99m; Peru
Director: Jason Burlage
Synopsis: Chronicles one year in a Peruvian farmer’s life and through a season of work on the Inca Trail. The film paints a vivid picture of this man’s world, of the conflict between his love of the land and the work he has learned from his father, and the desire to see his son living what he sees as a better life in the city.
Contact: Jason Burlage jason@michacrafilm.com http://www.michacrafilm.com/index.htm
80m; France
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot and André S. Labarthe
Synopsis: This film explores a Parisian woman’s descent into prostitution. The movie is comprised of a series of 12 “tableaux”– scenes which are basically unconnected episodes, each presented with a worded introduction.
105m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall and Gary Lewis
Synopsis: Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in the one of the toughest Glasgow neighbourhoods.
30m; U.S.
Director: Jerri Zbiral
Synopsis: Celebrates the life and work of 90 year old artist and activist Peggy Lipschutz, who pioneered the “chalk-talk”— a performance art form combining drawing and music before a live audience. This film explores Peggy’s unwavering commitment to art, peace, justice and social change.
Contact: http://www.neverturningback.net/index.html jerri@thecollectedimage.com jerrizbiral@yahoo.com
57m; U.S.
Director: Hector Galan
Synopsis (IMDB): A sequel to Edward R. Murrow’s famous Harvest of Shame documentary, showing the deplorable conditions of migrant farm workers in 1960, found little has changed in 30 years.
56m; U.S.
Director: Joseph Aguirre
Synopsis: Faced with losing their farms, three Montana families hire a rainmaker in a desperate attempt to bring relief to their drought-stricken communities. NEXT YEAR COUNTRY tells the heartfelt story of three families and the optimism which sustains them in their struggle to hold on to a vanishing way of life.
Contact: info@nextyearcountry.com
22:39m; available on YouTube
Night Mail is a 1936 documentary film about a London, Midland and Scottish
Railway (LMS) mail train from London to Scotland, produced by the GPO Film
Unit. A poem by English poet W. H. Auden was specially written for it, used
in the closing few minutes, as was music by Benjamin Britten. (The two men
also collaborated on a rail-documentary on the line from London to
Portsmouth, The Way to the Sea, also in 1936.)
The film was directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and narrated by John
Grierson and Stuart Legg. The Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti was the
sound director. It starred Royal Scot 6115 Scots Guardsman.
As recited in the film, the poem’s rhythm imitates that of the train’s
wheels as they clatter over the track sections, beginning slowly but picking
up speed so that by the time the narration reaches the penultimate verse the
narrator is speaking at a breathless pace. As the train slows toward its
destination the final verse is taken at a more sedate pace. The famous
opening lines of the poem are “This is the Night Mail crossing the border /
Bringing the cheque and the postal order”.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 