74m; Austria
Synopsis: Polish worker travels to Austria for work, picking strawberries, gutting turkeys, working as a cleaner. Essentially about division — between rich and poor, East and West, between individuals — and the perpetual strains these differences produce.
57m; Netherlands
Director: Sven Jense
Synopsis: Documentary about African immigrants coming to work in Europe – if they make it. Sven Jense reversed their route, traveling from Amsterdam to Mali, West Africa. On his way he meets with different migrants, from a mother in Paris to a construction engineer who never made it. Sven Jense is a filmmaker who has his roots in theatre and political science. REplace is his first documentary. THEME: Migrant workers
85m; Mexico
Director: Benito Alizraki
Synopsis: Four independent stories based on writer Francisco Rojas Gonzáles’s work, depicting the reality of Mexican indian people
69m; Turkey
Director: Karahber
Synopsis: Kurdish migrants collect paper to sell for recycling to survive.
82m; China/Canada
Director: Lixin Fan
Synopsis: Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Last Train Home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration.
Contact: http://www.eyesteelfilm.com/?page_id=60 info@eyesteelfilm.com 4475 St. Laurent, suite #202 Montreal, Quebec CANADA H2W 1z8 Phone directory: phone: +1 (514) 937-4893
117m; U.S.
Director: Robert Redford
Cast: Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford and Sonia Braga
Synopsis (IMDB): In Milagro, a small town in the American Southwest, Ladd Devine plans to build a major new resort development. While activist Ruby Archuleta and lawyer/newspaper editor Charlie Bloom realize that this will result in the eventual displacement of the local Hispanic farmers, they cannot arouse much opposition because of the short term opportunities offered by construction jobs. But when Joe Mondragon illegally diverts water to irrigate his bean field, the local people support him because of their resentment of water use laws that favor the rich like Devine. When the Governor sends in ruthless troubleshooter Kyril Montana to settle things quickly before the lucrative development is cancelled, a small war threatens to erupt.
61m; U.S.
Director: Kathleen Laughlin & Don Morstad
Synopsis: Mexican migrant workers in Minnesota
48m; Israel-Palestine
Synopsis: European delegation investigates conditions of Palestinian workers
Contact: Website to Video 48: http://www.hanitzotz.com/video.htm
82m; U.S.
Director: John Fiege
Synopsis: Questions of race, workers’ rights and exploitation form the crux of this intriguing documentary about Latin American immigrants living in rural Mississippi, where poultry plants promise jobs but little else.
Contact: http://www.mississippichicken.com/contact.asp
Synopsis: Each day, thousands of women leave underdeveloped countries to seek work as domestics in more prosperous places. This film shows the human and sometimes tragic side of their stories.
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