8m; U.S.
Director: Workers Film and Photo League of the WIR
Synopsis: Unemployment demo in Union Square in 1931
Category Archives: Genre
Workers’ Voices (2009)
2.5m; U.K.
Director: Gary Williams
Synopsis: Three school meals workers talk about their jobs and working for Chartwell’s. Filmed as part of the UNISON Three Companies project organizing blitz on 4th November 2009
Workers’ Republic (2009)
50m; U.S.
Director: Andrew Freund
Synopsis: Three weeks before Christmas 2008, in the depths of the economic crisis, Chicago company Republic Windows and Doors told their workforce that the factory was closing shop. Republic executives complained about dwindling sales due to the crash of the housing market. Three days later, when the Republic employees came in to pick up their final paychecks, they were informed that they would not be paid for their final week or receive their accrued vacation pay. Their insurance benefits were cut immediately, and they were denied the 60-day severance guaranteed under the federal WARN Act.
Contact: Labor Beat in Chicago 312-316-4458 videoinsurgent@gmail.com
The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso) aka Lulu the Tool (1971)
125m; Italy
Director: Elio Petri
Cast: Gian Maria Volonté, Mariangela Melato and Gino Pernice
Synopsis (IMDB): Lulù is a real hard worker. For this reason he is loved by the masters and hated by his own colleagues. The unions decide agitations against the masters. Lulù doesn’t agree till he cuts, by accident, one of his own fingers. Now, after he understood the worker’s conditions, he agrees the unions and participates to the strike. He immediately is fired and, not only is abandoned by his lover, but also by the other workers. But the fights of the unions allow him under a new legislation to be hired again. At this point his mind starts giving signs of collapse.
Working For Your Life (1979)
55m; U.S.
Director: Andrea Hricko and Ken Light
Synopsis: Covers working women and their problems and struggles to correct workplace hazards. Filmed in over 40 workplaces, the film interviews injured workers, including a woman who lost her finger in an industrial accident and another who has asbestos-related disease. Sterilization of women workers is discussed. Unlike many health and safety films, this one points out that organization is one of the best ways to protect one’s health.
Working Girl (1988)
113m; U.S.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis (IMDB): Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss.
Working Women of the World (2001)
54m; France
Director: Marie France Collard
Synopsis: Effects of globalization on European and Asian women.
Working for American Workers (2010)
55m; U.S.
Director: College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
Synopsis: Documentary highlighting labor turbulence in the 60s and 70s through the eyes of former Labor Secretaries Willard Wirtz and Bill Usery. Includes the pilots strike among other events, and shows “vividly how labor secretaries can differ in interests and style, with very different effects on labor.”
Contact: College Executive Director Susan Wan SWan@gibsondunn.com 202-955-8225
The Worst Job In The World (2006)
29m; India/Denmark
Director: Jens Pedersen
Synopsis: Manual scavengers in India and ‘the most disgusting job on earth’-picking up human excreta with one’s bare hands.
Contact: jjp@net.dialog.dk (+45) 40757172 (Work)
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