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
Category Archives: Genre
Ralph Fasanella: Painter Of Working Class People (2007)
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
Rapt (2009)
125m; France
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Cast: Yvan Attal, Anne Consigny and André Marcon
Synopsis: Stanislaff Graff, a rich industrialist and jetsetting playboy with a wife and a lover, is snatched by kidnappers who demand a fifty million euro ransom. The main question for his board is whether his life is worth more than twenty million. Based on a true story. Told entirely from the industrialist’s point of view, there’s really nothing here about work or workers, and even the question about what a life is worth is not explored much or well. While it’s barely hinted that the kidnappers may be disgruntled workers, this too is left unexplored.
Ratcatcher (1999)
94m; U.K.
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews and William Eadie
Synopsis (IMDB): Glasgow, summer, 1973. Dustmen are striking; bags of garbage add to the blight of council flats and a fetid canal. Ryan, who’s about 12, drowns during a play fight with his neighbor, the jug-eared James. James runs home, a flat where he lives with his often-drunk da, his ma, and sisters, who live in hope of moving to newly-built council flats. The slice-of-life, coming-of-age story follows James as he tags along with the older lads; has a friendship with his quirky wee rodent-loving neighbor, Kenny; spends time with Margaret Anne, myopic, slightly older, the local sexual punching bag; and, has a moment or two of joy. The strike may end, but is there any way out for James?
Raven’s End (1963)
101m; Sweden
Director: Bo Widerberg
Cast: Thommy Berggren, Keve Hjelm and Emy Storm
Synopsis: Portrait of working class youth. Portrays family life in Malmo, Sweden in 1930s, tracing relations between an adolescent boy and his father.
The Real Price Of Military Occupation
20m; U.S.
Director: U.S. Labor Against the War
Synopsis: The vast majority of union members are now solidly against the war, yet most do not know the full impact the wars and occupations, and more broadly the military budget, are having on our troops, social services, national security, the federal budget and national debt, as well as on Iraqis and Iraq.
Contact: US Labor Against The War (USLAW) info@uslaboragainstwar.org http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
Rebuilding San Francisco (2006)
28m; U.S.
Director: Maria Brooks
Synopsis: Workers who rebuilt San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.
Red Dust (2010)
20m; U.S.
Director: Karin T. Mak
Synopsis: The incredible story of resistance, courage and hope by women workers in China battling cadmium poisoning and demanding justice from the local government and their employer, a multi-national battery manufacturer.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 