Communism/Socialism | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Pyme (2004) (SMB)

Directed by: Alejandro Malowiki PYME
Running Time: 96 minutes.
Starring: Gabriel Molinelli, Duilio Orso, Bernardo Forteza.

www.pymelapelicula.com.ar

SMB (Pyme) is a fiction full length film that tells the slings and arrows of life within a plastic industry factory when its owner takes the dramatic and imminent decision to declare bankruptcy, thus leading to the factory’s closure, or calling a meeting of creditors as a last hope. A hope that, at the end of the film, will be crystallized as a cooperative. Pablo, in charge of the factory founded by his father, tries to face the conflicts that have disturbed all members of his SMB in Argentina, in the ’90s. Hounded by debts, they end up bearing an economic crisis that gives place to an undesired and unexpected war of everyone against everyone. They are under siege by a brutal and unfair neoliberal model. Gustavo, Pablo’s son, may become the only one who will dare go through the door that keeps opening and closing, preventing them from seeing the outside light.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on February 3, 2016 in Big Business/Corporations, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing

No God, No Master (2013)

27 Jan

American independent crime suspense thriller directed, written, and produced by Terry Green and starring David Strathairn, Ray Wise, Sam Witwer, Edoardo Ballerini and Alessandro Mario. No God, No Master was filmed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The story includes references to the Ludlow Massacre and depictions of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial and the Wall Street bombing.

When a series of package bombs show up on the doorsteps of prominent politicians and businessmen in the summer of 1919, U.S. Bureau of Investigation Agent William Flynn (David Strathairn) is assigned the task of finding those responsible. He becomes immersed in an investigation that uncovers an anarchist plot to destroy democracy. Inspired by true events of the 20s the film sets the stage for a timely thriller with resoundingly similar parallels to the contemporary war on terrorism and the role government plays to defeat it.

‘No God, No Master,’ a Look at 1919-20 Raids – NYTimes.com

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 27, 2015 in Communism/Socialism, Crime-Action, Labor History

Food Chains

23 Jan

2014
Director: Sanjay Rawal
Writers: Erin Barnett, Sanjay Rawal
83 Minutes
More details here (updated 4/20/2020)

This moving examination of the food industry illustrates the hardships that farm workers endure—appallingly low wages, long hours in often brutal conditions, wage theft, physical and sexual abuse, and virtual slavery—to bring food to Americans’ tables. Linking farms to supermarkets, the documentary focuses on the efforts of tomato pickers, as part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to improve their wages and working conditions through organized, high-profile campaigns against powerful supermarket chains that they supply. Narrated by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Food Chains lays bare the often hidden human costs of our food, and the human struggles for dignity and decency for those who reap the harvests—but too few of the rewards.

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Posted by jckozlowski on January 23, 2015 in Available Online, Communism/Socialism, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Migrant workers, Occupation/Type of Work, Organizing, Working Class

Memory of Past Struggles (Memoria Para Reincidentes)

17 Jul

107min. Argentina. Made by Violeta Bruck, Gabi Jaime and Javier Gabino
Film website

Unions and labor militancy in the 70s: Shows how Argentinian workers were organizing independently of the Peronist labor movement as early as 1969, including in the powerful 1975 General Strike. It also shows the role not only of the bosses but also the government, which helped usher in mass repression eventually leading to a military dictatorship in 1976.

With footage from the period and reminisces of the past struggles, the film shows the strengths and weaknesses of the labor movement. Thousands of workers and labor activists were kidnapped and murdered as part of this US supported military coup in 1976.

In 2013, Argentina was again been rocked by mass general strikes against the economic assault on working people, and this documentary provides an up-close view of the militant trade unionists who are part of the working class history of Argentina.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on July 17, 2014 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

The Conditions of the Working Class In England

17 Jul

2012 British; 82 min.
Directed by Mike Wayne and Deirdre O’Neill

This film is inspired by Engels’ book written in 1844, 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.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on July 17, 2014 in Arts/Culture, Class, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Working Class

In Dreamworks China

13 Jan

Directed by: Tommaso Facchin
Documentary Feature (56 minutes)

In Dreamworks China, in the suburbs of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, young workers talk about their lives, existences built on a precarious balance between hope, struggles and wishes for the future. Around them activists and NGO’s strive to give sense and meaning to words like rights, dignity and equity. This is an important film in understanding China in the age of Apple and Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturer of IPhones.

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Posted by andrew765 on January 13, 2014 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Global Economy

Tags: apple, china, workers

Together: How Cooperatives Show Resilience To The Crisis

03 Jan

http://www.together-thedocumentary.coop/#!the-documentary/cadp

It’s a fact. In Europe, 1.5 million workers co-own their enterprises. They are called worker cooperatives, social cooperatives or participative enterprises. The documentary TOGETHER reveals, through extensive research and exclusive interviews, why those enterprises show a major resilience to the crisis and its consequences through 4 examples: a mineral water plant in Poland (Muszynianka), a company in crisis transformed into a worker cooperative in France (Fonderie de l’Aisne), a consortium of social cooperatives in Italy (Consorzio SIS) and one of Spain’s main business groups (MONDRAGON Corporation).

Year: 2012
Country: Belgium/Spain.
Running time: 39 min.
Audio format: English, French, Italian & Spanish
Genre: Documentary
Producer: CECOP-CICOPA Europe
Managing producer: Leire Luengo
Production company: m30m
Director: Ana Sánchez.
Scriptwriters: Bruno Roelants, Olivier Biron, Leire Luengo, Ana Sánchez
Director of Photography: José Luis Fernández

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 3, 2014 in Big Business/Corporations, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Finance, Global Economy, Self-Employed/Freelance

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

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

Dreamwork China (2013)

13 Mar

55m
written/directed by Tommaso Facchin and Ivan Franceschini
website

The dreams and rights of a new generation in the world’s factory. In the suburbs of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, young workers talk about their lives, existences built on a precarious balance between hope, struggles and wishes for the future. Around them activists and ZNGOs strive to give sense and meaning to works like rights, dignity and equity.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on March 13, 2013 in Communism/Socialism, Consumerism, Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Technology

The Creation of the CIO (1935)

30 Aug

7:18; U.S.

Director: March of Time

Synopsis: Newsreel documentary focusing on John L. Lewis and accounting for the reasons behind and early conflicts over the split of the American Federation of Labor in 1935 and the creation of the rival federation, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Film is clearly pro-CIO and contains fantastic footage of Lewis, Sidney Hillman, and other major organizational leaders of labor in the Depression years.