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Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work

The Boss of it All (2006)

07 May

99m; Denmark

Director: Lars von Trier

Cast: Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler and Friðrik Þór Friðriksson

Synopsis: “It’s a comedy and harmless,” is how Von Trier introduces this film, described by one reviewer as “ ‘The Office’ Viewed Through the Looking Glass.” In this dark satire, filmed entirely in an office, an out-of-work actor, hired by the director of a Danish IT company to impersonate its non-existent CEO, bumbles through meetings with senior employees and negotiations with an Icelandic businessman who wants to buy the firm. The film’s off-kilter visual style (a computer randomly determined when to tilt, pan or zoom the camera) works in the film’s favor, uncannily echoing the nonsense and frustration of our everyday lives. (Rochester Labor Film Series 2010)

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Unemployment-Wages, White Collar

 

The Price of Sugar (2006)

26 Apr

90m; U.S.

Director: Bill Haney

Synopsis (IMDB): On the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, tourists flock to pristine beaches, with little knowledge that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition. The Price of Sugar follows a charismatic Spanish priest, Father Christopher Hartley, as he organizes some of this hemisphere’s poorest people, challenging the powerful interests profiting from their work. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate, at what human cost they are produced and ultimately, where our responsibility lies.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Class, Documentary, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Organizing

 

Producing Just Garments (2007)

26 Apr

25m; U.S.

Director: Media Intransigence

Synopsis: Garment workers take over factory and run it through workers’ collective

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Global Economy, Textile Industry

 

Project XX: The Innocent Years (1957)

26 Apr

53m; U.S.

Director: Donald Hyatt

Synopsis: A record of America changing from a rural to an industrialized society. Highlighting major events in national life through 1917.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Automation, Documentary, Farm & Food, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History

 

Pulp Fiction, Poison Promises (1995)

26 Apr

14m; U.S.

Director: Mimi Pickering

Synopsis: Mimi Pickering of Appalshop was hired to direct a film about the proposed pulp mill to be built at Apple Grove, Mason County. The Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation paid for the film that explores the dangers that the pulp mill would present – to the workers and the local environment including dumping dioxin into the Ohio River. Many groups, both labor and environmental, opposed the mill, supported by Gov. Caperton and the Legislature. Eventually, the mill was not built. The film also examines the impact that the company’s pulp mill had in the area around Monroe, AL. The film was broadcast on WV television several times. See Doug Hawes-Davis’ film,” Green Rolling Hills” and “Southbound” from High Plains Films. Access: Steve Fesenmaier, WVLC

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Organizing

 

Quilombo (1986)

26 Apr

119; Brazil

Director: Carlos Diegues

Cast:  Jonas Bloch, Zózimo Bulbul and Emmanuel Cavalcanti

Synopsis (IMDB): Palmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his warriors hold off Portuguese raiders; then he agrees to leave the mountains in exchange for reservation land and peace. It’s a mistake. Zumbi, a warrior whose mother was killed by Portuguese and who spent 15 years with the Whites, stays in the mountains to lead Palmares. In 1694, the Portuguese import a ruthless captain from São Paulo to lead an assault on the free Blacks. Can Zumbi keep Palmares free?

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Labor History, Slavery

 

REplace (2010)

26 Apr

57m; Netherlands
Director: Sven Jense

Synopsis: Documentary about African immigrants coming to work in Europe – if they make it. Sven Jense reversed their route, traveling from Amsterdam to Mali, West Africa. On his way he meets with different migrants, from a mother in Paris to a construction engineer who never made it. Sven Jense is a filmmaker who has his roots in theatre and political science. REplace is his first documentary. THEME: Migrant workers

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Migrant workers, Working Class

 

Risk/Reward (2003)

26 Apr

88m;

Director: Elizabeth Holder, Xan Parker

Cast: Umber Ahmad, Maria Bartiromo and Roslyn Dickerson 

Synopsis (IMDB): While there have been many movies about Wall Street, there has been little attention given to the specific challenges and stresses of the high-ranking women who work there. Risk/Reward is an insider’s view of the demands and sacrifices that working mothers have in a typically high-powered, male- dominated industry. This film was selected for the 2003 Tribeca, Hot Docs and Full Frame Film Festivals (among others) and will air on the Oxygen network.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Finance, Women

 

RMT: Our Union

26 Apr

35; U.K.

Director: Platform Films

Synopsis: From the inside of the Rail, Maritime and Transportation workers in the UK.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Transportation

 

Rabia (2009)

26 Apr

89m; Mexico

Director: Sebastián Cordero

Synopsis: A romantic thriller about a construction worker in hiding for killing his foreman who hides in the mansion where his girlfriend works as a maid.

Contact: Esther Devos edevos@wildbunch.eu

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Construction Trades, Crime-Action, Drama, Service Workers, Working Class

 
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