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Category Archives: Genre

Who Needs Sleep? (2006)

31 Mar

78m

Director: Haskell Wexler

Synopsis: “Ahhh… the glamorous life in Hollywood. Or is it? Film crews routinely work sweatshop hours, often clocking 15 to 18 hour days at the expense of their families, their health, their well-being, and even their lives.

In 1997, after a 19-hour day on the set, assistant cameraman Brent Hershman fell asleep behind the wheel, crashed his car, and died. Deeply disturbed by Hershman’s preventable death, filmmaker and multiple-Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler shows how sleep deprivation and long work hours are a lethal combination. Who Needs Sleep? is a commentary on our quality of life.”

http://whoneedssleep.weebly.com/index.html

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2012 in Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Safety & Health

 

Libby, Montana (2004)

30 Mar

124 min

Directors: Doug Hawes-Davis, Drury Gunn Carr

Synopsis (PBS): Libby, Montana is first of all the story of an ideal American community in what early explorers called “the land of the shining mountains.” Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies along the crystal-clear Kootenai River, Libby is the archetypal backpacker’s, hunter’s and angler’s paradise, as well as a picture-perfect example of the American wilderness that environmentalists want to save. At the same time, the town’s remoteness and its logging and mining economy nurtured conservative, self-reliant family and community values.

But Libby, Montana is also the story of an ideal betrayed in a way that crosses political lines and raises alarming questions about the role of corporate power in American politics and the environmental pollution that extracts its highest costs from ordinary citizens. In Libby, 70 years of strip-mining an ore called “vermiculite” and marketed as the wonder material “Zonolite” exposed workers, their families and thousands of residents to a toxic form of asbestos, creating what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called the worst case of industrial poisoning of a whole community in American history.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/libbymontana/film_description.php

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Safety & Health

 

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La Americana (2008)

30 Mar

65m; 

Director: Nicholas Bruckman, John Mattiuzzi

Synopsis: When nine-year-old Carla suffers a life-threatening accident, her mother, Carmen, must leave her behind and make the dangerous and illegal journey from Bolivia to the U.S., where she hopes to earn enough to save her daughter’s life. Working in New York to support Carla’s medical needs, Carmen struggles in vain to legalize her immigration status, and wrestles with the prospect of never seeing her daughter again. Then, after six years of separation, Congress proposes “amnesty” legislation that could allow Carmen and Carla to be reunited at last… Filmed across three countries in a captivating cinematic narrative, LA AMERICANA is Carmen’s story, and the story of millions of illegal immigrants who must leave their families behind to pursue the elusive American dream. An intimate and powerful story, LA AMERICANA shows how immigration policy affects families on both sides of the border, putting a human face on this timely and controversial issue. Winner of multiple awards at film festivals across the country, La Americana is now being used as the centerpiece for a nationwide campaign to engage and inspire audiences to dialogue about immigrants’ rights and immigration reform.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Politics, Women

 

La Belle Equipe (1936)

30 Mar

101m; France

Director: Julien Duvivier

Synopsis: Five unemployed workers unsuccessfully attempt to pool resources to get a music hall running.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Drama, Entertainment Industry, Working Class

 

La Bete Humiaine (1938)

30 Mar

90m; France

Director: Jean Renoir

Synopsis: Railroad workers and love, lust, and the murder.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Drama, Transportation, Working Class

 

La Ciudad (The City) [1999]

30 Mar

88m; U.S.

Director: David Riker

Synopsis: Construction workers/immigrant workers.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

 

La Huelga: The struggle of the UFW (2009)

30 Mar

18m; U.S.

Director: Alex Ivany

Synopsis: The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the union movement he inspired.

Contact: alex@sandraivany.com

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Immigrants/Immigration, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

La Promesse

30 Mar

92m; Belgium

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet and Assita Ouedraogo

Synopsis: Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou’s wife, Assita.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

 

La Terra Trema (1948)

30 Mar

160m; Italy

Director: Luchino Visconti

Cast:  Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli and Antonio Arcidiacono

Synopsis: In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

 

La Moitie Gauche du Frigo (2000)

30 Mar

90 min

Director: Philippe Falardeau

Synopsis: (New York Times): A documentary filmmaker and his subject find themselves at odds in this dark comedy from Canada. A mechanical engineer who has lost his job is trying to decide what to do with himself now that he needs to find a job. An actor who is looking to break into filmmaking hears of his predicament and asks to make a film about his life, following him with a camera until he can land a job.

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/230253/La-Moitie-gauche-du-frigo/overview

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Comedy, Unemployment-Wages

 
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