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Category Archives: Arts/Culture

The Condition of the Working Class (2013)

19 Jun

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This film is inspired by Engels’ 1844 book The Condition of the Working Class in England. How much has really changed since then?

In 2012 a group of working class people from Manchester and Salford come together to create a theatrical show from scratch, based on their own experiences and Engels’ book. They have eight weeks before their first performance. The Condition of the Working Class follows them from the first rehearsal to the first night performance and situates their struggle to get the show on stage in the context of the daily struggles of ordinary people facing economic crisis and austerity politics. The people who came together to do the show turned from a group of strangers, many of whom had never acted before, into The Ragged Collective, in little more than two months.

This film, full of political passion and anger, is a wonderful testament to the creativity, determination and camaraderie of working people that blows the media stereotypes of the working class out of the water.
– from the Progressive Film Club (Dublin) write-up

 

 
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Posted by on June 19, 2013 in Arts/Culture, Class, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Working Class

 

Sign Painters (2013)

11 Mar

Directors: Faythe Levine & Sam Maconbloggersigns
Director of Photography: Travis Auclair
Editor: Bill Marmor
Produced by: Timm Gable & Jonah Mueller
US; 75m
View official trailer: http://vimeo.com/61006621
website: http://signpaintermovie.blogspot.com/
Press inquiries: signpaintermovie@gmail.com

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.

In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. The documentary and book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.

 
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Posted by on March 11, 2013 in Arts/Culture, Communications, Documentary, Self-Employed/Freelance

 

Black and White and Dead All Over (2012)

10 Jan

Directed by Lenny Feinberg & Chris Foster
83m; US

An in-depth look at the newspaper industry as it struggles to remain financially viable and to keep the presses rolling. Through the voices of prominent journalists including Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and David Carr of the New York Times, we reveal an industry in the midst of a financial death spiral, as readers abandon print for online news sources. We see publishers and editors desperately trying to create a sustainable business model for their dying papers.

Our film examines the importance journalism has on our society by following two fearless investigators into the badlands of North Philadelphia. With the economic crisis in the newsroom threatening to shutter their struggling tabloid, these courageous women bring down a dangerous and corrupt narcotics squad.

If the American newspaper dies, who will conduct investigative journalism, who will hold public officials accountable?

Click here to see the trailer
For more information on the film visit blackandwhiteanddeadallover.net

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2013 in Arts/Culture, Communications, Documentary

 

The Front (1976)

13 Jun

95m; U.S.

Director: Martin Ritt

Cast: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi

Synopsis (IMDB): In the early 1950s Howard Prince, who works in a restaurant, helps out a black-listed writer friend by selling a TV station a script under his own name. The money is useful in paying off gambling debts, so he takes on three more such clients. Howard is politically pretty innocent, but involvement with Florence – who quits TV in disgust over things – and friendship with the show’s ex-star – now himself blacklisted – make him start to think about what is really going on.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Comedy, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Entertainment Industry

 

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The Internationale (2000)

13 Jun

30m; U.S.

Director: Peter Miller

Cast: Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg

Synopsis: Idealism, socialism, and the power of music in people’s lives.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Labor History

 

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The Murals and Art of Bernard Zakheim (2009)

13 Jun

27m; U.S.

Director: Margot Smith

Synopsis: Bernard Zakheim (1896 – 1985) was born in Poland and came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1918. He was well known for his many murals and frescos financed in part by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal. Nathan and Masha Zakheim, Bernard’s son and daughter, tell of their father’s work in Poland, the story of the Coit Tower murals, of his Holocaust paintings and his later work celebrating life. Murals shown here include The Library at Coit Tower, The Jewish Wedding at the San Francisco Community Center, and The History of Medicine in California at Toland Hall, University of California, San Francisco.

Contact: offcentervideo@aol.com http://www.offcentervideo.com

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

 

The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time (1982)

13 Jun

78m; U.S.

Director: Jim Brown

Synopsis: Documentary about the blacklisted folk group, “The Weavers,” and the events leading up to their triumphant return to Carnegie Hall.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History

 

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Even the Rain (También la Lluvia) [2010]

13 Jun

103m; Spain/Mexico/France

Director: Icíar Bollaín

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar and Karra Elejalde

Synopsis: A Spanish film crew comes to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999 to make a film about Christopher Columbus.  The intent is to do a revisionist account portraying Columbus not as a hero, but as a conqueror.  The film crew is not well financed and looking to cut costs, which includes to indigenous Bolivians being hired to star in the movie.  At the same time, a mounting wave of protests is occurring, with one of the film extras serving as a major leader, over the privatization of Cochabamba’s water supply.  The film crew becomes entangled in the protests in an ever more complex and deep ways.  A superb film about the intersections and limits of art and politics.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Labor History, Netflix Watch Instantly, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Ralph Fasanella: Song of the City (1979)

26 Apr

30m; U.S.

Director: Jack Ofield

Synopsis: Biography of a working class electrical plant worker/painter/CIO organizer.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Biography, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing

 

Renewal (2008)

26 Apr

90m; U.S.

Director: Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller

Synopsis: It shows individuals and communities driven by the deepest source of inspiration – their spiritual and religious convictions – being called to re-examine what it means to be human and how we live on this planet.

Contact: http://renewalproject.net/join/email_us

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Documentary, Environment

 
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