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Category Archives: Genre

The Scar (1976)

26 Apr

112m; Poland

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Cast: Franciszek Pieczka, Mariusz Dmochowski and Jerzy Stuhr

Synopsis (IMDB): 1970. After discussions and dishonest negotiations, a decision is taken as to where a large new chemical factory is to be built and Bednarz, an honest Party man, is put in charge of the construction. He used to live in the small town where the factory is to be built, his wife used to be a Party activist there, and he has unpleasant memories of it. But he sets to the task in the belief that he will build a place where people will live and work well. His intentions and convictions, however, conflict with those of the townspeople who are primarily concerned with their short-term needs. Disillusioned, Bednarz gives up his post.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Drama, Environment, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing

 

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The Scavengers (2007)

26 Apr

69m; Turkey

Director: Karahber

Synopsis: Kurdish migrants collect paper to sell for recycling to survive.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Drama, Migrant workers

 

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags (2009)

26 Apr

75m; U.S.

Director: Marc Levin

Synopsis: Schmatta documents the current post-crash economy. We hear from freshly unemployed workers who put on a brave face, preserve their humour and try to make sense of the changing landscape. The shops stemming off Seventh Avenue that once hummed with sewing machines are being converted for upscale renters. If this gargantuan industry can be reduced to such a fraction, what does it mean for the rest of us?

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Unemployment-Wages

 

Land of Destiny (2010)

20 Apr

78m; U.S.

Director: Brett Story

Synopsis: A hard-working petrochemical town is rocked by revelations that its workers suffer an epidemic of cancers. But even more terrifying is the looming spectre of deindustrialization and joblessness. In the rich fabric of the city’s landscape – rows of boarded storefronts, the bright sprawl of petrochemical plants and the swollen rooms of hospital wards and crowded bars – one finds a microcosm of the 21st century. Tattooed men serving fries, basement musicians, boilermakers and volunteer firemen, heartbroken widows and an optimistic mayor – the lives of a diverse medley of characters intersect to reveal the dramas and contradictions of an industrial town out of sync with a post-industrial world. As the dystopian architecture of the petrochemical plants, squatted like crushed space stations just meters away from homes and schoolyards, give way to the spaces that make this city a community, we begin to see what it is that everyone seems so afraid to lose. A portrait of a working-class city in paralysis and a mediation on work and place in the modern economy, Land of Destiny offers a poignant and universal story about work, community, and struggle in an era of globalization.

Contact: http://www.bunburyfilms.com/films/trailer/doc/lod.html

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

Land, Rain, and Fire (2006)

20 Apr

28m; Mexico

Director: Tami Gold

What began as a teacher’s strike in May of 2006 against privatization and for better wages and more resources for students, erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Government repression brought even greater popular resistance, which ultimately brought the state government to a standstill.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Education, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

The Last Campaign (2005)

20 Apr

107m; U.S.

Director: Wayne Ewing

Synopsis: “The Last Campaign” – a sequel to Ewing’s legendary first film in 1972, “If Elected…” – covers the 2004 campaign of Justice Warren McGraw for the re-election to the West Virginia Supreme Court, dubbed the ‘nastiest’ judicial race, if not the most expensive in the nation. Scenes from “If Elected…” -which covered Warren McGraw’s 1972 race for the West Virginia State Senate and was originally broadcast by Bill Moyers in 1973 – are interspersed with the story of McGraw’s 2004 Supreme Court race to create a unique, cinema verite portrait of American politics over a 32 year span. One man’s struggle to resist corporate interference in the electoral process is the continuing theme. In 2004, the US Chamber of Commerce is suspected, of funneling millions of dollars from multi-national corporations into West Virginia in the primary and general election in a successful effort to defeat Justice Warren McGraw as a part of what Forbes Magazine described as a “secret war” against judges in America. The Chamber’s shadowy efforts were joined in the general election by a group calling itself “For the Sake of the Kids” which spent millions, supplied from a coal company executive to wage a smear campaign against McGraw alleging that he let a sexual predator loose to work in a school. That same coal company executive has a pending 50 million dollar judgment against his company on appeal before the West Virginia State Supreme Court.

Contact: http://www.thelastcampaign.com/

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Legal System, Politics

 

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Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)

20 Apr

102m; U.S.

Director: Uli Edel

Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Lang and Burt Young

Synopsis (IMDB): Taken from Hubert Selby, Jr.’s controversial novel. A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with one of her clients; a family cannot cope with the fact that their daughter is illegitimately pregnant.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

 

The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann) [1924]

20 Apr

77m; Germany

Director: F.W. Murnau

Cast: Emil Jannings

Synopsis: An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

 

The Last Peasants (2003)

20 Apr

150m; Romania

Director: Angus MacQueen

Synopsis: THE LAST PEASANTS tracks three families through a remote village in Romania’s Maramures area. the film looks at the changes imposed on the local community by the collapse of Communism and the new relationship with Western Europe.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Politics, Working Class

 

Last Stand Farmer (1975)

20 Apr

30m; U.S.

Director: Richard Brick

Synopsis (IMDB): Filmed in Orange County, Vermont, featuring Kenneth and Helen O’Donnell and their draft horses, Last Stand Farmer, is a documentary record, filmed through four seasons, of the life and philosophy of an elderly hill farmer and his struggle to keep his 19th century farm operation going. Soon after he viewed the finished film, Kenneth O’Donnell died, his widow sold the farm and moved away the following spring.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Working Class

 
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