Genre | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Morning Glory (2010)

DIR Roger Michell; SCR Aline Brosh McKenna PROD J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk. US, color, 107 min. RATED PG-13

After hard-working producer Rachel McAdams gets fired from her lackluster suburban New Jersey morning show, she lands a new job producing the lowest-rated network morning talk show in New York City. This decidedly mixed blessing includes wrangling randy host Ty Burrell, in bad need of training about sexual harassment in the workplace, and former beauty queen Diane Keaton, frosty behind her fake smile. Meanwhile, disgruntled serious newsman Harrison Ford, McAdams’ idol, is idling away, playing out his contract before retirement. Would he go for a morning show makeover? Time to get to work! Director Roger Michell gets the best from his game cast; screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA). “It grows from human nature and is about how people do their jobs and live their lives. It is wisely not about a May-October romance between McAdams and Ford. It’s more about their love for their work.”—Roger Ebert.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on November 13, 2012 in Entertainment Industry, Netflix Watch Instantly, Romance

Tags: Journalism

The Waiting Room (2012)

24 Oct

Directed by Peter Nicks
Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.

24 hours in a public hospital emergency room waiting room.

The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that uses extraordinary access to go behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. The film – using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover – offers a raw, intimate, and even uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers each cope with disease, bureaucracy and hard choices.

The ER waiting room serves as the grounding point for the film, capturing in vivid detail what it means for millions of Americans to live without health insurance. Young victims of gun violence take their turn alongside artists and small business owners who lack insurance. Steel workers, taxi cab drivers and international asylum seekers crowd the halls. The film weaves the stories of several patients – as well as the hospital staff charged with caring for them – as they cope with the complexity of the nation’s public health care system, while weathering the storm of a national recession.

The Waiting Room lays bare the struggle and determination of both a community and an institution coping with limited resources and no road map for navigating a health care landscape marked by historic economic and political dysfunction. It is a film about one hospital, its multifaceted community, and how our common vulnerability to illness binds us together as humans.

trailer at whatruwaitingfor.com

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 24, 2012 in Documentary, Public Sector, Safety & Health, Women

Men at Lunch (2012)

17 Oct

80m; Ireland

Director: Seán Ó Cualáin

Synopsis: New York City, 1932. The country is in the throes of the Great Depression, the previous decade’s boom of Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants has led to unprecedented urban expansion, and in the midst of an unseasonably warm autumn, steelworkers risk life and limb building skyscrapers high above the streets of Manhattan. In Men at Lunch, director Seán Ó Cualáin tells the story of Lunch atop a Skyscraper, the iconic photograph taken during the construction of the GE Building that depicts eleven workmen taking their lunch break while casually perched along a steel girder, 850 feet above the ground. For decades, this image has captivated imaginations the world over. But who are these men? And where did they come from?

Contact: http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/menatlunch
Distributor contact: John Bione JBione@firstrunfeatures.com
“Men on a Skyscraper” portable sculpture: Sergio Furnari: info@sergiofurnari.com or call 917-687-5593; http://www.sergiofurnari.com/store.htm

Trailer

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Posted by iwwggrandson on October 17, 2012 in Construction Trades, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

Stitched Together: Students, and the Movement for Alta Gracia (2012)

13 Oct

28:43; U.S.

Director: Will Delphia

Synopsis: A documentary film examining the Alta Gracia factory in the Dominican Republic, a new college apparel company attempting to challenge the sweatshop model of production by creating a factory with living wages, good working conditions, and an independent trade union.

Full Film

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Textile Industry, Working Class

Hombre Maquila (2011) (Machine Man)

09 Oct

Director: Alfonso Moral & Roser Corella
Spain, 2011, 14min
Format: HDCam (screening) – DigiBeta, BetaSP (shooting)
Festival Year: 2012
Category: Documentary
Crew: Editor, Cinematographer: Alfonso Moral
Email: roser.corellagmail.com

synopsis
A reflection on modernity and global development, documenting the use of human physical force to perform work in the 21st century. The film takes place in the capital of Bangladesh, where the ‘machine men’ execute different physical works, a mass of millions of people who become the driving force behind the city.

director
Alfonso Moral and Roser Corella have collaborated on a number of documentaries, shooting in Lebanon, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Kenya and Senegal. They combine this joint work with individual work, making photo and video reports for different media, television and press, including Catalan TV, La Vanguardia or Le Monde. “Machine Man” is their first auteur documentary.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 9, 2012 in Automation, Construction Trades, Documentary, Working Class

600,000 Miners Strike Led by John L. Lewis (1919)

30 Aug

1:54; U.S.

Synopsis: “In November, 1919, Acting President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers led 600,000 miners in a five week strike that crippled the bituminous coal industry and the nation as well. The strike was in direct defiance of a court injunction against such action and Woodrow Wilson denounced Lewis as a dictator. This was John L. Lewis’ first clash with a United States president; he missed battle with no other president from then on up to Eisenhower.

On December 11, President Wilson and Attorney General Palmer presented Lewis with a proposal that would send the miners back to work: a 14% wage increase (they were getting $2.00 per day) and a commission to work out other questions in the dispute such as hours, health and safety standards. Lewis accepted immediately and the men returned to work, proving their loyalty to their country, he said. Attorney General Palmer commended Mr. Lewis for his wise and patriotic action.

The coal operators, however, charged Palmer with surrender and said that he feared a terrible situation if the government had been forced to jail the miners. A Congressional Committee decided to investigate the strike.”

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Posted by Metro Council on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Tags: Mining

1934 San Francisco Longshore Strike

30 Aug

1:39; U.S.

Synopsis: Newsreel footage on the 1934 longshore general strike in San Francisco which helped to birth the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union (ILWU).

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Posted by Metro Council on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Tags: Boating and Shipping

Strikebreaking During the Depression (1934)

30 Aug

5:06; U.S.

Director: March of Time newsreel

Synopsis: Newsreel footage about Pearl Berghoff, the owner of the Berghoff Agency which was one of the premier strike-breaking companies through the 1930s. The newsreel both gives an overview of Berghoff, and looks specifically at his company’s involvement in strikes in Georgia in 1934.

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Posted by Metro Council on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

Tags: Anti-Union, Strikebreaking

The Creation of the CIO (1935)

30 Aug

7:18; U.S.

Director: March of Time

Synopsis: Newsreel documentary focusing on John L. Lewis and accounting for the reasons behind and early conflicts over the split of the American Federation of Labor in 1935 and the creation of the rival federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Film is clearly pro-CIO and contains fantastic footage of Lewis, Sidney Hillman, and other major organizational leaders of labor in the Depression years.