85m; Mexico
Director: Benito Alizraki
Synopsis: Four independent stories based on writer Francisco Rojas Gonzáles’s work, depicting the reality of Mexican indian people
Category Archives: Genre
Rail Against Privatization (2005)
60 min; U.K.
Director: Platform Films
Synopsis: British Rail workers fight to end privatization of rail system.
Contact: Link to rail union website: http://www.rmt.org.uk/
Rail Warning (2005)
43m; Japan
Director: Akira Matsubara & Video Press
Synopsis: Examines the cause of the disastrous Amagasaki rail accident in Osaka, Japan. This train wreck killed over a 100 people and the causes were directly related to the privatization and massive speed-up of railway workers.
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
128m; U.S.
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee
Synopsis (IMDB): Film based on the play by Lorraine Hansberry. Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall…
Raimunda: A Quebradeira (2007)
Director: Marcelo Silva
Synopsis: Raimunda: A Quebradeira is a Brazilian documentary about the women who struggle for survival collecting babaçu nuts in the Amazon. It is an inspiring story of resistance and triumph in the Brazilian forest, where War on Want partner organisztion MIQCB supports the 300,000 women who make their living from the nuts. The film provides a rare and intimate look at this remote community of women, whose ecologically sound way of life is under threat, both from the Brazilian government and big business moving in.
Contact: Brought to our attention in 2010 by: Nicola Seyd for London Socialist Film Co-op nseyd@hotmail.com
Raining Stones (1993)
90m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Bruce Jones, Julie Brown and Gemma Phoenix
Synopsis: The story of a man devoted to his family and his religion. Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to more and more questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.
La Raison du Plus Faible (2006)
116m; France
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Cast: Eric Caravaca, Lucas Belvaux and Claude Semal
Synopsis: Laid-off French steelworkers turn to crime. Explores frustrations of men who find themselves no longer useful members of society but takes a fatal turn into a robbery/thriller and deteriorates into pointless violence.
Contact: almost forgot to mention one film (an excellent fit!!): LA RAISON DU PLUS FAIBLE, by Lucas Belvaux. It is distributed in the US, but there’s no print for now, but there should be one for the fall. You can contact Wendy Lidell on my behalf if you don’t know her at International Film Circuit: 212.777.5690 or wlidell@infc.us. If she doesn’t have a print by then, I might be able to get one from France. – I almost forgot to mention one film (an excellent fit!!): LA RAISON DU PLUS FAIBLE, by Lucas Belvaux. It is distributed in the US, but there’s no print for now, but there should be one for the fall. You can contact Wendy Lidell on my behalf if you don’t know her at International Film Circuit: 212.777.5690 or wlidell@infc.us. If she doesn’t have a print by then, I might be able to get one from France.
Ralph Fasanella: Painter Of Working Class People (2007)
4m
Director: John Lett
GoIAM.org – Whether it’s a strike or factory floor, former union organizer Ralph Fasanella devoted his life to painting working men and women. The man who is considered America’s best self taught artist, would eventually complete hundreds of pieces of work dedicated to jobs and justice.
Available online
Ralph Fasanella: Song of the City (1979)
30m; U.S.
Director: Jack Ofield
Synopsis: Biography of a working class electrical plant worker/painter/CIO organizer.
Ramparts of Clay (1971)
80m; France
Director: Jean-Louis Bertuccelli
Cast: Leila Shenna, Kricheche and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Synopsis (IMDB): In 1962, change comes to a Tunisian village on the edge of the Sahara. An entrepreneur sets up a salt mine, hiring village men. When he pays only half the wages agreed upon, they sit down in a field of rocks. The boss calls the army, who encircle the strikers. The women watch, sacrifice a sheep, pray, ululate. During the second night, a young woman hides the bucket and rope of the town’s well to keep water from the army. The strike galvanizes her: she’s learning to read and has studied a city woman who visits the village. Now, as she removes her traditional dress and rejects a ritual to cast out her new rebellious spirit, will she gain independence as did Tunisia and the strikers
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