113m; U.K.
Director: Nigel Cole
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins and Andrea Riseborough
Synopsis: A dramatization of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination.
Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work
Made in LA (2007)
70m; U.S.
Director: Almudena Carracedo
http://www.madeinla.com/
Synopsis (IMDB): Made in L.A. follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a mega-trendy clothing retailer. In intimate verité style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman’s life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.
Maid In America (2005)
60m; U.S.
Director: Anayansi Prado
http://impactofilms.com/maidinamerica/updates.html
Synopsis: The lives and hopes of immigrant workers.
Maids (Domésticas) [2001]
85m; Brazil
Director: Fernando Meirelles, Nando Olival
Cast: Cláudia Missura, Graziela Moretto and Lena Roque
Synopsis (IMDB): Five maids in São Paulo are observed in this episodic, impressionistic film. The women interact with each other, ride busses, work, and have longings: Rai for a husband, Créo for her lost daughter, Roxane for a career in modeling. Quitéria is naive, a gull for thieves. Cida has a husband and also a lover. While each woman gets what she wishes for (more or less), it doesn’t always make things better. As Roxane says, no child sets out to become a maid. But once there, are all other doors closed?
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
153m; U.S.
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and Fredric March
Synopsis (IMDB): An ex-soldier faces ethical questions as he tries to earn enough to support his wife and children well.
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
85m; U.K.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Cast: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Cecil Parker
Synopsis (IMDB): An altruistic chemist invents a fabric that resists wear and stain as boon to humanity but both capital and labor realize it must be suppressed for economic reasons.
Man of Marble (1977)
165m
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Cast: Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Tadeusz Lomnicki
Synopsis (IMDB): In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer, Birkut, who was briefly a proletariat hero, at how that heroism was created, and what became of him. She gets hold of outtakes and censored footage and interviews the man’s friends, ex-wife, and the filmmaker who made him a hero. A portrait of Birkut emerges: he believed in the workers’ revolution, in building housing for all, and his very virtues were his undoing. Her hard-driving style and the content of the film unnerve her supervisor, who kills the project with the excuse she’s over budget. Is there any way she can push the film to completion?
Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
80m; U.S./China
Director: Jennifer Baichwal
Synopsis (IMDB): Jennifer Baichwal’s cameras follow Edward Burtynsky (1955- ) as he visits what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, and a place in Bangladesh where ships are taken apart for recycling. In China, workers gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world’s fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side.
Mardi Gras: Made in China (2005)
72m;
Director: David Redmon
Synopsis (IMDB): This examination of cultural and economic globalization follows the life-cycle of Mardi Gras beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and to art galleries in New York City.
Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos (1999)
55m; Mexico
Director: Saul Landau & Sonia Augulo
Synopsis: Shows the real lives of workers who work in the Maquiladora’s. The Maquilas were sold to the Mexican workers as the solution to the problem of unemployment yet the maquilas have turned intoa disaster for Mexico.
Contact: http://saullandau.com/movies.html
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