40m
Synopsis: social protest, globalization
Category Archives: Genre
La otra frontera (The other border) [2001]
25m; Spain
Director: doia Alustiza / Joaquim Martinez / Pablo Tulin
Synopsis: Immigrant workers
Labor Battles the WTO (1999)
40m; U.S.
Director: Steve Zeltzer
Synopsis: Unions’ participation in the protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.
Contact: View here: http://blip.tv/laborvideo/labor-battles-the-wto-seattle-1999-2642482
The Labor Movement: Beginnings and Growth in America (1959)
14m; U.S.
Director: Coronet Films
Synopsis: Developments in labor’s organization in the US from 1873 through the merger of the AFL and CIO. The role played by Samuel Gompers, the Knights of Labor and the AFL-CIO are traced.
Labor in the Mountains (2005)
55m; U.S.
Synopsis: A grandfather recounts the history of labor unions in West Virginia to his granddaughter. His story spans from the civil war era to the current labor movement in the state. Labor Union; West Virginia; Civil War labor movement; Great Uprising; General Strike; United Mine Workers of America; UMW; United Steel Workers.
Contact: Available as VHS or DVD, $5 from Labor in the Mountains Foundation, ILSR/WVU, 719 Knapp Hall, Morgantown WV 26506. Telephone: (304) 293-3323 Toll Free: 1-800-499-0486 Fax: (304) 293-3395
Labor’s Reward (1925)
Synopsis (National Film Preservation Foundation):
Produced by the American Federation of Labor, Labor’s Reward is probably the earliest surviving film sponsored by an American labor union. Although only the third of five reels survives (along with a shorter fragment), the reel makes for a relatively self-contained story. In the lost earlier reels a father is injured at a nonunion machine shop. Receiving no workers’ compensation, his family must rely on the wages of the elder daughter, Mary, who toils at a nonunion bookbindery. As reel 3 begins, friend Tom finds Mary bedridden from overwork.
When Labor’s Reward was made in 1925, the American labor movement was struggling after the suppression of more militant unions. Labor’s Reward was intended to turn the situation around by demonstrating the AFL’s “constructive methods” and by appealing to “the purchasing public” to buy union-made products. With its female focus, the film also addressed the AFL’s history of regarding women workers as low-paid competitors. It is women who here show Tom the importance of buying a hat with a union label. Widely advertised, Labor’s Reward was screened for free. The AFL-affiliated American Federation of Musicians provided the live accompaniment.
http://www.filmpreservation.org/dvds-and-books/clips/labor-s-reward-1925
Labor’s Troubadour (2005)
37m; U.S.
Director: Hope Moskowitz
Synopsis: Labor’s Troubadour, a stirring documentary on the legendary labor folk singer and social historian Joe Glazer, premiered at the Smithsonian – National Museum of American History on June 18, 2005. Glazer, a national treasure, has used his guitar and gift for storytelling for over sixty years to inspire and build solidarity in the American labor movement. The film, produced and directed by Hope Moskowitz (UW,1983), weaves together archival footage, concert performances, interviews, music, news clips and photographs from Joe’s life, presenting an invaluable chronicle of the labor movement and the music that was inspired.
Contact: http://www.laborstroubadour.com/
Rodosha (The Laborer) [2006]
20m; Japan
Director: Darryl Knickrehm
Synopsis: Kay Fujita, Tatsuya Masuda and Dan Yukino
Synopsis (IMDB): In a life of work, we work to live life. One businessman has the opportunity to take a step back and look at his life. To his dismay he sees a man who not only labored at work but also in life. The Laborer is a tale of two levels. It is a commentary of the workaholic lifestyles of the world. But more importantly it is the intimate story of a man who is detached from his feelings and as a result has prevented himself from taking the opportunities of life.
Labor’s Turning Point (1981)
59m; U.S
Director: John DeGraaf
Synopsis: The 1934 Minneapolis truck drivers’ strike was a pivotal struggle for working people of the mid-west. As a result of new tactics developed in the successful strike, it led to the organization of over the road truckers and the growth of the Teamsters nationally into one of the most important and powerful unions in the United States. The film shows how the strike was organized and how the union broke the back of the anti-union Citizen’s Alliance and made Minneapolis a union town. It also includes the ground breaking role of the strikers’ wives in organizing for the strike and the establishment of a daily strike bulletin. These tactics are still relevant today in the struggle of labor to organize and survive.
Contact: http://www.onedayinjuly.org/
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