What happens when art no longer reflects current societal views? This is the focus of Town Destroyer, a film about the New Deal muralist Victor Arnaut off’s 1936 work, “The Life of Washington,” a high school mural that became a media firestorm. Some students, parents, and observers found the depictions of slavery and Native American genocide offensive, demanding that the San Francisco School Board remove or destroy the mural. Identity politics gone off the rails—or a justified blow to a lingering American “colonized mentality”? Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman feature students, historians, artists, activists—(and the Living New Deal, which strongly opposed censoring the mural.)
Category Archives: A: New/Just Added
One Driver, One Mic
film on Austin taxi cooperative; chronicles the creation and struggles of ATX Coop Taxi, a driver-owned taxi cooperative formed in Austin, Texas to compete with Uber and Lyft.
The film features Biju Mathew of the National Taxiworkers Alliance and a few scenes were filmed at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Austin.
Here’s a link to the film’s trailer: https://vimeo.com/kvasudevan/odomtrailer
Krishnan Vasudevan
Assistant Professor in Visual Communication
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
University of Maryland, College Park
Phone: 301 405 8803
Director, One Driver, One Mic
Songwriter, Danger Light
More stuff
Still Working 9 to 5
https://stillworking9to5.com/
Gary Lane stillworking9to5@gmail.com
Camille Hardman camille@mightyfineentertainment.com
Neptune Frost
Stream it on the Criterion Channel. Rent or buy on most major platforms. Some science fiction experiments with plot and some with form; Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams’s “Neptune Frost” does both.
Some science fiction experiments with plot and some with form; Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams’s “Neptune Frost” does both. Set in Burundi, the story centers on Matalusa (Bertrand Ninteretse), whose brother was killed in the open-air mine where they worked, and the intersex hacker Neptune (Elvis Ngabo then Cheryl Isheja).
The movie, which incorporates songs by Williams, is a head trip that refuses to be tamed into convention yet eschews the “wackiness for the sake of wackiness” that provides a safe, noncommittal refuge to so many directors. Fluidity is key here, starting with dialogue and songs in languages that include Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, English and French. Similarly porous are the borders between genders, various dimensions, even between man and machine — the costumes look as if they were made of recycled electronic parts. The film often feels like an overly cryptic flight of fancy, but it also offers a startling vision of a realistically chaotic near-future (or alternate present), made up of jury-rigged scraps and hardy souls fighting off oppression. This is the rare pamphlet that feels equally political and poetic.
The Great Strike 1917
Genres: Documentary
Duration: 1 hour 9 minutes
Availability: Worldwide
To this day, the Great Strike of 1917 is still Australia’s largest industrial upheaval. The story of the Strike has long been dormant in archives, and is now re-told with original film footage from the era.
Sydney, 1917: thousands had joined protest marches through the streets, the government recruited volunteers to break the strike, issuing some of them with guns; unions were deregistered and union leaders charged with conspiracy. It was a time of violent emotions, state violence and individual acts of violence by and against strikers. A striker, Mervyn Flanagan, was shot and killed.
With the introduction of a new ‘timecard’ system, known as Scientific Management or Taylorism, originating from the United States, transport workers stopped work, triggering the strike.
The documentary examines the industrial, social and political context of a struggle that had lasting consequences for the labour movement in Australia. Personal stories and legacies filtered through generations of families for years to come, reflecting on the fight for decent conditions and fair treatment in the workplace, which still strongly resonate today.
Featuring:
Professor Lucy Taksa, Centre for Workforce Futures, Macquarie University
Sally McManus, Secretary, ACTU
Frances Morgan, Writer, The Folded Lie
John Graham, Labor MLC, NSW Parliament
Laila Ellmoos, Historian, City of Sydney Council
Simon Drake, National Film & Sound Archive
OFFICIAL SELECTION! Antenna Documentary Film Festival
FINALIST! ATOM AWARDS, Documentary (History)
Writer, Director, Editor Amanda King
Producers Amanda King, Fabio Cavadini
Director of Photography Fabio Cavadini
Graphic Designer Miriana Marusic
Sound Designer Anthony Marsh
Production Company Frontyard Films
mandy king
cavadini@tpg.com.au
Night on Earth
R 1991 ‧ Drama/Comedy ‧ 2h 9m
Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Cab drivers, in the US and elsewhere.
Release date: May 2, 1992 (New York)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Music composed by: Tom Waits
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography: Frederick Elmes
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 