Genre | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Schoolidarity

A sharply aimed film about Wisconsin and Chicago teachers fighting back against the onslaught of anti-union governors and big city mayors willing to sell out public education to the burgeoning power of the for profit charter school movement – which just happens to be mostly union-free.Through the eyes of public school teachers fighting for the benefit of all their students, Schoolidarity tells the interwoven story of the two most significant American workers’ rights struggles of recent years: the weeks-long 2011 mass occupation of the Wisconsin capitol, and the Chicago teachers strike of 2012. Schoolidarity provides a history of the issues surrounding the privatization of urban public schools in the US. By documenting the ascent of the activist teacher caucus CORE, Chicago’s public schools crisis is analyzed through the lens of the assault on public sector unions, where defeats are just as important to study as victories in order to insure education justice for all.

Directed by: Andrew Friend

http://vimeopro.com/insurgentproductions/andrew-friend/video/51703399

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Posted by andrew765 on June 29, 2014 in Children, Cities-Urban, Documentary, Education

Workers Republic

29 Jun

What would you do? Your boss gives you three days’ notice that your workplace is closing. You will be unemployed in a recession, without the severance the law says you deserve. If you are the employees of Republic Windows and Doors… you fight back! For six days in December of 2008, laid-off Chicago factory workers took over their closing workplace, declaring they would not leave until the owners and creditors agreed to pay them the severance they were owed. Republic’s credit line had been cut off by Bank of America, which had just received billions of dollars in federal bank bailout money. These 260 workers decided, “If I don’t fight, I know I’ll lose. If I do fight, at least I stand a chance of winning.” In these revolutionary times, when a new movement has risen from below to occupy Wall Street and expose the greed of bosses and banks, the workers of Republic are a beacon of hope and optimism, a microcosm of how everyday people may be the most qualified to forge a better world.

Directed by: Andrew Friend

http://vimeopro.com/insurgentproductions/andrew-friend/video/30882647

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Posted by andrew765 on June 29, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

Through the Eye of the Needle: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz

28 Jun

Esther Nisenthal was 15 in October of 1942 when the Jews of her village in Poland were ordered by Nazis to report to a nearby train station. Esther’s story of survival is extraordinary because of her method of storytelling- stitching and embroidering. It comes to us in a series of 36 large fabric collages, intricately embroidered in vivid color, created more than 40 years after the war. They depict one young girl’s eyewitness account of the war, scenes of tragedy and trauma juxtaposed with the exquisite beauty.

Directed by: Nina Shapiro- Perl

http://artandremembrance.org/our-work/film/

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Arts/Culture, Documentary

Hard Labor

28 Jun

Working conditions on the banana and pineapple plantations of Latin America are tough… here workers tell of trade union persecution, low wages and exposure to pesticides… made for the Make Fruit Fair campaign – to find out more about the social and environmental impacts of pesticides in Costa Rica.

Directed by: Jan Nimmo

http://www.jannimmo.com/PPHL.html

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Documentary, Environment, Farm & Food, Global Economy

Bonita: Ugly Bananas

28 Jun

When Scottish artist, Jan Nimmo, travels to Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of bananas, to gather workers’ testimonies, she observes the formation of the first trade unions in the banana sector for 30 years. The Los Alamos banana workers decide to go on strike for the most basic of rights. Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador’s richest man owns the plantation’s owner, Bonita Brands, and Noboa doesn’t like unions. Bonita is the world’s fourth largest banana company yet the workers earn a pittance, are exposed to a cocktail of toxic agrochemicals and their living conditions are appalling. Bonita is a powerful eyewitness account of what happens to workers who dare to stand up against a powerful oligarch.

Directed by: Jan Nimmo

http://www.jannimmo.com/Bonita.html

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Environment, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

Tags: Anti-Union

Never Got A Dime

28 Jun

Never Got a Dime is the story of Lilly Ledbetter, a former manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama. On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the statute of limitations to reset 180 days after each discriminatory paycheck is issued. Ledbetter will always be remembered as a champion of women’s rights and equal pay.

Directed by: Shelby Hadden

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Documentary, Women

Tags: equal pay for equal work, womens rights

The Real Rosie the Riveter Project

28 Jun

This archive of filmed oral histories was created by filmmakers Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly and Elizabeth Hemmerdinger under the guidance of the irreplaceable Dr. Michael Nash. The 48 women represented here provide a complex portrait of Rosie the Riveter, taking the viewer beyond the iconic “We Can Do It” poster girl and deep into the experiences real Rosies from diverse backgrounds, challenging the popular perception of women in American History. The filmmakers were inspired by the extraordinary women of The Real Rosie The Riveter Project to develop this material into an animated documentary project using new media technologies called The Girl With The Rivet Gun.

Directed by: Kirsten Kelly, Anne de Mare

http://dlib.nyu.edu/rosie/node/1029

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Arts/Culture, Automation, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), War, Women

Tags: riveter, rosie, World War II

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980)

28 Jun

The U.S. entry into World War II created an unprecedented demand for new workers. Thousands of posters and billboards appeared calling on women to “Do the Job He Left Behind.” Rosie the Riveter was born — the symbol of working women during World War II. The story is told by the women themselves, five former “Rosies,” who movingly recall their histories working in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco during the war. Their testimony is interwoven with rare archival recruitment films, stills, posters, ads and music from the period, which contrast their experiences with the popular legend and mythology of Rosie the Riveter.

Directed by: Connie Field

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Automation, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Technology, War, Women, Working Class

Tags: riveter, rosie, World War II

Expect Resistance

28 Jun

Looks at the “Take Back the Land” and Occupy Wall Street movements as they began to respond to the foreclosure crisis. The film follows Leonard Spears, a man fighting to keep his home after a foreclosure has passed and an eviction notice has been filed. We meet activists who are willing to put themselves on the line and take direct action to keep people like Leonard in their homes, and to even move homeless families into bank-owned homes that are sitting empty from previous foreclosures.

Directed by: Shane Burley

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Posted by andrew765 on June 28, 2014 in Big Business/Corporations, Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Legal System, Organizing, Politics, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

Tags: occupy, organize, unite

From the Shadows of Power

28 Jun

This awarding winning documentary is a powerful story set in coalfields of Appalachia, Wales and England. It documents firsthand the turmoil in the aftermath of the British Miners Strike of 1984/85 and the parallel struggle of the UMWA in its long running battle with Pittston Coal. This film brings to life the real struggles of working people at the pivotal moment when state power was used to open the floodgates to global capital, aid the destruction of coalfield communities and its labor institutions. Chronicling the critical role played by working class women in these watershed events, it features economist Helen Lewis, Reverend Jesse Jackson, women miners, Betty Heathfield of Britain’s Women Against Pit Closures, NUMs Arthur Scargill, and Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.