2018 Oscar Selection, Slovenia
Since leaving Bosnia in the 1970s, Alija (Leon Lučev) has been working as a miner in Slovenia’s Zasavje coal region. One of many migrant workers employed in a failing industry, Alija is afraid to refuse when he is tasked with opening a long-sealed mineshaft to declare it empty. When he opens the abandoned shaft, however, Alija uncovers some terrible secrets. Refusing to bow to his employers’ demands to stay quiet, Alija sets out to expose the truth. Based on a true story, Slovenian director Hanna Slak’s (BLIND SPOT) powerful third feature reveals a dark chapter in Slovenia’s history with honesty and compassion. Winner, Best Director and Best Actor, 2017 Festival of Slovenian Film. DIR/SCR Hanna Slak; PROD Miha Knific, Siniša Juričić. Slovenia/Croatia, 2017, color, 98 min. In Slovenian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 98 Minutes
Genre: Thriller
Category Archives: Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing
Harlan County USA (1976)
Directed by: Barbara Kopple
Running Time: 103 min
Starring: Norman Yarborough, Houston Elmore, Phil Sparks
Website: N/a
Synopsis: A filmed account of a bitterly violent miner strike.
Bringing It All Back Home
Directed by: Chrissie Stansfield
Running Time: 48 min
Starring: N/a
Website: N/a
Synopsis: This fascinating documentary analyzes how the patterns of international capital investment and the exploitation of Third World women workers in free trade zones are being brought home to the First World. Issues discussed include: the internationalization of local economies, the growing schism between the rich and poor and the changing nature of women’s work.
Strike (Eisenstein) 100th anniv of Russian Revolution
Directed by: Sergei M. Esenstein
Running Time: 1 hr 22 min
Starring: N/A
Website: N/a
Synopsis: A group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Rough Side Of The Mountain (1999)
Directed by: Anne Lewis
Running Time: 57 min
Starring: N/A
Website: https://www.appalshop.org/store/appalshop-films/rough-side-of-the-mountain/
Synopsis: Over the past twenty years, manufacturing plants and mining companies have closed throughout rural America, often leaving behind communities with crumbling infrastructures, widespread unemployment, and inexperience in self-governance. Such was the case in two hard hit southwest Virginia towns Trammel and Ivanhoe. In 1986 Trammel attracted national attention as the privately owned town whose 50 homes, company store, post office, and water and cable systems were put on the auction block. Rough Side of the Mountain follows the story as local residents, mostly unemployed and disabled, organized with the help of churches and foundations to purchase the auctioned homes and save their town. In Ivanhoe, the program profiles the efforts of the Ivanhoe Civic League as community members attempt to rebuild after the loss of two major industries, the school, and local businesses. Rough Side of the Mountain looks at grassroots community organizing and the steel ceiling encountered by many poor rural communities as they struggle to develop new economies in an increasingly global system.
Robot Somnambulism (2016)
Richard HSIAO
2016 / Taiwan / Documentary / 90min /
Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics OEM factory, manufactured and assembled more than 50% iPhone of the world. In 2010, the serial jumping of Foxconn workers caught attention. People holding iPhone suddenly noticed that it’s producer were working like a robot, acting every 7 seconds, 12 hour a day. They felt a bit uneasy, but cannot loosen their hand. Smartphone has changed human life completely. On the other side, the company supplying touch panels to HTC were suppressing worker union. Union and supporting students choose HTC to protest, making its managers feel embarrassed and aggrieved. Meanwhile, one of HTC engineer died possibly because of overworking. His last message on Facebook was “off work, issue still not resolved”, AM 3 o’clock, Sunday. In this era, robotic people making humanized machine, is it a hopeless tragedy, or the beginning of a brave new world?
When Two Worlds Collide
Backed by a “free trade” agreement with the U.S., the president of Peru launched a plan to turn over indigenous Amazonian land to big corporations for mining and oil and gas extraction. Indigenous communities fought back. The filmmakers immersed themselves in this drama and produced incredible footage showing the courage and sacrifice of the native people, juxtaposed with the familiar invoking of “progress” and “the rule of the law” by the corporations’ allies in government.
Plastic China (2016)
China (Director: Jiu-liang Wang) — Yi-Jie, an 11-year-old girl, works alongside her parents in a recycling facility while dreaming of attending school. Kun, the facility’s ambitious foreman, dreams of a better life. Through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse, comes an examination of global consumption and culture. International Premiere. THE NEW CLIMATE
LATHE JOSHI (2016)
The film is about a lathe machine worker from a small workshop, who loses his job because of automation after working for 35 years. The film focuses on social injustice due to unemployment result of artificial intelligence.
Directed by Mangesh Joshi; 9028904801; mangeshjoshi.pune@gmail.com
Blood On The Mountain (2014)
website: http://bloodonthemountain.com/
Blood on the Mountain is a searing investigation into the economic and environmental injustices that have resulted from industrial control in West Virginia. This new feature documentary details the struggles of a hard-working, misunderstood people, who have historically faced limited choices and have never benefited fairly from the rich, natural resources of their land. Blood On The Mountain delivers a striking portrait of a fractured population, exploited and besieged by corporate interests, and abandoned by the powers elected to represent them.
A film by Evening Star Productions
Directed By Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman
Edited By Matthew Sanchez
Produced By Deborah Wallace, Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman
Deborah Wallace: dwall003@msn.com; 347-613-1275
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