20m; Argentina
Director: Grupo Alavio & MarieTrigona
Synopsis: Documents the efforts by Buenos Aires transit workers to re-introduce the 6 hour day after the military dictatorship had destroyed the labor conditions.
Category Archives: Occupation/Type of Work
Fortune Lane (1947)
60m; U.K.
Director: John Baxter
Synopsis (IMDB): Young Peter wants so badly to be an engineer that he starts to work on an invention. To raise money, he and his friend Tim wash windows. However, Tim needs the money they earn to go to Ireland to visit his grandfather who is very ill, so Peter gives him all the money they have made. Everything works out well for Peter in the end when he is praised as a young genius
The Fountainhead (1949)
114m; U.S.
Director: King Vidor
Cast: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey
Synopsis (IMDB): An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards. Based on the Ayn Rand novel.
Fourth Battle of Winchester (1957)
16m; U.S.
Synopsis: Describes the circumstances which caused over 400 workers at the O’Sullivan Rubber Company in Winchester, VA, to strike on 5/13/56 to preserve their union.
Exit (2008)
41m; U.S.
Director: Sharon Lockhart
Synopsis: Companion film to Lunch Break (2008, 80 min., HD); here, Lockhart reverses the gaze, with a fixed camera and a nod to Lumière.
The One Percent (2006)
doc; 80m, US
Directed by Jamie Johnson
In this hard-hitting but humorous documentary, director Jamie Johnson takes the exploration of wealth that he began in Born Rich one step further. The One Percent, refers to the tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly half the wealth of the U.S. Johnson’s thesis is that this wealth in the hands of so few people is a danger to our very way of life. Johnson captures his story through personal interviews with Robert Reich, Adnan Khashoggi, Bill Gates Sr., and Steve Forbes, during which both Johnson’s and his subjects’ knowledge and humor shine. And he’s not afraid to butt heads with Milton Friedman, the economist who coined the term “the trickledown effect.” He also shows how the other half lives, using real-world examples of the wealth gap: he takes a tour of a dilapidated housing project in Chicago, rides around with an enlightened taxi driver, and sees the human toll of the unfair economics of the Florida sugar industry. Johnson’s film is at its most powerful when it reveals how the super-rich work to preserve their own monetary dominance. As a member of the “Johnson & Johnson” family, he gets rare access to an exclusive wealth conference at which the über rich learn strategies for preserving their fortunes, and learns the personal management styles of some of the countries wealthiest employers. No great society has survived such a massive wealth gap; who knows if ours will? Written by Schafer, Nancy on IMDB
Degrees of Shame (1997)
U.S.
30m
Director: Barbara Wolff
Synopsis: Exploitation of part-time faculty in American higher education.
In 1960 Edward R. Murrow made a television documentary about the plight of migrant farm workers. Harvest of Shame examined the working conditions and economic realities of those least respected but absolutely vital workers in the agricultural industry, the harvesters.
To Barbara Wolf, a Cincinnati-based video documentarian, the economic situation and working conditions of adjunct professors suggested an information economy parallel to migrant farm workers. As with migrant farm workers, hiring of adjuncts is often done at the last minute, the extremely low pay is based on the number of courses taught, there are no benefits, there is no job security, and many adjuncts teach at more than one institution (often in different cities) trying to piece together a living.
Following the logic of Harvest of Shame, Ms. Wolf interviews a variety of adjunct faculty, who make visible the working lives of these faculty members who now do more than 40% of the teaching in America’s institutions of higher education. Interviews with university administration officials, union leaders, legislators, and other observers document both the problem and possible solutions.
Murrow concluded Harvest of Shame by asking his viewers to cultivate “an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion” and to demand a change. Wolf sees her documentary as both informational and, in Murrow’s tradition, as a tool for change.
order from:
Barbara Wolf Video Work
1709 Pomona Court
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
Phone (513) 861-2462
Br_wolf@hotmail.com
Boiler Room (1992)
U.S.
Director: John Sjogren
Synopsis: The boiler room is from where telemarketers make their sales pitches. This film depicts an uncaring profession – where getting the almighty dollar is the primary objective – inside or outside of the law, and, no matter who’s.
Bolivia (2001)
75m; Argentina
Director: Adrián Caetano
Synopsis: A Bolivian immigrant working illegally as a cook in a small restaurant in Buenos Aires suffers abuse and discrimination from its customers.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 