94m
Director: Toshi Fijiwara
Synopsis: A portrait of documentary filmmaker, Noriaki Tsuchimoto.
Category Archives: Entertainment Industry
Carry on Ken (2006)
40m; U.K.
Director: Toby Reisz
Synopsis: Profile of filmmaker Ken Loach’s life and his work.
Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class (2005)
62m; U.S.
Director: Loretta Alper & Pepi Leistyna
Synopsis: How TV views the working class; Ed Asner narrates. A tad pedantic but well-done look at how the working class has been portrayed on television.
Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
125m; U.S.
Director: Michael Apted
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones and Levon Helm
Synopsis: Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.
The Commitments (1991)
118m; Ireland
Director: Alan Parker
Cast: Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne and Angeline Ball
Synopsis (IMDB): The travails of Jimmy Rabbitte to form the “World’s Hardest Working Band,” The Commitments, and bring soul music to the people of Dublin, Ireland.
Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class (2005)
62m
Director: Loretta Alper
Synopsis (Media Education Foundation): Based on the forthcoming book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television’s beginnings to today’s sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.
Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV’s disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants — stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy. :
Website: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=411
Desk Set (1957)
103m; U.S.
Director: Walter Lang
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Gig Young
Synopsis (IMDB): Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a TV network’s research department.
Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American (1994)
60m; U.S.
Director: Bette Jean Bullert
Synopsis: This portrait aired on several major public television stations in the late 1990s. It captures the life and music of the composer of “Joe Hill,” “Black and White,” “Ballad for Americans” and other songs that convey the hopeful, progressive spirit of his generation. Rich in archival footage, this documentary includes performances of Robinson’s songs by Joan Baez, Frank Sinatra, Paul Robeson, Josh White, Three Dog Night, Peter, Paul & Mary, and of course, Earl himself. Judy Collins narrates.
Eight Men Out (1988)
119m; U.S.
Director: John Sayles
Cast: John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, Christopher Lloyd, Studs Turkel
Synopsis: A dramatization of the Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series.
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 