Genre | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

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

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

Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (2002)

07 May

60m

Director: Katerina Cizek, Peter Wintonick

Synopsis: The impact of consumer video equipment on international political activism efforts.

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

Tags: Journalism

Seeing Red (1983)

07 May

100m; U.S.
Director: James Klein and Julia Reichert

Synopsis: Documentary about the American Communist Party from the 1930s through the 50s taken from interviews with the “regular folks” who were members.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

Severance

07 May

96m

Director: Christopher Smith

Cast: Danny Dyer, Laura Harris and Tim McInnerny

Synopsis (IMDB): A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division of the multi-national weapons company Palisade Defence when they become the victims of a group of crazed killers who will stop at nothing to see them dead.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Horror, White Collar

The Shaft (Dixia de tiankong) [2008]

07 May

98m; China

Director: Chi Zhang

Cast: Deyuan Luo, Xuan Huang and Luoqian Zheng

Synopsis (IMDB): A film about the lives of Chinese miners is not likely to attract mainstream viewers, but I suspect that this is the closest glimpse into contemporary China we are likely to get. And touchingly universal. Visually, it is a series of marvelously-framed photographs and brief snatches of dialog, to which the viewer must gradually develop a narrative line. In the background — the effects of the one-child policy, which puts a premium on marriageable females, who must sell themselves to the highest bidder; then the lure and inaccessibility of the big city (Beijing); the incapability of small-town gossip as well as the town’s only employer — the coal mines

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Documentary

Tags: Mining

The Shipbuilders

07 May

90m; U.K.

Director: John Baxter

Cast: Clive Brook, Morland Graham and Nell Ballantyne

Synopsis: Clydeside shipbuilder and a loyal riveter fight to keep Britain a seapower

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, War

Tags: Boating and Shipping

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

07 May

99m; U.S.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan

Synopsis (IMDB): In Budapest, Hungary, the Matuschek and Company store is owned by Mr. Hugo Matuschek and the bachelor Alfred Kralik is his best and most experienced salesman. When Klara Novak seeks a job position of saleswoman in the store, Matuschek hires her but Kralik and she do not tolerate each other. Meanwhile the lonely and dedicated Kralik has an unknown pen pal that he intends to propose very soon; however, he is fired without explanation by Matuschek in the night that he is going to meet his secret love. He goes to the bar where they have scheduled their meeting with his colleague Pirovitch and he surprisingly finds that Klara is his correspondent; however, ashamed with the unemployment, he does not disclose his identity to her. When Matuschek discovers that he had misjudged Kralik and committed a mistake, he hires him again for the position of manager. But Klara is still fascinated with her future fiancé and does not pay much attention to Kralik.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Romance, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

Shots on the Docks (2003)

07 May

28m; U.S.

Synopsis: The stepped up repression of anti-war demonstrators and trade unionists took a new turn in the U.S. on April 7, 2003, when Oakland, California police attacked a peaceful picket on the docks. The Labor Video Project was there when Oakland police fired over a hundred shots of rubber bullets and wooden projectiles as well as concussion grenades to attack the anti-war protest. This video interviews the workers on the picket line as well as ILWU longshoremen who were standing by and were also targeted by the police and the company. It goes behind the pictures to expose the reasons that trade unionists joined the line and the reaction of ILWU Local 10 members to the attacks and arrests of their business agent. There is also an international campaign to defend ILWU BA Jack Heyman and the Oakland 25 who face criminal charges for the April 7 incident. – http://www.reelwork.org/archive/2004/films2004.htm

Contact: “Shots on the Docks” is also being streamed at: http://www.brightpathvideo.com/Labor_Video.htm purchase info: lvpsf@igc.org Photo credit: Labor Video Project Photo caption: worker holds wood bullet fired by police http://www.laborbeat.org phone: 312-226-3330 mail@laborbeat.org

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

Tags: Police/Fire