Director: Robin Hartwig, Zac Minor and Zac Petrillo
Producer: The National Steinbeck Center
Year: 2009
Country of Origin: USA
Time: 21:27 min.
Description: Charts the rise of the United Farm Workers movement, the rise to power of Cesar Chavez and its impact on the Salinas Valley during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Looks at the conflict from all sides by interviewing growers, union members and others. A strong student production.
90m; U.S.
Director: Jake Mahaffy
Cast: Jeff Clark and Paul Mahaffy
Synopsis: an independent feature about a man trying to succeed in a business that doesn’t exist.
Director: Richard Ross
Looks at five people working in low-wage jobs in Nevada, Alabama, California, and Florida. Includes interviews with these workers, as well as with Barbara Ehrenreich, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, economics professor Donald Boudreaux, and author Walter Williams, among others.
131m; France
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Cast: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel and Peter van Eyck
Synopsis: In a remote part of Venezuela right after World War II various European emigres look for work in the oil fields. When a giant fire erupts, several of these men are hired to transport large stocks of nitroglycerine, which involves traversing a long stretch of treacherous terrain. Fantastic acting and a truly suspenseful film.
(NYT) Where to watch: Kanopy and the Criterion Channel; available for rental on Amazon and iTunes.
Few jobs are as harrowing as the one four desperate expatriates undertake in this thrilling film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Men too broke to escape a sweaty Latin American village leap at the chance to earn $2,000 apiece driving an emergency shipment of nitroglycerin 300 miles to extinguish an oil inferno for an American company. The company, circumventing its union drivers and rules, provides open-bed trucks that lack even rudimentary safety features like shock absorbers.
One driver is Yves Montand in a breakthrough role, cigarette hanging from his lip and kerchief rakishly tied around his neck, as he grips the juddering steering wheel along treacherous jungle roads through this relentless, heart-stopping journey of teamwork, cowardice and betrayal. HELEN T. VERONGOS
95m; Mauritania, Africa
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Cast: Khatra Ould Abder Kader, Maata Ould Mohamed Abeidand Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed
Synopsis (IMDB): On the seacoast of Mauritania, some wait to go to Europe. Khatra, a spirited boy, wants an electric light so he can read at night. A stoic older man, Maata, tries to wire the room. Abdallah, a youth on his way to Europe, says good-bye to his mother. Nana looks back on the death of her daughter and her trip to Europe to inform the father. A girl takes singing lessons. Rooms have small windows, looking out onto foot traffic; transistor radios provide some link beyond. Huge ships anchor in the distance. The train comes through, stopping briefly. Offering a cigarette is a gesture of hospitality. Sand dunes and the ocean dominate the landscape. Hope springs amidst small expectations.
124m; U.S.
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Hal Holbrook
Synopsis (IMDB): Bud Fox is a Wall Street stockbroker in early 1980’s New York with a strong desire to get to the top. Working for his firm during the day, he spends his spare time working an on angle with the high-powered, extremely successful (but ruthless and greedy) broker Gordon Gekko. Fox finally meets with Gekko, who takes the youth under his wing and explains his philosophy that “Greed is Good”. Taking the advice and working closely with Gekko, Fox soon finds himself swept into a world of “yuppies”, shady business deals, the “good life”, fast money, and fast women; something which is at odds with his family including his estranged father (a good union man) and the blue-collared way Fox was brought up.
65m; U.S.
Director: Gary Gasgarth
Synopsis: This timely and informative documentary chronicles the history of America’s mortgage finance system, from its origins in the 1930s, when the federal government first made available long-term, fixed-rate loans to new American homeowners, to its current state of crisis, after an excess of risky mortgage financing led to the system’s collapse, which in turn triggered a wider economic recession.
Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2009/fall.html lori@icarusfilms.com Sending screener
59m; U.S.
Synopsis (Library of Congress): “A documentary of immigrant farm workers trapped by perpetual debt and showing recruitment, camp conditions and the type of work they do. The views of the growers and processors as well as workers are presented.”
13m; Germany
Director: Jan Zabeil
Contact: http://www.ish.fm/site/index.php?article_id=14&clang=0
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