21m
Director: Blaine Dunlap
Synopsis (Southeast Media Preservation Lab): Portrait of Stanley Maupin, sidewalk flusher on the late-night streets of Dallas, Texas. Filmed in the winter of 1972-1973.
Website: http://analoglab.drupalgardens.com/content/sometimes-i-run
65m
Director: Andrew Garrison
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info@trashdancemovie.com
Synopsis (Trash Dance): Sometimes inspiration can be found in unexpected places. Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and in the men and women who pick up our trash. Filmmaker Andrew Garrison follows Orr as she joins city sanitation workers on their daily routes to listen, learn, and ultimately to convince them to collaborate in a unique dance performance. Hard working, often carrying a second job, their lives are already full with work, family and dreams of their own. But some step forward, and after months of rehearsal, two dozen trash collectors and their trucks perform an extraordinary spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, thousands of people show up to see how in the world a garbage truck can “dance.”
Website: http://trashdancemovie.com
Synopsis: On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers. That evening, he delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to a packed room of supporters. The next day, he was assassinated. (NOTE: see At The River I Stand for a 56m version of this issue).
143m; Japan
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Synopsis: Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He finds that he has a terminal cancer and decides to intensively live his last months of life.
16m
Director: Min Sook Lee
Synopsis (CUPE, Local 1011): This short documentary film produced by Min Sook Lee chronicles the struggles of municipal workers in Windsor, Ontario after they are forced to go on strike to protect benefits and pension for future generations. Premiered on the floor of the CUPE Ontario Convention, held May 27-31.
Website: http://vimeo.com/4967233
11m
Director: Dominique Basi
Synopsis (CLiFF): Follows Karnel Basi, a public transit bus driver in South Vancouver, along his regular route through the downtown east side to the heart of the city and back again. Along the way he picks up a variety of passengers, struggles to stay on schedule and keep his bus safe. A good student film.
44m; U.S.
Director: Dolissa Medina
Synopsis: Focuses on the San Francisco earthquake and the role of the firefighters in saving people and defending the city from the flames.
128m; France
Director: Laurent Cantent
Synopsis: Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
4m; U.K.
Director: Chris Kasrils
Synopsis: Living wage fight of rail and tube cleaners in UK
93m; Czechoslovakia
Director: Jirí Menzel
Cast: Václav Neckár, Josef Somr and Vlastimil Brodský
Synopsis: An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.
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