Stéphane Brizé, France 2015, 93 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)
Vincent Lindon gives a fine performance as unemployed everyman Thierry, who submits to a series of quietly humiliating ordeals in his search for work: futile retraining courses that lead to dead ends, job interviews via Skype, a critique of his self-presentation by fellow jobseekers. These experiences almost strip Thierry, a good father and husband, of his dignity and self-respect. When he lands a job in retail, surveilling both customers and fellow employees on video monitors, he faces one too many moral dilemmas. A powerful and deeply troubling vision of the realities of the new economic order — the law of the market.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/SlLUzvHlNlU
Category Archives: Genre
The Measure of a Man (La Loi du marché) (2015)
ReMine, the Latest Working Class Movement (2014)
(ReMine, El Último Movimiento Obrero, Marcos Martinez, DCP, Spain 2014, 102 min., Spanish w/subtitles)
In 2012, as global financial institutions harassed debt-ridden Spain, the government introduced crushing austerity measures, including a 63% reduction in subsidies to the coal industry. In northern Spain, a stronghold of militant trade unions, Asturian miners declared an unlimited strike, occupied mines, blockaded highways, fought police, and organized a mass protest march to Madrid, nearly 300 miles away. Across Spain and internationally, the miners’ traditional methods of struggle and organization won wide sympathy and admiration, culminating in a joyous demonstration of solidarity. Yet the future of Spanish coal mining remains in doubt.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/gxaK_YVwSQQ
At Any Price (2012)
R | | Drama, Sport, Thriller | 1 May 2013 (Philippines)
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Hallie Elizabeth Newton
Stars: Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron, Kim Dickens |
In this parable Willie Loman meets Monsanto. Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a flawed Iowa corn farmer and a sales rep for a GMO seed company, under pressure both to expand his territory and to increase his harvest — “go big or die.” Bahrani (Man Push Cart, 2005) addresses timeless themes: fathers and sons, ambition and rebellion, solidarity and self-interest, morality and survival and, ultimately, the death of dreams. The film is an unsettling and introspective take on the influence of economic and social forces on an American everyman.
MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE (Der Banker) (2013)
a film by Marc Bauder
(Der Banker, Marc Bauder, Austria/Germany 2013, 88 min., DCP, German w/subtitles)
Maybe the real masters of the universe are not politicians, armies or even nations: they are probably investment bankers like Deutsche Bank’s Rainer Voss. From a gleaming steel and glass structure in Frankfurt’s financial district, Voss offers a distinctive perspective on the out-of-control mechanics of modern global finance. He describes a parallel universe of extreme wealth and merciless pressure for profit, an opaque system that disconnects bankers from the outside world.
In “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort cuts short an explanation of his work, because, he says, we probably couldn’t follow the details. “Master of the Universe” attempts that explanation but offers a sobering antidote to irrational exuberance and a psychological case study in the financier’s mind-set. This indefatigable tell-all documentary from Marc Bauder cedes the floor to Rainer Voss, a German ex-trader who tells us with clarity about how it all works. read full NYT review here
THE JUDGEMENT (2014)
Dir. Stephan Komandarev/Bulgaria/2014/107 min SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 17:30
The waves of migrants or refugees being smuggled across our borders are now daily news. But how do these people make it to Europe through often hostile and unforgiving terrain? Whilst many refugee stories are told, we know less about the people who actually do the smuggling. This Bulgarian entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar follows Mityo who, having lost his wife, job and the respect of his son, takes up a job smuggling Syrian refugees across the very Bulgarian/Turkish/Greek border he prevented people crossing whilst in the army. A film about the impact of momentous decisions, and the hostile mountain terrain at the heart of an illegal industry.
Trailer:
https://youtu.be/XRCAYsrl37s
LATHE JOSHI (2016)
The film is about a lathe machine worker from a small workshop, who loses his job because of automation after working for 35 years. The film focuses on social injustice due to unemployment result of artificial intelligence.
Directed by Mangesh Joshi; 9028904801; mangeshjoshi.pune@gmail.com
Joy of Man’s Desiring (Que ta joie demeure) (2014)
1h 10min | Documentary, News | 16 January 2015 (USA)
Director: Denis Côté
Writer: Denis Côté
Stars: Olivier Aubin, Ted Pluviose, Hamidou Savadogo |
An open-ended exploration of the energies and rituals of various workplaces. From one worker to another and one machine to the next; hands, faces, breaks, toil: what kind of absurdist, abstract dialogue can be started between human beings and their need to work? What is the value of the time we spend multiplying and repeating the same motions that ultimately lead to a rest – a state of repose whose quality defies definition.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/jIaWeSRqNAg
Demain (Tomorrow)
website
Directed by Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent
Many things have been tried to resolve the ecological and economic crises. They haven’t really worked. According to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammed Yunnus, the strongest driving force in human beings is their desire and their imagination. He believes that today we must make films and tell stories that spark the desire to build another world. This is what Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent decided to do by lining up known solutions in all spheres side-by-side to show what our society could look like tomorrow…
In France, a Film Taps Into a Desire for Change (NYT, May 2016)
Canefield Songs: Holehole Bushi
26.46m; see the film here: https://youtu.be/umFlb9OhwkM
In this new film, Professor of Anthropology Christine Yano explains, “If we want to know something of what some of these womenʻs lives were like…we could do no better than to listen to their own words, as expressed through song.” The women that Professor Yano is referring to are Japanese immigrants who worked in Hawaii’s sugarcane fields in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through their canefield songs, or holehole bushi, these women sang about their joys and sorrows of trying to start life in a new world. Hosted and narrated by ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, the film tells the story of music teacher Harry Urata, and his efforts to record, preserve and perpetuate these musical oral histories.
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