92m; U.S.
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Zachary Scott, Betty Field and J. Carrol Naish
Synopsis (IMDB): Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a flood, and a jealous neighbor. Can they make it as farmers?
87m; Italy
Director: Damjan Kozole
Cast: Peter Musevski, Aljosa Kovacic and Primoz Petkovsek
Synopsis (IMDB): Embittered widower, Ludvik, spends his nights transporting illegal refugees in his van from Croatia, across Slovenia, and into Italy. The young and inexperienced Rudi acts as his helpmate. Together they become a well-trained duo who almost every night convey “spare parts” to Italy. Of course the story of their illegitimate exports into Europe ends tragically, for everyone. The whole idea of this account is that everyone – including ourselves – is looking for happiness: the “spare parts” because of the misery they are plunged into without, and our characters because they can’t find it inside
15m; U.S.
Director: Humphrey Jennings
Synopsis (IMDB); A look at how industry workers spend their time when they are not at work.
184m; U.S.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons
Synopsis: This sweeping epic, set in the 1st Century B.C., stars Kirk Douglas. An enslaved army deserter and gladiator, he escapes and recruits 120,000 followers who defeat several Roman legions before finally losing. Stellar cast includes Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov. Screenplay by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, from also black-listed Howard Fast’s novel. ‘Who is Spartacus?’ ‘I am Spartacus!’ (Rochester Labor Film Series)
24m; Singapore
Director: Vicknesh Varan
Synopsis: A documentary about a group of foreign workers in Singapore who attempt to seek shelter and support themselves while out of work. This is the lesser-known story of foreigners who receive little support in a country that, ironically, was built by the work of immigrants.
3:30m;
Synopsis: Widespread cuts in jobs and budgets are seriously damaging the media industry, increasing the strain on journalists, publishing and media workers and compromising the quality and standards of the news and information. Casualisation, increasing concentration of media ownership and profiteering are affecting the ability of journalists and publishing workers to maintain professional standards, with damaging consequences for our democracy. The film is part of a campaign of the International Federation of Journalists, calling on media owners to stop cutting jobs, pay, and resources and start investing more in quality media.
Contact: IFJ 2009 Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival
61m; U.S.
Director: Laura J. Lipson
Synopsis (official website): The award-winning documentary “Standing On My Sisters’ Shoulders” takes on the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders. These women stood up and fought for the right to vote and the right to an equal education. They not only brought about change in Mississippi, but they altered the course of American history.
This documentary presents original interviews with many of the Civil Rights movement’s most remarkable women: Unita Blackwell, a sharecropper turned activist, who became Mississippi’s first female black mayor; Mae Bertha Carter, a mother of 13, whose children became the first to integrate the Drew County schools against dangerous opposition; white student activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland who not only participated in sit-ins but took a stand on integration by attending an all black university; Annie Devine and Victoria Gray Adams, who, along with Fannie Lou Hamer, stepped up and challenged the Democratic Party and President Johnson at the 1964 Convention.
Contact: http://www.sisters-shoulders.org/film.html
104m; U.S.
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro and Swoosie Kurtz
Synopsis (IMDB): An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
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