Singing for Justice tells the story of Faith Petric, a political radical, community organizer and charismatic performer who united folk music and progressive causes from the 1930s through the early 2000s. Narrated largely by Faith herself, the film weaves her musical and political journeys to showcase the central role of folk music in the transformational social movements of the 20th century.
Co-director: Estelle Freedman
ebf@stanford.edu
info@singingforjustice.com
Mike (Mark Wahlberg), a construction worker from Jersey, is quickly thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Halle Berry), suddenly comes back into his life and recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission. Watch on Netflix.
Netflix hit “The Union” is a miss
Reviewed by Chris Garlock (Labor Heritage Foundation newsletter)
The Union is a hit on Netflix, but it’s not really about the labor movement, and it’s a pretty lousy movie, despite starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. Wahlberg plays Mike, a construction worker in New Jersey, who finds himself thrust into the world of super spies when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (played by Berry), enlists his help on a high-stakes US intelligence mission for a shadowy group of ex-agency operatives called The Union. It’s a telling sign that a film called The Union doesn’t bother to say whether Mike’s construction job is union or not. J.K. Simmons runs the team and does have a cool class-conscious rationale for its existence: “(We’re the) invisible army that keeps the world running. The people who do the actual work. Street smarts over book smarts. Blue collar, not blue blood. Able to build our cities, keep production lines humming. That’s who we are. We get shit done.” Unfortunately that’s about the only nod to labor in the film, which has been getting abysmal viewer reviews, the best of which call it “generic” and “cheesy”. Action fans will be disappointed by the rote gunplay, endless — and pointless — car chases and lame dialogue from movie stars who — like us — deserve better. And the big plot twist involving a traitor in The Union is not only completely unbelievable, but misses an obvious opportunity to take a shot at scabs. Hate to say it, but this is one union you won’t want to join.
Got an opinion you’d like to share about labor art you’ve seen or heard lately? Email us at info@laborheritage.org.
When the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors, an unlikely hero emerges in dutiful, quiet Allery Parkes. A career employee of the factory, the aging Allery, can’t reconcile how to live a life simply sitting at home doing nothing. Against the advice and pleas of his loving wife Lola, he forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor Walter, in order to revive the defunct factory. As their community rallies around them – and as their former corporate bosses strategize how to implode this unexpected movement – Allery learns that he might be something he never thought possible: a leader.
Film info: Drama | 109 min | Director: Robert Jury | Country: USA | Language: English | Subtitles: Swedish
Julia Garner is “magnificent” as the personal assistant to a TriBeCa-based film executive whose sexual harassment of hopeful young starlets is an open secret. The name “Weinstein” is never once uttered, and it doesn’t have to be; the writer and director, Kitty Green, uses what we already know to fill in the blanks. We don’t even see the monster in question — he’s just a presence and a voice, in snatches of overheard dialogue and muffled fits of rage, and Green’s beautifully controlled film captures, with brutal, pinpoint accuracy, how that presence infects a workplace, and what happens when someone decides not to play along.
R 1991 ‧ Drama/Comedy ‧ 2h 9m
Dir: Jim Jarmusch
Cab drivers, in the US and elsewhere.
Release date: May 2, 1992 (New York)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Music composed by: Tom Waits
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography: Frederick Elmes
2018 ‧ Drama/Crime ‧ 2h 1m
Initial release: June 8, 2018 (Japan)
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Japanese: 万引き家族
Awards: Palme d’Or, Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year, MORE
Nominations: Cannes Jury Prize, Cannes Best Director Award,
On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders is united by fierce loyalty and a penchant for petty theft. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 