Drama | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Joe (1970)

107m; U.S.

Cast: Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick and Susan Sarandon

Synopsis (IMDB): Bill, a wealthy businessman, confronts his junkie daughter’s drug-dealing boyfriend; in the ensuing argument, Bill kills him. Panic-stricken, he wanders the streets and eventually stops at a bar. There he runs into a drunken factory worker named Joe, who hates hippies, blacks, and anyone who is “different”, and would like to kill one himself. The two start talking, and Bill reveals his secret to Joe. Complications ensue

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Working Class

John Q (2002)

28 Mar

116m; U.S.

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Cast: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall and Gabriela Oltean

Synopsis: A down-on-his luck father, whose insurance won’t cover his son’s heart transplant, takes the hospital’s emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to perform the operation.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Safety & Health, Working Class

John and the Missus (1987)

28 Mar

100m; Canada

Director: Gordon Pinsent

Cast: Gordon Pinsent, Jackie Burroughs and Randy Follett

Synopsis (IMDB): A small Canadian town is devasted when a local mine–the town’s only source of income–is closed. One man incurs the wrath of the townsmen when he stubbornly refuses the small amount of settlement money offered by the government

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Politics, Working Class

Tags: Mining

The Joyless Street (1925)

28 Mar

125m; Germany

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Synopsis: Despair of the poor and the near-poor in inflation-ridden Germany

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

Kabluey (2007)

28 Mar

87m; U.S.

Director: Scott Prendergast

Cast: Lisa Kudrow (Leslie), Scott Prendergast (Salman), Christine Taylor (Betty), Conchata Ferrell (Kathleen), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Brad), Chris Parnell (Frank), Cameron Wofford (Cameron), Landon Henninger (Lincoln) and Teri Garr (Suze).

Synopsis: Salman is Kabluey, the corporate mascot of BlueNexion, a failing Internet company in Texas; comedy portrays a “demoralized American work force fearfully going through the motions of life while waiting without much hope for things to get better” (Scott Holden, 7/4/08 NYT)

Contact: REGENT RELEASING LLC CORPORATE OFFICES 10990 Wilshire Boulevard, Penthouse Los Angeles, CA 90024 ph: 310.806.4288 fx: 310.806.4268 info @ regentreleasing.com

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Working Class

Kameradschaft (1931)

28 Mar

93m; France/Germany

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Synopsis: Plea against war and for friendship between peoples, through the story of French miners rescued by German colleagues after a firedamp explosion. G. W. Pabst directed this German film based on a real event that took place on the France-German border in 1906 when 1100 miners were killed. German miners came to the rescue of the French miners who were trapped underground. It was the first work of art banned by Hitler when he became chancellor. It is famous for its both realist and expressionist photography

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Safety & Health

Tags: Mining

Keeping on (1983)

28 Mar

75m; U.S.

Director: Barbara Kopple

Synopsis (Allmovie.com): Keeping On was the only “fiction” film directed by documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Like her earlier Harlan County USA and The American Dream, the film examines a labor-management struggle in a hardscrabble Southern mill town. Dick Anthony Williams plays a minister who encourages the activities of labor unionist James Broderick. Williams’ stand polarizes the community, and the cleric is ostracized by the so-called “right” people. Completed in 1981, Keeping On premiered February 8, 1983 on PBS’ American Playhouse.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Organizing, Working Class

Kes (1969)

28 Mar

110m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: David Bradley, Brian Glover and Freddie Fletcher

Synopsis (IMDB): A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

Killer of Sheep (1977)

28 Mar

83m; U.S.

Director: Charles Burnett

Cast: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore and Charles Bracy

Synopsis: Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Working Class

The Killing Floor (1985)

28 Mar

118m; U.S.
Director: Bill Duke
Cast: Cynthia Baker, Dennis Farina and Clarence Felder

Synopsis (IMDB): During World War I, a poor black Southerner travels north to Chicago to get work in the city’s slaughterhouses, where he becomes embroiled in the organized labor movement. He becomes prominent as a leader of fellow African-Americans in the union, though many, including his best friend, view him as a sell-out.

Contact: Elsa Rassbach elsarassbach@gmail.com http://www.thekillingfloor-thefilm.com