Genre | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Synopsis (Best of Sicily Magazine): The film recounts the story of the “Massacre of Ginestra” of May 1947. This was the murder by gunfire of eleven Communists during a political march at rural Portella della Ginestra, outside the Sicilian town of Piana degli Albanesi. Not only were people killed, but nearly thirty were injured. The crime, historically blamed on the band of the charismatic bandit Salvatore Giuliano, was previously depicted in Michael Cimino’s film The Sicilian, starring Christopher Lambert and John Turturro, which portrayed the rustic renegade as a Sicilian Robin Hood. The real Giuliano was killed under mysterious circumstances and a number of alleged accomplices arrested, but officially the mass murder was never solved. Mafia complicity has always been claimed, because organised crime opposed the Communist Party while supporting the Christian Democrats, who effectively controlled Italian politics for forty years. Obviously, the case was politically charged and hotly controversial. – http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art103.htm

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, War

Secret Life of Angels (2002)

07 May

France

Synopsis: two French working girls

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Women

Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001)

07 May

60m; U.S.

Director: Deborah Kaufman/Alan Snitow

Synopsis: Temp workers/high tech workers

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Technology, Working Class

See You at Mao (AKA British Sounds) [1970]

07 May

52m; France/U.K.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Henri Roger

Synopsis: After taking film to “zero” with -Le Gai Savoir-, Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group put out several Maoist/Marxist films, including this one. The main idea of British Sounds is exactly the soundtrack; the images are primarily still, with minimal camera movement: mostly tracks and pans. British Sounds is didactic and academic, but not without artistic merit, particularly the use of red and the jump-cutting fists that punch through the British flag repeatedly. The film has six parts, including the famous ten-minute track through an auto assembly line and a four-minute shot of a woman’s nude torso; it is also filled with speech, whether it’s a text from Engels read aloud or a newscaster talking about the necessities of burning women and children. A real agit-prop film, but, as Godard said about the later -Vladimir and Rosa-, also “a time piece.”

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Experimental

Seed For Tomorrow (1947)

07 May

20m; U.S.

Director: Julian Roffman

Synopsis: Discusses the need for unions for agricultural workers to help maintain price and wage control.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Farm & Food, Labor History

The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet) [2007]

07 May

151m; France

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche

Cast: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benkhetache, Farida Benkhetache, Abdelhamid Aktouche, Leila D’Issernio

Synopsis: An idiosyncratic story about life, ambitions, frustrations, courage and indolence among North African migrant families in the south of France. After he’s laid off from the shipbuilding wharf, the ageing Slimane wants to start a restaurant on a ship.

Contact: International Film Festival Rotterdam Production Department: production@filmfestivalrotterdam.com Distributor: Pathe: florian.genetet@pathe.com Catherine MONTOUCHET: Catherine.Montouchet@pathe.com

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Netflix Watch Instantly, Unemployment-Wages

Tags: Boating and Shipping

Seeds of Peace (2008)

07 May

50m; Holland/Palestine

Director: André Kloer

Synopsis: Seeds of Peace: workers’ rights in a legal no-mans’ land tells the story of Palestinians who work in the Israeli settlements on the West Bank. One of these settlements is Nizzane Ha Shalom (Seeds of Peace). Because of the questionable juridical status of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, it is unclear which laws apply to Palestinians who work there. There is also a weak enforcements of the few laws that do exist. The consequence of this juridical no-man’s land is that Palestinians work in the settlements without minimum wage and legal protection. Despite of this, more and more Palestinians are turning for work to these settlements, because the Palestinian economy is unable to create enough jobs. Jawdat Talousy was one of these workers and defended his rights for all he was worth. He tried to unite the workers in order to demand better labour conditions and was fired by the boss.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing, Politics