RSS

Category Archives: Cities-Urban

Braddock America

19 Nov

2013
France (in English)
100m
Directors: Gabriella Kessler, Jean-Loïc Portron

Writer: Jean-Loïc Portron
Braddock, Pennsylvania has been the home to key events that have greatly shaped American history. Today, it is struggling to reinvent itself and stay relevant.

In its own way, through immigration, industrialization, the rise of trade unionism and its destiny in question, Braddock tells a story of America: a rebellious, combatant America inhabited by men and women who refuse to accept the violence inflicted upon them. “Resist much, obey little,” Walt Whitman urged his fellow citizens; and indeed his words could be the motto of this film. The Monongahela Valley has been heavily stricken by the steel crisis and the shutdowns of the mills in the 80’s. It is probably easier to find more enchanting places in the world, but if many don’t imagine leaving the valley, it is because they know that this tiny parcel of land bears the traces, buried in its soil and in their memories, of events that helped build the history of their nation. This same awareness leads them to believe that such a special place might one day help map out a future for the United States. http://program33.com/braddock-america/

10/30/2014 NYT review: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/movies/braddock-america-the-story-of-a-rust-belt-struggle.html?_r=0

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 19, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Documentary, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Manufacturing, Working Class

 

Tangled Threads

29 Jun

“Tangled Threads” chronicles labor rights activist Kalpona Akter’s organizing efforts in Bangladesh’s garment industry before and after the Rana Plaza building collapse, which claimed the lives of at least 1,138 garment workers. It does so against the backdrop of two very different worlds: New York’s modeling industry, on the one hand, and Bangladesh’s garment industry, on the other. Produced by STZFilms.

Directed by: Sara Ziff

Sara Ziff is a New York-based filmmaker, fashion model, and labor activist. She co-directed and produced the feature documentary “Picture Me” (2009), which shed light on labor issues in the modeling industry, particularly sexual abuse. Currently she serves as co-founder and executive director of the Model Alliance, a nonprofit labor group for models working in the American fashion industry. Ziff first traveled to Bangladesh in 2012, when she began collaborating with the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) to try to organize workers across fashion’s supply chain.

https://www.facebook.com/stzfilms

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 29, 2014 in Arts/Culture, Big Business/Corporations, Cities-Urban, Class, Consumerism, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Retail, Safety & Health, Textile Industry, Women, Working Class

 

Tags:

Schoolidarity

29 Jun

A sharply aimed film about Wisconsin and Chicago teachers fighting back against the onslaught of anti-union governors and big city mayors willing to sell out public education to the burgeoning power of the for profit charter school movement – which just happens to be mostly union-free.Through the eyes of public school teachers fighting for the benefit of all their students, Schoolidarity tells the interwoven story of the two most significant American workers’ rights struggles of recent years: the weeks-long 2011 mass occupation of the Wisconsin capitol, and the Chicago teachers strike of 2012. Schoolidarity provides a history of the issues surrounding the privatization of urban public schools in the US. By documenting the ascent of the activist teacher caucus CORE, Chicago’s public schools crisis is analyzed through the lens of the assault on public sector unions, where defeats are just as important to study as victories in order to insure education justice for all.

Directed by: Andrew Friend

http://vimeopro.com/insurgentproductions/andrew-friend/video/51703399

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 29, 2014 in Children, Cities-Urban, Documentary, Education

 

Workers Republic

29 Jun

What would you do? Your boss gives you three days’ notice that your workplace is closing. You will be unemployed in a recession, without the severance the law says you deserve. If you are the employees of Republic Windows and Doors… you fight back! For six days in December of 2008, laid-off Chicago factory workers took over their closing workplace, declaring they would not leave until the owners and creditors agreed to pay them the severance they were owed. Republic’s credit line had been cut off by Bank of America, which had just received billions of dollars in federal bank bailout money. These 260 workers decided, “If I don’t fight, I know I’ll lose. If I do fight, at least I stand a chance of winning.” In these revolutionary times, when a new movement has risen from below to occupy Wall Street and expose the greed of bosses and banks, the workers of Republic are a beacon of hope and optimism, a microcosm of how everyday people may be the most qualified to forge a better world.

Directed by: Andrew Friend

http://vimeopro.com/insurgentproductions/andrew-friend/video/30882647

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 29, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

 

Expect Resistance

28 Jun

Looks at the “Take Back the Land” and Occupy Wall Street movements as they began to respond to the foreclosure crisis. The film follows Leonard Spears, a man fighting to keep his home after a foreclosure has passed and an eviction notice has been filed. We meet activists who are willing to put themselves on the line and take direct action to keep people like Leonard in their homes, and to even move homeless families into bank-owned homes that are sitting empty from previous foreclosures.

Directed by: Shane Burley

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 28, 2014 in Big Business/Corporations, Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Legal System, Organizing, Politics, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

Tags: , ,

Holy Apostles Church Soup Kitchen

28 Jun

John Redmond’s no holds barred portrait of the homeless population of downtown Manhattan, as they come to get the good food provided for the community by the Chelsea Church of the Holy Apostles. We hear what it is like to be homeless in the unequal economy of NYC and how it feels to know your only decent meal of the day will come from a church soup kitchen. 

Directed by: John Redmond

https://www.holyapostlessoupkitchen.org/

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 28, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Farm & Food

 

Tags: ,

Film title needed here

27 Jun

What are unions for? Haitian union leaders explain the role of unions and why civil society is necessary for a country to develop itself. The documentary shows unions in action, in different sectors of society like the peasantry, schools, hospitals, transportation, municipal services, garment factories in Haiti’s free zones. Social protection, public services and the necessity of the rule of law are also discussed. Best short documentary in the ‘Regards d’ici’ section at Vues d’Afrique, the most important French language film festival for African and Creole films outside of Africa.

Directed by: Andre Vanasse http://www.vuesdafrique.com

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 27, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Documentary, Education, Global Economy, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Tags: , ,

Forward

25 Jun

Self-financed with a $1000 budget as an art experiment by Dusan Harminc and Matt Mullins, ‘Forward’ (Wisconsin’s state motto) is an activist-level view of the uprising that swept state senators out of office, triggered the third governor recall election in American history, and inspired the Occupy movement that swept the country. This film uses the reflections of people involved in the protests of winter 2011 to show what galvanized non-radicals into a movement that quickly drew international attention to Madison, Wisconsin for political action unlike anything seen in America since the Vietnam War.

Directed by: Dusan Harminc, Matt Mullins

http://forward-movie.com/forward/

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 25, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Documentary, Organizing, Politics, Working Class

 

Tags: , , ,

Car Wash Workers in NYC Clean Up Dirty Business

23 Jun

The WASH NY Campaign. the story of the recently successful campaign by RWDSU to bring dignity and fairness to exploited “Carwasheros” around NYC. Special recognition to Charles Fostrom and Janna Pea of the RWDSU and Chio Valerio of New York Communities for Change.

Directed by: Charles Fostrom and Janna Pea of the RWDSU and Chio Valerio of New York Communities for Change

http://www.washnewyork.org/index.php?currentpage=11

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 23, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Documentary, Organizing, Safety & Health, Service Workers, Transportation, Working Class

 

Tags: , , ,

Overpass Light Brigade

23 Jun

‘Overpass Light Brigade’ is a short film that tells the story behind Wisconsin’s Holders of the Lights using innovative time-lapse photography and interviews with founding members and other activists. The film showcases OLB’s simple, beautiful approach to performance art and creating “the people’s bandwidth,” that beckons any who want to creatively join public discourse and voice concerns an elitist political system clamors to quiet.

Directed by: Dusan Harminc, Matt Mullins

http://olbfilm.com/

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 23, 2014 in Arts/Culture, Big Business/Corporations, Cities-Urban, Communications, Documentary, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Tags: , , ,

← Older posts
Newer posts →