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Category Archives: Genre

Mother Kuster’s Journey to Happiness (1929)

20 Apr

121m; Germany

Director: Phil Jutzi

Cast: Alexandra Schmitt, Holmes Zimmermann and Ilse Trautschold

Synopsis (IMDB): A masterpiece about a working-class family in the late twenties in Berlin. You see Mutter Krauses fight for survival shown in such a modern way that you feel close even if it is nearly ninety years away. The way the camera (operated by the director himself) films the scenes and sometimes just the everyday life on the streets of Berlin is so energetic and real. The actors are playing very physical and natural (which was surprising for me as i expected acting in silent movies as much more stiff and awkward). All characters are very pure and just like in a documentary. Ilse Trautschold as the daughter is unforgettable. Whenever you get the chance to see this film go and watch it. Faßbinder once said it was his favorite film.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Women, Working Class

 

Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story

20 Apr

89m; U.S.

Director: Sturla Gunnarsson

Cast: Barbara Williams, Timothy Webber and Rob Lee

Synopsis: Women making it in trucking.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Transportation, Women, Working Class

 

The Mother (Mat) [1926]

20 Apr

90m; U.S.S.R.

Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin

Synopsis: Set in Russia during the harsh winter of 1905. A mother finds herself caught in emotional conflict between her husband and son when they find themselves on opposite sides of a worker’s strike. The son is a supporter of the workers but the father has been blackmailed into supporting the bosses and blacklegs. Despite the grief which follows the mother gradually comes to support the strikers and eventually is prepared to risk everything in standing up to police and Cossak troops in a demonstration endangering both herself and her precious son.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Drama, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

The Motherhood Manifesto

20 Apr

Looks at the obstacles facing working mothers and families and the employer and motherimagepublic policy changes needed to restore work-life balance.

58 minutes

Directed by Laura Pacheco
Produced by John de Graaf and Laura Pacheco
Writer – John de Graaf
Executive Producer – Joan Blades
Photographer/Editor – Diana Wilmar
Music – Claudia Schmidt
Narrator – Mary Steenburgen

Did you know that…Only four countries in the world – Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States – fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers? Canada now guarantees a full year of paid parental leave and California recently became the first state in the U.S. to provide such paid leave? Businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced and their bottom line is improved?

Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and their families in America. See how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic living wages a reality for American families.

The film is based on the book The Motherhood Manifesto by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.

available from Bullfrog Films

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary

 

Mouseland (1962?)

20 Apr

Available on YouTube
7:43m (includes intro by Kiefer Sutherland, Tommy Douglas’ grandson)

The Story of Mouseland was a story told first by Clarence Gillis, and later and most famously by Tommy Douglas, leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative mouselandCommonwealth Federation and, later, the New Democratic Party of Canada, both social democraticparties. It was a political fable expressing the CCF’s view that the Canadian political system was flawed in offering voters a false dilemma: the choice of two parties, neither of which represented their interests.

The mice voted in black cats, which represented the Progressive Conservative Party, and then they found out how hard life was. Then they voted in the white cats, which symbolized the Liberal Party. The story goes on, and a mouse gets an idea that mice should run their government, not the cats. This mouse was accused of being a Bolshevik, and imprisoned. However, the speech concludes by saying you can lock up a mouse or a person, but you cannot lock up an idea.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Animation, Available Online, Comedy, Kids, Politics, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

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Movin’ On (1968)

20 Apr

60m; U.S.

Director: Harold Meyer

Synopsis: This roaring railroad film (1968) reveals the incredible history of railroading from the 1830s until today. The Hell on Wheels towns, the Chinese and Irish immigrants building a railroad with their sweat and brawn but battling each other along the way, the robber barons and their union busting, Mr. Pullman and his Pullman car, the glitter of the “golden age”, Eugene V. Debs, the glory days of the passenger trains of the 1930s and 40s.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Transportation, Working Class

 

Moving Mountains (2006)

20 Apr

30m; U.S.

Director: Virginia Bendl Moore

Cast: Earl Ray Tomlin (Himself); Senator Jay Rockefeller (Himself); Gov. Manchin (Himself); Bill Raney (Himself- President of the WV Coal Association); Warren Hylton (Himself- President of Patents Coal); Larry Gibson (Himself); Ed Wiley (Himself); Maria Gunnoe (Himself); Lenny Kohn (Himself- reporter from Appalachian Voices); Sam Cook (Himself- Appalachian Studies Professor at Virginia Tech)

Synopsis: A student made documentary about the effects of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. West Virginia; Coal Mining; Mountaintop Removal Mining; Strip Mining

Contact: E-mail filmmaker at movingmountains@virginia.edu

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Working Class

 

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Mr. Mom (1983)

20 Apr

91m; U.S.

Director: Stan Dragoti

Cast: Michael Keaton, Teri Garr and Fred Koehler

Synopsis (IMDB): Jack and Caroline are a couple making a decent living when Jack suddenly loses his job. They agree that he should stay at home and look after the house while Caroline works. It’s just that he’s never done it before, and really doesn’t have a clue.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Comedy, Drama, Unemployment-Wages, White Collar

 

My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009)

20 Apr

101m; U.S.

Director: Patrick Lussier

Cast: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Betsy Rue, Megan Boone

Synopsis: A tragedy unfolds in a West Virginia mining town, with only two people out of five surviving. When one of the survivors wakes up from a coma on Valentine’s Day one year later, he goes on a 20-person killing spree. 10 years later the inexperienced miner who caused the initial accident returns to the town, still haunted by the deaths he caused. However, a new killer, wearing a miner’s hat and using a pick-axe, is on the loose.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Horror

 

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My Land / Mi Chacra (2009)

20 Apr

99m; Peru

Director: Jason Burlage

Synopsis: Chronicles one year in a Peruvian farmer’s life and through a season of work on the Inca Trail. The film paints a vivid picture of this man’s world, of the conflict between his love of the land and the work he has learned from his father, and the desire to see his son living what he sees as a better life in the city.

Contact: Jason Burlage jason@michacrafilm.com http://www.michacrafilm.com/index.htm

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Global Economy

 
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