Synopsis: fascinating film made by a descendant of the largest slave trader in U.S. history
Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work
Trading Places (1983)
116m; U.S.
Director: John Landis
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Ralph Bellamy
Synopsis (IMDB): Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it’s a person’s environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe’s job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him.
Transnational Tradeswomen (2006)
2006, 62 minutes, Color, DVD, Thai, Chinese, Tamil, Urdu, Japanese, Subtitled
available from Women Make Movies
available from Women Make Movies
Inspired by organizers at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, former construction worker Vivian Price spent years documenting the current and historical roles of women in the construction industry in Asia – discovering several startling facts. Capturing footage that shatters any stereotypes of delicate, submissive Asian women, Price discovers that women in many parts of Asia have been doing construction labor for centuries. But conversations with these women show that development and the resulting mechanization are pushing them out of the industry. Their stories disturb the notion of “progress” that many people hold and show how globalization, modernization, education and technology don’t always result in gender equality and the alleviation of poverty.Celebrating a range of women workers – from a Japanese truck driver, to two young Pakistani women working on a construction site in Lahore, to a Taiwanese woman doing concrete work alongside her husband – this film deftly probes the connections in their experiences. In a segment exploring the history of the Samsui women in Singapore (Chinese women who were recruited as construction laborers in the 1920’s until they lost their jobs to mechanization in the 1970’s) unique archival footage and interviews with surviving Samsui offer an importation perspective on the historical and global scope of women workers’ struggles.
The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979)
120m; U.S.
Director: Mel Stuart
Cast: David Dukes, Tovah Feldshuh and Lauren Frost
Synopsis (IMDB): The story of a fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist building in New York City in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young women. The ensuing investigation revealed the company’s almost total disregard for its workers’ safety in pursuit of increased production and profits, and resulted, among other things, in the passage of new worker safety laws.
Trouble on Fashion Avenue (1982)
60m; U.S.
Director: Claude Beller and Stefan Moore
Synopsis: Examines the economic problems of the New York City garment industry, including sweatshop working conditions, the plight of the working poor, the state of trade unionism, the impact of imports, and the role of organized crime in the apparel industry. – http://cinemaguild.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TCGS&Product_Code=1539
Turning a Corner (2006)
59m; U.S.
Director: Salome Chasnoff
Cast: Joanne Archibald, Brandy Baldwin and Juan Barbieri
Synopsis (IMDB): Turning a Corner tells the stories of people involved in sex work and their efforts to raise public awareness of systemic injustice and promote needed reforms. Created with 15 members of Prostitution Alternatives Round Table (PART), this groundbreaking film recounts their struggle with homelessness, violence, and discrimination, and gives rare insights into the harsh realities of Chicago’s sex trade industry
Twinning The Blue Water Bridge
In Twinning the Blue Water Bridge, the workers, contractors, engineers and dignitaries tell the story in their own words, sharing personal observations, emotions and experiences of constructing the second Blue Water Bridge. Spanning the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Point Edward, Ontario, it was the first new international bridge built between Canada and the US in over 30 years.. This 55-minute documentary chronicles the entire construction process from its design and planning phase in 1994 through the dedication ceremonies in July 1997.
It concludes with one of the most dazzling fireworks displays ever seen: walls of fire cascading into the river and rockets shooting off the bridge almost endlessly into the night.
http://www.greenfrog.com/product541.html
Two Acres of Land / Do Bigha Zamin (1953)
131m; India
Director: Bimal Roy
Cast: Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy and Rattan Kumar
Synopsis: A small Bengali landowner and his young son are in danger when their two-acre farmland where they live is in danger of being taken over by a local zamindar (feudal lord) for failure to pay for mounting debits. They move to Calcutta where the father tries making a living as a rickshaw puller while his wife joins him but falls ill which threatens everything they have going to try to save their ancestral home.
Contact: Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd. (2003) (India) (DVD) Shemaroo House No. 18 Marol Co-operative-Industrial Estate Andheri East, Mumbai 400059 India Phn: +91 222 8529911
Two Family House (2000)
108m; U.S.
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Cast: Michael Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald and Kathrine Narducci
Synopsis (IMDB): An unseen narrator looks back to 1956, on Staten Island, when Buddy, an Italian guy with big dreams, buys a house planning to live upstairs with his wife Estelle and run a bar downstairs. The first problem is Estelle’s lack of confidence in Buddy. Then, Irish tenants upstairs refuse to move and won’t pay rent; plus, the woman upstairs is about to have a baby. The next problem is the baby: once he’s born, it’s clear his father was Black. The Irish guy splits; Buddy evicts mother and child, then feels guilt and sets her up in a flat while she sorts out an adoption. Estelle’s lack of faith, the Irish lass’s spirit, Buddy’s dream, racial prejudice, and the baby’s fate play out.
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