82m; U.S.
Director: Silvia Leindecker & Michael Fox
Synopsis: This documentary explores two major developments in recent U.S. history. The first is the impact that the September 2008 financial crisis had on ordinary working people throughout the country. The second is the response of working people to the crises affecting them, including their reaction to the government’s bailouts and Obama’s election. Particular attention is devoted to the emergence of progressive grass-roots movements such as the Vermont Workers’ Center, the Green Worker Cooperative in the Bronx, the Santa Fe Alliance in New Mexico, and the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The film’s overall theme is that the recent economic collapse indicates that it is “the people” themselves who must organize and act to bring about greater economic and social justice. Discussion will follow the film, with comments by Occupy Pittsburgh participants and others.
100m; India
Director: Kiran Rao
Cast: Prateik, Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra
Synopsis (IMDB): The lives of 4 different people in the city of Mumbai get entwined by fate and luck; Shai – an investment banker with a penchant for photography, Arun – a lonely painter, Munna – the “dhobi” who aspires to become an actor and Yasmin – making a video in her camcorder for her brother, who hasn’t been to Mumbai before. The film follows how their lives are changed by the presence of one another. Will it be for better or for worse?
103m; Spain/Mexico/France
Director: Icíar Bollaín
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar and Karra Elejalde
Synopsis: A Spanish film crew comes to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999 to make a film about Christopher Columbus. The intent is to do a revisionist account portraying Columbus not as a hero, but as a conqueror. The film crew is not well financed and looking to cut costs, which includes to indigenous Bolivians being hired to star in the movie. At the same time, a mounting wave of protests is occurring, with one of the film extras serving as a major leader, over the privatization of Cochabamba’s water supply. The film crew becomes entangled in the protests in an ever more complex and deep ways. A superb film about the intersections and limits of art and politics.
Synopsis: THE HARVEST will be told from adolescents’ perspectives as we meet 5 of the more than 400,000 to 500,000 children between the ages of 5 and 16 who labor in fields and factories to feed us, lacking the protections offered by the Fair Labor Standards Act that all other American children enjoy. We follow them as they follow the 2009 harvest, working throughout the spring, summer and early fall until they return to school in early November, struggle to catch up, only to be forced to leave school again the following April.
Contact: Shine Global 973 746-7257 646 442-1712 http://www.shineglobal.org/?page_id=19 Susan MacLaury, Executive Director: susan@shineglobal.org Rebecca Katz, Executive Assistant: rebecca@shineglobal.org Ruth Sarlin, Fundraising: ruth@shineglobal.org
23m; U.S.
Director: National Labor Committee
Synopsis: Investigation of very young working women in the Free Trade Zone in Honduras and consequences on their lives due to exploitation (below subsistence wages, lack of access to education, health hazards, forced contraception, denied freedom, harassment, etc.). A National Labor Committee (NLC) representative speaks about workers’ actual wages, the cost of production (for ex., 12 cents for a 20$ Gap shirt), the US tax support for free trade zones, and the pressure on companies to produce in free trade zones and the effect on American workers. The NLC representative looks at the wider economic impact of paying low wages (trading with people earning wages below the subsistence level is impossible). Detailed interviews with workers. Heated discussion with management as the representative gets caught asking workers questions without management’s permission.
Contact: Available online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XtYhfcEZ9A
60m; U.S.
Synopsis: The eleventh CBS Report since 1993 provides an intimate look at the changing US economy and the middle class it is affecting, interviewing people whose stories represent the human aspects of profound economic change, from the entrepreneurs and specialists who became successful to the workers holding on to ideals that may no longer apply.
Contact: Available in 6 parts on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJcpO-pCdc&feature=plcp
40m; U.S.
Director: G.W. Bitzer
Synopsis (Wikipedia): A collection of 21 short films, averaging about three minutes each, taken of various Westinghouse manufacturing plants from April 13, 1904 to May 16, 1904. They were made by G. W. Bitzer of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, were shown at the Westinghouse Auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and may have been made for that purpose. At least 29 films were shot. The films are now part of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Contact: All available on Youtube via the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Works,_1904
7m
Director: Josephine Anderson
Synopsis: This short documentary follows the daily struggles of two janitors at a North American university. The film takes a critical look at the communication, or lack of communication, that happens between janitors and those that use the facilities they clean. Shot at Capilano University, in North Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Contact: Josephine Anderson josephineanderson@gmail.com http://www.youtube.com/user/joeyphine#p/a/u/0/yJuaMmjSJjM
Set within Chicago’s labyrinth of alleyways, Scrappers is a cinema verite portrait of Otis and Oscar, two scrap metal scavengers searching for a living with brains, brawn and battered pickup trucks. The film shows how globalization, the 2008 financial crisis, crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and widespread scrap metal theft affect these men and their families. (Written by Ben Kolak on IMDB)
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 