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Category Archives: Documentary

Local 1196: A Steelworkers Strike (2023)

59 minutes

“The old American dream just seems to be gone,” says Walt Hill, a longtime United Steelworkers Union member and the Contract Coordinator for Local 1196 in the decaying steel town of Brackenridge, Pennsylvania.
Local 1196 takes the viewer on the ground as days on strike turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and union leaders realize they’re playing with a short stack, and against long odds.

Screen here and/or read more. Directed by Samuel George
Samuel.george@bfna.org

 

Foreign Parts (2010)

  Not Rated

  1h 21m

‘Foreign Parts’ portrays a hidden enclave of automobile shops and junk-yards fated for demolition in the shadow of a new baseball stadium in Queens. The film observes this vibrant community of immigrants – where wrecks, refuse, and recycling form a thriving commerce – as it struggles for daily survival and contests New York City’s development scheme.

Directors Verena Paravel & J.P. Sniadecki

 

Singing for Justice

Singing for Justice tells the story of Faith Petric, a political radical, community organizer and charismatic performer who united folk music and progressive causes from the 1930s through the early 2000s. Narrated largely by Faith herself, the film weaves her musical and political journeys to showcase the central role of folk music in the transformational social movements of the 20th century.

Co-director: Estelle Freedman
ebf@stanford.edu
info@singingforjustice.com

www.singingforjustice.com

 

Her Socialist Smile (2020)

John Gianvito assembles Keller’s political addresses and writings into a portrait of a warrior for social justice and a passionate, insightful proselytizer of Marxist thought.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13152604/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

 

1970

71 mins | 2021

Director: Tomasz Wolski

Producer: Anna Gawlita

Subtitle: English

In the days leading up to Christmas 1970, the Polish government raised the prices of food and consumer goods, prompting worker strikes and public demonstrations. In response, the Communist regime ordered the police and military to intervene and suppress the protests, which resulted in violent clashes, thousands of arrests, and the deaths of over 40 demonstrators. Director Tomasz Wolski brings the tragic sequence of decisions and their ramifications to life in a compelling and stylized pastiche of archival footage, stop-motion animation, puppetry, and recordings of government officials’ conversations. Bold and bracing, the film interweaves multiple visual styles and stories to suspenseful effect as the tension between the public and the government unfolds in black-and-white streets and moody dioramas. With chilling contemporary resonances, 1970 captures the politics of power and intimidation—how both are deployed by authority figures when they are confronted by the forces of civil unrest and a fear of their own citizens. TM

 

Fair Play

“A Feminist, Neorealist, Communist Film, and a Plain Great Movie”

 

9to5: The Story of a Movement

2020 1h 29min | Documentary | 1 February 2021 (USA)

They couldn’t kill their bosses, so they did the next best thing—they organized.

When Dolly Parton sang “9 to 5,” she was doing more than just shining a light on the fate of American working women. Parton was singing the true story of a movement that started with 9to5, a group of Boston secretaries in the early 1970s. Their goals were simple—better pay, more advancement opportunities, and an end to sexual harassment—but their unconventional approach attracted the press and shamed their bosses into change. Featuring interviews with 9to5’s founders, as well as actor and activist Jane Fonda, 9to5: The Story of a Movement is the previously untold story of the fight that inspired a hit and changed the American workplace.

Film website Director: Julia Reichert
julia@donet.com

 

50 Days

2019; 16m

Short documentary that tells the story of the Chicago Hotel Workers strike, from the strike vote to the settlement with the last major hotel chain

Eve Saxon
eve@answersmediainc.com
312 209.1208

WEBSITE

Trailer

 

The Price of Free (Kailash)

Kailash (original title)

1h 32min | Documentary | 2 November 2018 (USA)

The story of how Kailash Satyarthi launched a built a global movement to rescue children from slavery.

WEBSITE

Entire film available online here

Initial releaseJanuary 18, 2018
 

Docs & the World

Barcelona blog devoted to social and environmental documentaries.

“We have just started a series of posts about films that deal with the question of work in capitalism. We think these films can help to build up the working class conscience so sorely needed nowadays. Unless there is a new, global working class consciousness, underprivileged classes (increasingly extended) are doomed to be crushed by the sheer destructive power of capitalism. With this post we begin an overview of documentary and fiction films that can help to build up, through denunciation and example, that conscience and solidarity more needed than ever.”

Joan Sole