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Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work

Hombre Maquila (2011) (Machine Man)

09 Oct

Director: Alfonso Moral & Roser Corella
Spain, 2011, 14min
Format: HDCam (screening) – DigiBeta, BetaSP (shooting)
Festival Year: 2012
Category: Documentary
Crew: Editor, Cinematographer: Alfonso Moral
Email: roser.corellagmail.com

synopsis
A reflection on modernity and global development, documenting the use of human physical force to perform work in the 21st century. The film takes place in the capital of Bangladesh, where the ‘machine men’ execute different physical works, a mass of millions of people who become the driving force behind the city.

director
Alfonso Moral and Roser Corella have collaborated on a number of documentaries, shooting in Lebanon, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Kenya and Senegal. They combine this joint work with individual work, making photo and video reports for different media, television and press, including Catalan TV, La Vanguardia or Le Monde. “Machine Man” is their first auteur documentary.

 
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Posted by on October 9, 2012 in Automation, Construction Trades, Documentary, Working Class

 

Working at Ford in the 1920s (Parts 1 & 2)

30 Aug

In the 1920s, Ford Motor Co. was considered the leader in manufacturing technology and practices. Elements of Taylor’s scientific management were combined with what economists now call “efficiency wages” (wages well above the general market – the famous $5 day). In this video, workers and others of that era reflect on working at Ford. Some are positive; others not.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing

 

License to Pimp (still in production)

30 Aug

U.S.

Director: Hima B

Synopsis: License to Pimp is a feature documentary about the choices that three San Francisco strippers make as their workplaces engage in illegal labor practices.  Strip clubs refuse to pay strippers even minimum wages & actually charge them for the privilege to work.  I worked in half of San Francisco’s strip clubs during the 1990s and witnessed how co-workers felt economically pressured to engage in prostitution to make their quotas to avoid being fired.  Now as a filmmaker, I uncover current working conditions & try to find out how strip clubs are able to operate outside the law.

Contact: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/himab/license-to-pimp-documentary

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Documentary, Sex Industry/Sexuality

 

Builders and The Games (2012)

30 Aug

57m; U.K.

Director: Margaret Dickinson

Synopsis: “Builders and The Games is a 57 minute feature documentary  about construction workers and the building of the 2012 Olympic Park in Stratford, London. Shot between 2007 and 2012,  it looks at how far the Olympic Site set an example to the construction industry and compares outcomes with early promises  about safety, training, jobs and recruitment.”

Contact: http://constructionandthegames.com/

Trailer

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Construction Trades, Documentary, Sports, Working Class

 

Compliance (2012)

30 Aug

90m; U.S.

Director: Craig Zobel

Cast: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker and Pat Healy

Synopsis: “In the middle of a bad day Sandra (Ann Dowd), the harried manager of a fast-food franchise, receives a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer. He accuses an employee named Becky (Dreama Walker) of theft and instructs Sandra to subject the pretty teenager to a series of humiliations: detain her in the stock room, confiscate her belongings, conduct a strip search and on and on. As the title suggests, at each step of this increasingly elaborate and unnerving hoax, Sandra and Becky do what they are told.”

–‘Compliance’ Raises Questions About Human Behavior; NYT 8/10/2012

Trailer

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Class, Consumerism, Drama, Legal System, Netflix Watch Instantly, Service Workers, Women

 

The Citadel: Birth of the LeVeque Tower (2011)

13 Jul

Director: Seth Moherman

Synopsis: Documentary about the building of the LeVeque Tower in Columbus, OH.

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Construction Trades, Documentary

 

Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (2011)

13 Jul

75m; U.S.

Director: Frances Cause and Donald Goldmacher

Synopsis: HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe, as it exposes the real truth behind the worldwide economic collapse, tracing its origins to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.

Sound familiar? Today’s crisis and heart stopping headlines can be directly traced to Powell’s real “end game” which was business control of law and politics. Powell’s fingerprints are all over Citizens United, the fateful Supreme Court decision which gave corporations and the super rich unlimited ability to shape our elections with virtually unrestricted donations. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties over the last forty years culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class.

Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as HEIST in explaining the greatest heist of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, HEIST provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact-based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy.

Contact: http://www.heist-themovie.com/index.html

Trailer

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Finance, Politics

 

American Karoshi

13 Jul

14m; U.S.

Director: Alex Willemin

Cast: John Iovino, Cyril Serrao and Drew Daly

Synopsis (IMDB): After being fired from his job, Lee is given a second chance by his boss and CEO of the company, Scott Anderson III. Unfortunately, instead of filling out forms, Lee must save Scott’s life.

Trailer

Available here: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1264557337/

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, White Collar

 

Confessions of a Sex Tourist

13 Jul

 

Director: Puja Khosdhsorur

 
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Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Documentary, Sex Industry/Sexuality

 

The Concrete Revolution (2004)

13 Jun

62m; China

Director: Xiaolu Guo

Synopsis: A look at life in a rapidly developing new China. Workers recruited from villages into Beijing’s construction industry tell their stories of a culture in flux. Their displacement from loved ones, financial desperation, and hopes are set against the backdrop of the city they are daily transforming in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Prolific young novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo illustrates with reference to her own migration from a provincial fishing village, music, and stories of her own.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Construction Trades, Documentary, Migrant workers

 
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