RSS

Category Archives: Class

The Condition of the Working Class (2013)

19 Jun

Facebook link

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

 

 
Leave a comment

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

 

The Women on the 6th Floor (Les femmes du 6ème étage) (2010)

26 Nov

Director: Philippe Le Guay
Writers: Philippe Le Guay, Jérôme Tonnerre
Stars: Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain and Natalia Verbeke
104 min – Comedy

In 1960s Paris, a conservative couple’s lives are turned upside down by two Spanish maids.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 26, 2012 in Class, Comedy, Netflix Watch Instantly, Service Workers, Women, Working Class

 

Compliance (2012)

30 Aug

90m; U.S.

Director: Craig Zobel

Cast: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker and Pat Healy

Synopsis: “In the middle of a bad day Sandra (Ann Dowd), the harried manager of a fast-food franchise, receives a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer. He accuses an employee named Becky (Dreama Walker) of theft and instructs Sandra to subject the pretty teenager to a series of humiliations: detain her in the stock room, confiscate her belongings, conduct a strip search and on and on. As the title suggests, at each step of this increasingly elaborate and unnerving hoax, Sandra and Becky do what they are told.”

–‘Compliance’ Raises Questions About Human Behavior; NYT 8/10/2012

Trailer

 
1 Comment

Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Class, Consumerism, Drama, Legal System, Netflix Watch Instantly, Service Workers, Women

 

The Hunger Games (2012)

30 Aug

142m; U.S.

Director: Gary Ross

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland

Synopsis: In a dystopic future North America called Panem, the wealthy elite who live in the central city (known as the Capitol) exploit the impoverished workers of the rest of the country who are divided into twelve districts.  The Capitol employs a range of social controls, including the Hunger Games, an annual event where two children from each district are thrown into an arena and fight until only one is left alive.

Into these games is thrust Katniss Everdeen, the daughter of a coal miner, who must use her wits and skills to survive while trying to maintain her humanity, even as her examples of resistance and solidarity begin to inspire some of the districts towards rebellion.

Trailer

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Children, Cities-Urban, Class, Crime-Action, Drama, Politics, SciFi, Women, Working Class

 

Tags:

Neighboring Sounds (2012)

27 Aug

KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO 
Brazil, 2012, 124 minutes, 35mm, Color, film’s website

Cast: Irandhir Santos (Clodoaldo), Gustavo Jahn (João), Meve Jinkings (Bia), W. J. Solha (Francisco), Irma Brown (Sofia), Lula Terra (Anco), Yuri Holanda (Dinho) and Clébia Souza (Luciene).

The setting is the city of Recife, Brazil, on a seaside street, much of it owned by Francisco (W.J. Solha), an old-school paterfamilias. Director Kleber Mendonca Filho divides the film into three chapters, effortlessly weaving together his characters while slipping in small details that cumulatively speak of class, race, and the nation’s uneasy past. Beatriz (Maeve Jinkings) is almost always seen in her apartment, an airy setup with all the appurtenances of the middle class. She has certain needs, of course. Just arrived on the street is a private security team, which convinces residents that its services are needed. Viewers know the protection required is from inner demons, not outer ones. That Filho can juggle so many important issues without being heavy-handed or dropping a single one speaks volumes about his strengths. Neighboring Sounds captures the very fabric of Brazilian society, whose seemingly porous hierarchies prove to be prohibitively rigid. —Variety

Trailer

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 27, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Class, Drama

 

Ten Dollars an Hour

13 Jul

The story of an African-American cook working at an all-white fraternity house at the University of Mississippi.

Ten Dollars an Hour (Full Movie: 15m)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Blacks, Class, Documentary, Education, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Tags:

Southern Patriot (2010)

13 Jul

77m; U.S.
Director: Anne Lewis & Mimi Pickering
Distributed by California Newsreel and Appalshop

Synopsis: “Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006)” is a first person feature documentary completed May 1, 2012. Braden rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies. In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthy-style politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. In 1963 she became one of only five white southerners whose contributions to the movement were commended by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” A relentless labor and political organizer, she fought for transformation and liberation throughout her life.  – http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/06/15/18715481.php


Trailer

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Biography, Blacks, Class, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Politics

 

Two Aliens (2002)

13 Jun

55m;
Director: Suhi Choi

Suhi Choi received a BA in Korean History from Korea University in Seoul, MFA in TV Production from Brooklyn College in New York. She is a doctoral student of Mass Media and Communication Program, Temple University in Philadelphia. Her documentary, Two Aliens, dealing with conflicts between Korean grocery owners and Mexican workers in New York City, was presented both in the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Class, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration

 

Crossing the American Crises: From Collapse to Action (2011)

13 Jun

82m; U.S.

Director: Silvia Leindecker & Michael Fox

Synopsis: This documentary explores two major developments in recent U.S. history. The first is the impact that the September 2008 financial crisis had on ordinary working people throughout the country. The second is the response of working people to the crises affecting them, including their reaction to the government’s bailouts and Obama’s election. Particular attention is devoted to the emergence of progressive grass-roots movements such as the Vermont Workers’ Center, the Green Worker Cooperative in the Bronx, the Santa Fe Alliance in New Mexico, and the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The film’s overall theme is that the recent economic collapse indicates that it is “the people” themselves who must organize and act to bring about greater economic and social justice. Discussion will follow the film, with comments by Occupy Pittsburgh participants and others.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Class, Documentary, Finance, Organizing, Unemployment-Wages

 

Who’s Getting Rich and Why Aren’t You? (1996)

13 Jun

60m; U.S.

Synopsis: The eleventh CBS Report since 1993 provides an intimate look at the changing US economy and the middle class it is affecting, interviewing people whose stories represent the human aspects of profound economic change, from the entrepreneurs and specialists who became successful to the workers holding on to ideals that may no longer apply.

Contact: Available in 6 parts on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJcpO-pCdc&feature=plcp

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Class, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), White Collar, Working Class

 
← Older posts
Newer posts →