this pantomime of work initially registers as sad and even a little pathetic, it slowly and unnervingly becomes terrifying.

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Posted by on January 7, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

Workingman’s Death (2006)

04 Jan

122m; Austria/GermanyWorkingmans_death

Director: Michael Glawogger

Synopsis: Deconstructs contemporary conceptions of work – by showcasing six of the most grueling and dangerous professions. Incredibly beautiful and moving, with virtually no dialogue or narration.

 
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Posted by on January 4, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Documentary, Experimental, Safety & Health, Working Class

 

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

04 Jan

127m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney and Liam Cunningham

Synopsis (IMDB): Ireland, 1920. Damien and Teddy are brothers. But while the latter is already the leader of a guerrilla squad fighting for the independence of his motherland, Damien, a medical graduate of University College, would rather further his training at the London hospital where he has found a place. However, shortly before his departure, he happens to witness atrocities committed by the ferocious Black and Tans and finally decides to join the resistance group led by Teddy. The two brothers fight side by side until a truce is signed. But peace is short-lived and when one faction of the freedom-fighters accepts a treaty with the British that is regarded as unfair by the other faction, a civil war ensues, pitting Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien.

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Posted by on January 4, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, War, Working Class

 

Work Hard, Play Hard (Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré) [2006]

04 Jan

99m; France

Director: Jean-Marc Moutout

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Laurent Lucas and Cylia Malki

Synopsis (IMDB): Philippe Seigner, a charming business school graduate from the French Pyrenees, starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is a delicate one, an audit at the Janson food cans factory in the provinces, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees, as his boss Hugo Paradis knew from the start. However, his Paris girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be stopped or mitigated by him bowing out. Nevertheless, as he gets to knew the threatened staff better he considers risking his career when his boss orders him to chose who should go. Meanwhile the factory staff starts realizing what’s about to happening

Contact: Antoine Sebire frenchcinemawashington@yahoo.com Audiovisual Affairs Embassy of France – La Maison Française 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, 20007 Ph: 202.944.6287 Fax: 202.944.6043 http://www.la-maison-francaise.org

 
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Posted by on January 4, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Big Business/Corporations, Drama, Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages

 

The Axe (Le Couperet) [2005]

01 Jan

122m; France

Director: Costa-Gavras

Cast: José Garcia, Karin Viard and Geordy Monfils

Synopsis (IMDB): Bruno Davert, a chemist working for a paper company, is fired. After three years he’s still unemployed, too much competition for the few job position he could fit in his sector. He sent tons of resumes, he attended many qualifying courses, he tried everything but there is nothing to do: no job for him in the industry. The only healthy company in the sector is “Arcadia”, but joining it is just an impossible dream. At this point Bruno is desperate. What he could do: to kill all the competitors? Could he?

 
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Posted by on January 1, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Big Business/Corporations, Comedy, Drama, White Collar

 
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