Category Archives: AD: Global Labor Film Festival 2013

Global Labor Film Festival Launches on May Day
The first-ever Global Labor Film Festival kicks off on May Day 2013, as labor film festivals from around the world launch more than a dozen screenings of labor films, from the classics like Salt of the Earth and Reds to brand-new films like Dreamwork China, Harvest of Empire and The War on Whistleblowers. The Global Labor Film Festival is an opportunity to showcase the growing worldwide scope of more than two dozen film festivals focused on films about work, workers and their issues. Labor film festivals around the globe will screen a labor-themed film of their choice during the month of May, chosen because May 1 — International Workers’ Day — is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and celebrated unofficially in many other countries. Click on links below for full details; additional logos also available below.

Barre, VT: May 5: Salt of the Earth (Labor Film Night at the Socialist Labor Party
Hall)
Delray Beach. FL: May 15; Set for Life; Divide & Never Got a Dime; Delray Beach, Florida: (Workers Unite Film Festival SouthEast)
Dublin, Ireland: May 25: The Angels’ Share (Progressive Film Club)
Haifa, Israel: May 1: Sharqiya (Haifa International Labor Film Festival)
Istanbul, Turkey: May 3: The Invisible Subtitler (Laborfest Turkey)
London, UK: May 12: Fire in Babylon (London Socialist Film Co-op)
London & Manchester, UK: May 1 & 2: Burn (London Labour Film Festival)
New York City, NY: May 16: Iron Slaves, In Dreamworks China, Salty Dog Blues, Land, Rain and Fire, Frozen Happiness, The Welfare Myth (Workers Unite Film Festival)
New York City, NY: May 10: My Son the Fanatic (Labor Goes to the Movies)
Norway: May 1: A virtual labor filmfest, 24 hours of recommendations – and links – to online labour films and trailers (Norwegian May 1st Labour Film Art Fest)
Rochester, NY: May 1: Reds (Rochester Labor Film Series)
San Diego, CA: May 1: Ghosts with Shit Jobs (May Day Workers Film Festival)
San Jose, CA: May 1: AbUSed: The Postville Raid (Reel Work Labor Film Festival)
San Pedro, CA: May 18: North Country (San Pedro Labor Fest)
San Francisco, CA: May 1: Dreamwork China (San Francisco LaborFest)
Santa Cruz, CA: May 1: Harvest Of Empire (Reel Work Labor Film Festival)
Washington, DC: May 7: The War on Whistleblowers (DC Labor FilmFest)
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia: May 4: We Work to Live! (Australian International Labour Film Festival)

May 5: Salt of the Earth
Labor Film Night at the Socialist Labor Party Hall
Barre, Vermont (46 Granite Street)
4p, Free.  Refreshments.
This classic 1954 film, based on actual events, tells the story of a strike by Mexican-American zinc miners. Written, directed and produced by members of the Hollywood 10, the film highlights racism, sexism, and blacklisting.
Click here for event poster.

http://oldlaborhall.com/
Ruth Ruttenberg: rruttenberg@nlc.edu

May 1: Sharqiya (2012)
Dir: Ami Livne
Israel / 2012
84 minutes
Hebrew, Arabic (Subtitles: English)
Kamel lives with his brother and sister-in law at the edge of the Negev desert on land that has been in their Bedouin family since the Ottoman Empire. But since they have no paperwork to prove their ownership, their claim is disputed by the Israeli government. State officials eventually hand down an order for demolition of the family’s few small shacks. These strains take the toll on the family, exacerbating existing tensions. Kamel serves as a security guard at a central bus station. Khaled resents his brother’s willingness to work for the very government that is causing their problems, despite his reliance on Kamel’s income. When the brothers try to appeal the demolition order, even the Bedouin Authority office advises them to accept compensation and abandon their land. The situation seems hopeless, until Kamel comes up with a plan.

The International Labor Film Festival in Israel runs May 1-7 at the Haifa Cinematheque. 
Eliyahu Zigdon ellie.zigdon@gmail.com

May 15; Set for Life (68 minutes); Divide (22 minutes) & Never Got a Dime (14 minutes); Delray Beach, Florida

Hagen Ranch Road Public Library in Delray Beach, FL – 14350 Hagen Ranch Rd, Delray Beach, FL 33446.
Main program (Set for Life) begins at 6 PM – the shorts screen from 4-5:30.

Set for Life (68 minutes)
Directed by: Susan Siprelle & Sam Newman
Follows three Baby Boomers who struggle to recover from the impact of losing their jobs in the Great Recession. They grew up in an era of optimism and prosperity, but now they find themselves trying to hang onto their homes, health insurance and hope. Over time, the three boomers successfully cope with the drastic effects of unemployment on their lives, but their futures are no longer secure, and they have lost their confidence in the American Dream.

Divide (22 minutes)
Directed by: Michael T. Miller and Maura Ugarte
Deep in the mountains of West Virginia, the hard-fought victories of the labor movement have been worn away. That is, until retired miner and union organizer Sebert Pertee decides to confront divisions of race and class rekindled by the 2008 presidential campaign. This amazing film touches on so many current themes that divide and unite our country – a must see!

Never Got a Dime (14 minutes)
Directed by: Shelby Hadden
Never Got a Dime is the story of Lilly Ledbetter, a former manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama. On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the statute of limitations to reset 180 days after each discriminatory paycheck is issued. Ledbetter will always be remembered as a champion of women’s rights and equal pay.

Dan Tilson; 413-446-7776.

May 25, 3 p.m.: The Angels’ Share (2012)
New Theatre, 43 East Essex Street, Dublin 2
Progressive Film Club

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film festival, legendary director Ken Loach, one of Britain’s most distinguished and respected filmmakers, who makes tough, uncompromising films about a beleaguered working class with poetry and humor, and longtime writing partner Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Bread and Roses and My Name is Joe), present an engagingly off-kilter new film, The Angels’ Share. Robbie, a young ne’er do well (Paul Brannigan), a broke new father with a good heart is in serious trouble with the law. When he holds his newborn son for the first time, roguish Robbie is determined that the boy will have a better life, one with more opportunities than he has been offered in this insular, blue collar world. But first Robbie must sort out a variety of pressing problems –his girlfriend’s family wants to do him harm and run him out of town being first and foremost among them. He is given a lucky break by a judge who shows mercy, granting him community service instead of jail. Here he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo, former petty criminals also down on their luck.

May 3: The Invisible Subtitler (2013)
Laborfest Turkey: Önder Özdemir onder@tilda.com.tr
Istanbul Halkevi address: İstiklal Caddesi Orhan Adli Apaydın Sokak No: 10 Beyoğlu / İstanbul
7p (GMT +2); We will also screen on the web at www.sendika.tv

The Invisible Subtitler is the first documentary to provide a clear insight into the world of subtitling in the film industry. It is an independent documentary about the use of subtitles in cinema and the life of subtitlers themselves who are living in the UK. It also focuses on the economic issues faced by the subtitlers and how they are currently invisible in the globalised business of the film industry.

Director: Aliakbar Campwala
Running time: 23 minutes
Language: English
Genres: Documentary and World Cinema
Company: Arc Pictures
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2013
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Sunday 12th May 2013
FIRE IN BABYLON
London Socialist Film Co-op
The Renior Cinema (Brunswick Square, London WC1; phone: 08717-033 991); doors open at 10.30am and screenings start at 11.00am. 

Stevan Riley, UK 2010 (12A), 83 mins
This film charts the rise of the iconic West Indies cricket team to dominate the world in Test Match cricket. Set against the background of colonisation and slavery, apartheid in South Africa, civil unrest in the Carribean and race riots in England, the cricketers become a mouth piece for a generation opposing the world wide prejudices of Babylon. Interviews and dynamic filming bring their skills to life, illustrate the spread of consciousness and inspire creative cultures across the Carribean.

Official selection London Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival.

Discussion led by Luke Daniels, President, Carribean Labour Solidarity Camp; Tony Dykes Director, Action for Southern Africa and Dan Carrier, film critic of the Camden New Journal Showing with short: MAN: ONE FAMILY, directed by Ivor Montagu, GB 1946, 17 mins

May 16: Salute to the Global Labor Film Festival features a mix of international and “frontline” US labor films; Cinema Village at 22 east 12th Street off University Place NYC

4-6p: Iron Slaves, (Pakistan) In Dreamworks China, (China) and Salty Dog Blues (US); Former globe-traveling merchant marines talk about the absorption of the NMU into the Seafarers International Union
7-8p: Frontline films from TWU International: Land, Rain and Fire and Frozen Happiness (US and Mexico) about the teacher’s strike in Oaxaca and the government’s repression.
10-11p: The Welfare Myth (Slovakia) About the end of the welfare state thanks to “democracy and the free market.”

Workers Unite Film Festival
The NYC festival runs from May 10-19; complete schedule now posted!

May 10, 6p: My Son the Fanatic (UK/France, Prasad, 1997)
Labor Goes to the Movies
Parvez, a Pakistani taxi driver in a small British city, confronts flaring hatreds, his own bleak prospects, and his son Farid’s burgeoning fundamentalism in this 1997 drama directed by Udayan Prasad. Adapted by Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Launderette) from his own short story — based on his father’s life — and featuring a riveting, prize-winning performance by the Hindi actor Om Puri playing the lead as the tolerant, secular Muslim Parvez.
Doors open at 6pm; PSC-CUNY Union Hall, 61 Broadway, 16th Floor, New York. A discussion will follow the film. Light refreshments provided.

The theme for Labor Goes to the Movies (LGTM) this academic year is “Contesting Islamophobia. Click here for PDF of a poster with a full calendar of 2012-13 screenings. Read more about the Labor Goes to the Movies film series.