A music critic in midlife crisis seeks revenge on the boss who fired him in this satirical seriocomedy, the directorial debut of actor Josef Hader (THE BONEMAN, STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE). Unwilling to come clean about his termination, Georg (Hader) pretends to go to work each day, but instead hangs out in Vienna’s Prater amusement park, where he befriends ride operator Erich (Georg Friedrich), previously his childhood tormentor. Georg becomes increasingly attracted to Erich’s Romanian girlfriend Nicoletta (Crina Semciuc), more alienated from his therapist wife, Johanna (Pia Hierzegger) and more aggressive in his stealth harassment of his ex-boss (Jörg Hartmann). Official Selection, 2017 Berlin Film Festival. DIR/SCR Josef Hader; PROD Veit Heiduschka, Michael Katz. Austria/Germany, 2017, color, 103 min. In German and Italian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 103 Minutes
Genre: Dark comedy
Category Archives: Communications
WILD MOUSE [WILDE MAUS]
Labour in a Single Shot
http://www.labour-in-a-single-shot.net
Starting in 2011 artist, curator, and author Antje Ehmann and filmmaker, video artist and author Harun Farocki initiated video production workshops in 15 cities around the world in which participants were to engage with the subject of ‘labour’: paid and unpaid, material and immaterial, traditional or new. The videos could not be longer than two minutes and they had to be taken in a single shot. The camera could be static, panning or travelling but cuts were not allowed. This concept references the Brother Lumière’s famous film Workers Leaving the Factory which was filmed in one continuous take from a fixed camera position.
The result of these workshops, which were organised together with local branches of the Goethe-Institut, are 400 films which show people engaged in all kinds of work, each film taking a different stance, literally and figuratively, towards its subject while also recording the diverse mental attitudes and bodily relation people have to their work.
Facing the challenge of filming something that might be essentially repetitive, continuous and boring, the films also foreground the work of the camera operator and his or her aesthetic decisions. In the multitude and diversity the films form a visual compendium and an archive of labour and cinema in the 21st century that is never boring or repetitive but enhances and simultaneously questions our perception and understanding of work.
All the films can be watched on a dedicated website, at random, or sorted by city, colour or type of work. A selection of 90 films was shown as an installation at the House of World Culture in Berlin from 27 February to 6 April 2015 with an accompanying conference. This exhibition also presented the project ‘Workers Leaving the Factory in 15 Cities’ (2011 – 2014), consisting of contemporary remakes of the famous film by the Lumière Brothers which were shot in 15 cities all over the world. Also included in the exhibition was the installation ‘Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades’ (2006), which showed scenes of workers leaving the factory throughout the history of cinema, from the Lumière Brothers (1895) to Lars van Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000).
‘Labour in a Single Shot’ is a co-production of the Harun Farocki Filmproduktion with the Goethe-Institut.
Dis-Connecting People
(35 mins: 18 Secs)
Watch the film here.
Finnish Company Nokia Corporation set up its largest mobile phone assembling plant in Sriperumbadur Taluk of Kancheepuram District in Tamil Nadu in 2005. Attracted by the tax concessions offered under Special Economic Zone Act 2005, resource subsidies and an army of cheap labour, Nokia found it profitable to assemble phones in India and sell them globally. In just 5 years the plant produced 500 million phones. It hired over 12,000 workers with majority being young women.
After profiting for 8 years, the company now faces charges of evading taxes to the Indian Government in thousands of crores. Imminent closure of the factory and loss of employment looms large for thousands of workers.
The film documents the voices of workers that have remained largely muted in the din of tax battle between the corporation and the State. They share there experiences of working in Nokia; the happy times of being ‘connected’; of building dreams of becoming ‘middle class’; their fears, anxiety and anger of being ‘dis-connected’ suddenly by the company that they helped ‘profit’ with their hard work; and their resolve to fight for their employment.
For more information contact: Nokia India Thozhilalar Sangam at nokianits@gmail.com
Fly to Transcend
Documentary
China
Director: Tu Qiao
90 Minutes
This is a story about Tian Yu, one of the survivors of the shocking “13 jump” suicides at Foxconn, the primary manufacturer of Apple products. The documentary reflects on the background and deeper causes of the tragedy from the perspectives of international relations, globalization, Chinese local government, and internal enterprise management, and with academic experts as well as media. After three years of silence Tian Yu finally spoke up to tell us the truth. Tian Yu today is an outstanding woman who is passionate about life, independent, and eager to help others. She has not only found love, but also hopes to be able to raise her kids like any normal person.
Overpass Light Brigade
‘Overpass Light Brigade’ is a short film that tells the story behind Wisconsin’s Holders of the Lights using innovative time-lapse photography and interviews with founding members and other activists. The film showcases OLB’s simple, beautiful approach to performance art and creating “the people’s bandwidth,” that beckons any who want to creatively join public discourse and voice concerns an elitist political system clamors to quiet.
Directed by: Dusan Harminc, Matt Mullins
Under The Bus
Anthony has driven a school bus in Staten Island, New York for twenty-four years. His plans to retire suddenly grind to a halt when the Union (ATU 1181) goes on strike in response to a contract dispute with the City of New York. The film follows Anthony and his fellow drivers to the picket line, where they find themselves battling harsh winter weather, a media blackout, Union politics and a Mayor who refuses to negotiate.
Directed by: Peter Hass & Keif Roberts
http://underthebusfilm.blogspot.com/
Truth Through A Lens
A stunning feature length debut by an SVA Soc Doc MFA graduate, Justin Thomas, who follows the evolution of Brooklyn street kid, subway train tagger and local community organizing legend, Dennis Flores. Dennis had the courage to pick up a camera, when he saw his neighbors being physically abused for simple demanding decent housing and better treatment by the local police. Of course Dennis himself quickly becomes the target of those for whom telling the truth is not necessarily considered part of the daily job.
https://www.facebook.com/truthlens2014
No Job For A Woman: The Women Who Fought To Report WWII (2011)
61 minutes, Color/BW, DVD, English 
A film by Michèle Midori Fillion
available from Women Make Movies
When World War II broke out, reporter Martha Gellhorn was so determined to get to the frontlines that she left husband Ernest Hemingway, never to be reunited. Ruth Cowan’s reporting was hampered by a bureau chief who refused to talk to her. Meanwhile, photojournalist Dickey Chappelle wanted to get so close to the action that she could feel bullets whizzing by. This award-winning documentary tells the colorful story of how these three tenacious war correspondents forged their now legendary reputations during the war—when battlefields were considered no place for a woman.
Narrated by Emmy® Award winner Julianna Margulies, this film features an abundance of archival photos and interviews with modern female war correspondents, as well as actresses bringing to life the written words of these remarkable women. Their repeated delegation to the sidelines to cover the “woman’s angle” succeeded in expanding the focus of war coverage to bring home a new kind of story— a personal look at the human cost of war.
Sign Painters (2013)
Directors: Faythe Levine & Sam Macon
Director of Photography: Travis Auclair
Editor: Bill Marmor
Produced by: Timm Gable & Jonah Mueller
US; 75m
View official trailer: http://vimeo.com/61006621
website: http://signpaintermovie.blogspot.com/
Press inquiries: signpaintermovie@gmail.com
There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.
In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. The documentary and book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.
Black and White and Dead All Over (2012)
Directed by Lenny Feinberg & Chris Foster
83m; US
An in-depth look at the newspaper industry as it struggles to remain financially viable and to keep the presses rolling. Through the voices of prominent journalists including Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and David Carr of the New York Times, we reveal an industry in the midst of a financial death spiral, as readers abandon print for online news sources. We see publishers and editors desperately trying to create a sustainable business model for their dying papers.
Our film examines the importance journalism has on our society by following two fearless investigators into the badlands of North Philadelphia. With the economic crisis in the newsroom threatening to shutter their struggling tabloid, these courageous women bring down a dangerous and corrupt narcotics squad.
If the American newspaper dies, who will conduct investigative journalism, who will hold public officials accountable?
Click here to see the trailer
For more information on the film visit blackandwhiteanddeadallover.net
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 