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Category Archives: Genre

Struggle in Italy (Lotte in Italia) [1971]

07 May

62m; Italy

Director: Groupe Dziga Vertov

Cast: Cristiana Tullio-Altan, Paolo Pozzesi and Jerome Hinstin

Synopsis (IMDB): The film reveals how and why a supposedly revolutionary Italian girl has in fact fallen prey to bourgeois ideology.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama

 

Strong Roots (2001)

07 May

43m; Brazil

Director: Maria Luisa Mendonca and Aline Sasahara

Synopsis: Pedro, Antonio, and Luis joined Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement in search of a piece of land, dignity in their lives, and justice in their society. Through their memories and their day- to-day lives in Pernambuco and Bahia, they bring us a personal portrait one of the most vital social movement in Latin America today. The Landless Workers Movement (MST) started in 1985 to correct the extremely unequal concentration of land in Brazil. There, 1% of large landholders control 46% of agricultural land. Of the 400 million hectares of arable land, only 60 million are used for planting crops; 4.8 million families have no land, while 35 million Brazilians live in poverty. Over the past 15 years, the Landless Workers Movement has won 20 million hectares of land for 300,000 families and built thousands of food production cooperatives and schools. These land occupations bring new life to people without hope. And they pressure the Brazilian government to implement agrarian reform. The MST land redistribution is grounded in Brazilian Constitutional law, which decrees that land must fulfill a “social function.” Today, nearly 100,000 families prepare to occupy land in order to feed themselves. They live under plastic tents, by the roads, waiting for their chance to work and produce. They are the soldiers on the front line in the battle for Brazil’s future. – http://www.meaningfulmovies.org/film_list/films/film_187.htm

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Farm & Food, Organizing

 

Struggles in Steel: The Fight for Equal Opportunity (1996)

07 May

58m; U.S.

Director: Tony Buba, Raymond Henderson

Cast: Raymond Henderson, Dennis C. Dickerson and Katrina Heiss

Synopsis (IMDB): This documentary tells the forgotten story of the African-American struggle for equality in the U.S. steel industry (based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). In a series of interviews intermixed with archival footage and stills, we learn how these workers faced and overcame discrimination that came from white workers, the big steel companies, and even from their own unions.

Contact: www.braddockfilms.com 412-681-5449

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Blacks, Documentary, Organizing

 

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Strumpet City (1980)

07 May

360m; Ireland

Cast: Frank Grimes, David Kelly, Angela Harding, Peter O’Toole

Synopsis (IMDB): Covering the years between 1907 and 1914, Strumpet City follows several characters through the nightmare years of the “Dublin Lockout,” when the Catholic Church sided with the industrialists to smash Irish labor’s first substantive steps towards unionizing. Using the real-life labor organizer Jim Larkin (Peter O’Toole) as the dramatic lynchpin for the various stories, Strumpet City juggles several storylines to give an overall view of the terrible poverty and misery that afflicted the working poor of Dublin. The central story revolves around Mary (Angela Harding), a young domestic who comes to work for the wealthy, oblivious Bradshaws (Edward Byrne and Daphne Carroll). Once Mary meets handsome, kind foundry worker “Fitz” Fitzpatrick (Bryan Murray), she immediately falls in love, and the couple make plans to save enough money to eventually marry. Mary, distressed at the way the Bradshaws shuttle off their devoted housekeeper Miss Gilchrist (Mairin D. O’Sullivan) to the poor house when she can no longer work, decides to leave the insensitive Bradshaw household and marry Fitz.

–http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/26709/strumpet-city/

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Class, Collective Bargaining, Drama, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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Sudden Wake (2009)

07 May

11m; Egypt

Director: Mahmud Farag

Synopsis: The story of the struggle of Egypt’s first independent trade union – the Real Estate Tax Authority Union (RETA). RETA was formed in December 2008, one year after tax collectors there held a two-week sit-in in front of the Cabinet Building. They face constant harrassment from the Egyptian government as well as the country’s official labour federation, the ETUF.

Contact: Hamza Ashra

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Politics, Public Sector

 

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Sugar (2008)

07 May

120m; U.S.

Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

Cast; Algenis Perez Soto, Rayniel Rufino and Andre Hollan

Synopsis: By 2008, more than 25 percent of major league baseball players were born in Latin America. At 19, Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a serious kid from the Dominican Republic, signs with Kansas City. He flies to Phoenix for tryouts and is sent to the Class A team “The Swing” in the fictional town of Bridgetown, Iowa, where he lives with a farm family. Thus begins his odyssey: leaving his mom and girlfriend; living in an alien culture; learning English; overcoming jitters; working hard; achieving early success; navigating friendships, occasional racism, and a woman’s mixed signals; dealing with an injury; trying performance-enhancing drugs; and, searching for his place in the world. Will he make it to the Majors; will he play in New York?

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Sports

 

Sugar Cane Alley (1983)

07 May

103m; France

Director: Euzhan Palcy

Cast: Garry Cadenat, Darling Légitimus and Douta Seck

Synopsis (IMDB): Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José’s studies easier.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Children, Drama, Education, Farm & Food

 

Suicide Jumpers (2007)

07 May

13m; Lebanon

Director: Herbert Docena

Synopsis: Exploitation of domestic workers in Lebanon during 2006 Israeli assaults

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Service Workers, War

 

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

07 May

90m; U.S.

Director: Preston Sturges

Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake and Robert Warwick

Synopsis (IMDB): Sullivan is a successful, spoiled, and naive director of fluff films, with a heart-o-gold, who decides he wants to make a film about the troubles of the downtrodden poor. Much to the chagrin of his producers, he sets off in tramp’s clothing with a single dime in his pocket to experience poverty first-hand, and gets some reality shock.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Entertainment Industry, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

The Sun Seekers (2009)

07 May

13m; U.S.

Director: Jason Bradbury

Synopsis (IMDB): In a world with no sun, two strangers, Cira and Sol, race against time to ensure the restoration of daylight. As their journey progresses, they realise they must learn to trust each other if they are to complete their task.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Philosophy, SciFi

 
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