2013
Documentary
Turkey
Director: Yonetmen
The film is about the dangerous life of construction workers in a foreign land far from their homeland, and their social problems.
–Written by Steven Zeltzer
Category Archives: Migrant workers
Bread, Concrete, and Roses
The Southeast of Ankara
2013
Documentary
Director: Yonetmen
22 Minutes
The families of those immigrated for various reasons live in the four edge districts of Ankara which are located in the boundaries of Çankaya. The families who have lived for years in this region are exposed to an enforced immigration for urban transformation. The movie expresses the urban transformation and immigration subjects through the viewpoint of the children of those families.
Cesar Chavez
2014
102 min
Biography
Director: Diego Luna
Writers: Keir Pearson (screenplay), Timothy J. Sexton
Stars: Michael Peña, America Ferrera, Rosario Dawson
The film follows Chávez’s efforts to organize 50,000 farm workers in California, some of whom were braceros—temporary workers from Mexico permitted to live and work in the United States in agriculture, and required to return to Mexico if they stopped working. Working conditions are very poor for the braceros, who also suffer from racism and brutality at the hands of the employers and local Californians. To help the workers, César Chávez (Michael Peña) forms a labor union known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Chávez’s efforts are opposed, sometimes violently, by the owners of the large industrial farms where the braceros work. The film touches on several major nonviolent campaigns by the UFW: the Delano grape strike, the Salad Bowl strike, and the 1975 Modesto march.
All Points North
Documentary (Athens/ London 2013, 25 minutes)
Producer: BlueArts Film, Mizgin Müjde Arslan, Dir: Therese Koppe
Original Language: French, with English subtitles.
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“It certainly will be a different Europe, not like here in Greece”, states Laurent in an assuring voice. The dream of heading North is the driving motivation for Laurent and Ibrahim, two young men leaving their country of Senegal in search of a better life.As undocumented migrants, they find themselves trapped in Greece, bound to the Greek borders by the lack of immigration papers. Before leaving their homeland their impressions of Europe were very different from the harsh realities they faced once arriving. For migrants such as Laurent and Ibrahim, there is no stability in a better, safer land; their journeys to find such are continually ongoing.
El Camino
‘El Camino’ follows the path of the anonymous migrant in search of the New World. The journey leads to exploitation and raises the questions of culpability and complicity of both society and of the immigrant who crosses the political line in the sand. Economic pressures from both sides of the border are catalysts for migration. Demands for cheap labor generate ‘illegal’ immigration, which has become the polarizing, hot button issue du jour. This parable is a metaphor for the reality faced by migrants arriving in strange, new lands every day.
Directed by: Raquel Tresvant
http://cargocollective.com/zeligfilms
Cesar’s Last Fast
In the summer of 1988 Cesar Chavez, then 61 years old, embarked on a water ¬only fast – a personal act of penance for not having done enough to stop growers from spraying toxic pesticides on farm workers. For more than a month no one, including Cesar, knew when he would eat again. Structured around dramatic never-before-seen footage, this film focuses on the story of how Chavez organized America’s poorest, least educated workers, built a movement that successfully challenged our nation’s powerful agribusiness, and launched the modern day Latino civil rights movement in the U.S. Motivated by Catholic social teaching, Chavez risked his life in pursuit economic justice for America’s most vulnerable workforce.
Directed by: Richard Ray Perez, Lorena Parlee
Dogtown Redemption
(Amir Soltani, 2014, film in post production) America’s untouchables who survive by recycling trash in Oakland, CA.
http://www.redemptiondoc.org/
Ivan and Arnold: Day Laborers from Both Sides of the Border (2013)
Directed by: Melinda Levin and Michael McPherson
Documentary Short (28 minutes)
This documentary short follows the lives of Ivan, an undocumented worker from Mexico and Arnold, a transitory laborer from New Orleans as they work on the day-laborer circuit during a time of economic recession in the U.S. Their stories highlight the struggles and internal racial tensions in this workforce disengaged from formal labor structures.
Coming For A Visit (On Vient Pour La Visite)
2013 | French | 58 min | HD
| French with English subtitles
Director Lucie Tourette
Undocumented migrants win the battle to get their papers. A historic strike filmed from within.
Paris, 2009. More than 6000 undocumented migrants (sans-papiers) go on strike to demand their legalization. Despite being illegals, Mohamed, Diallo, Hamet and others have worked and paid taxes in France for years in restaurants, cleaning companies, or construction. They have invested all their energy in this battle: now that their status has been disclosed publically, there is no way back.
http://www.vezfilm.org/comingforavisit/
Trailer : http://vimeo.com/53048336
lucie tourette lucie_tourette@yahoo.fr
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