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Category Archives: Communism/Socialism

The Take (2004)

17 May

87m; Argentina/Canada

Director: Avi Lewis

Cast: Naomi Klein, Matilde Adorno, Michel Camadessus and Bill Clinton

Synopsis: Argentina underwent an economic collapse in 2001, leaving behind bankrupties and massive unemployment. A few years later, in Buenos Aires, 30 unemployed auto-parts workers walk into an idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. They’re part of a daring movement of workers trying to recover and re-create their jobs. With The Take, outspoken journalist Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, have crafted a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century.

Contact: http://frif.com/new2004/ake.html http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=51735

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Global Economy, Manufacturing, Organizing

 

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Secret File (2003)

07 May

85m; Italy

Director: Paolo Benvenuti

Cast: Antonio Catania, David Coco and Sergio Graziani

Synopsis (Best of Sicily Magazine): The film recounts the story of the “Massacre of Ginestra” of May 1947. This was the murder by gunfire of eleven Communists during a political march at rural Portella della Ginestra, outside the Sicilian town of Piana degli Albanesi. Not only were people killed, but nearly thirty were injured. The crime, historically blamed on the band of the charismatic bandit Salvatore Giuliano, was previously depicted in Michael Cimino’s film The Sicilian, starring Christopher Lambert and John Turturro, which portrayed the rustic renegade as a Sicilian Robin Hood. The real Giuliano was killed under mysterious circumstances and a number of alleged accomplices arrested, but officially the mass murder was never solved. Mafia complicity has always been claimed, because organised crime opposed the Communist Party while supporting the Christian Democrats, who effectively controlled Italian politics for forty years. Obviously, the case was politically charged and hotly controversial. – http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art103.htm

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama, Labor History, War

 

See You at Mao (AKA British Sounds) [1970]

07 May

52m; France/U.K.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Henri Roger

Synopsis: After taking film to “zero” with -Le Gai Savoir-, Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group put out several Maoist/Marxist films, including this one. The main idea of British Sounds is exactly the soundtrack; the images are primarily still, with minimal camera movement: mostly tracks and pans. British Sounds is didactic and academic, but not without artistic merit, particularly the use of red and the jump-cutting fists that punch through the British flag repeatedly. The film has six parts, including the famous ten-minute track through an auto assembly line and a four-minute shot of a woman’s nude torso; it is also filled with speech, whether it’s a text from Engels read aloud or a newscaster talking about the necessities of burning women and children. A real agit-prop film, but, as Godard said about the later -Vladimir and Rosa-, also “a time piece.”

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Experimental

 

Seeing Red (1983)

07 May

100m; U.S.
Director: James Klein and Julia Reichert

Synopsis: Documentary about the American Communist Party from the 1930s through the 50s taken from interviews with the “regular folks” who were members.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

We Can Do That (Si Puo Fare) [2008]

07 May

111m; Italy

Director: Giulio Manfredonia

Cast: Claudio Bisio, Anita Caprioli and Giuseppe Battiston

Synopsis: Soulful and funny, We Can Do That is a kind of modern fairytale with dramas, downfall, and unexpected success, which helped it become a huge box-office success in Italy. In Milan in 1983, trade unionist Nello is too leftist for his publisher and too right-wing for his girlfriend. Sent to run a cooperative of mental patients, Nello decides to organize them into a practical workforce. The group decides that installing mosaic parquet floors is the best option. It’s Nello’s exceptional patience that allows him to deal with the multitude of idiosyncrasies, turning each patient’s particular eccentricity into a valuable skill. Soon, the workers become sought-after specialists and are making real money—and then making demands! The co-op starts this adventure of normality with touching naivety, but not everyone is ready to confront reality. This moving, inspiring story is balanced with good humor and understanding so that we may all laugh with, and not at, common human foibles.

Contact: Rizzoli Audiovisivi Rizzoliaudiovisivi.it

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Comedy, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Organizing, Romance

 

Souls Without Borders – The Untold Story of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade (2006)

07 May

52m; U.S./Spain

Director: Alfonso Domingo, Anthony L. Geist

Synopsis: A wealth of archival footage illuminates this stirring tribute to the International Brigades, an assortment of volunteers who traveled from over 50 countries to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Particular attention is paid to the 2,800 Americans who joined in the struggle while still reeling from the Great Depression. –http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=24141&fid=32

Contact: View here – http://www.albavolunteer.org/2010/05/souls-without-borders-documentary-online/

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, War

 

The Spanish Earth (1937)

07 May

52m; U.S./Spain

Director: Joris Ivens

Cast: Manuel Azaña, José Díaz and Dolores Ibárruri

Synopsis (IMDB): This documentary tells of the struggles during the Spanish Civil War. It deals with the war at different levels: from the political level, at the ground military level focusing on battles in Madrid and the road from Madrid to Valencia, and at the support level. With the latter, a key project was building an irrigation system for an agricultural field near Fuentedueña so that food could be grown to feed the soldiers.

Narration and writing done by John Dos Passos, Jean Renoir, and Ernest Hemingway.

 

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, War

 

Strong Roots (2001)

07 May

43m; Brazil

Director: Maria Luisa Mendonca and Aline Sasahara

Synopsis: Pedro, Antonio, and Luis joined Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement in search of a piece of land, dignity in their lives, and justice in their society. Through their memories and their day- to-day lives in Pernambuco and Bahia, they bring us a personal portrait one of the most vital social movement in Latin America today. The Landless Workers Movement (MST) started in 1985 to correct the extremely unequal concentration of land in Brazil. There, 1% of large landholders control 46% of agricultural land. Of the 400 million hectares of arable land, only 60 million are used for planting crops; 4.8 million families have no land, while 35 million Brazilians live in poverty. Over the past 15 years, the Landless Workers Movement has won 20 million hectares of land for 300,000 families and built thousands of food production cooperatives and schools. These land occupations bring new life to people without hope. And they pressure the Brazilian government to implement agrarian reform. The MST land redistribution is grounded in Brazilian Constitutional law, which decrees that land must fulfill a “social function.” Today, nearly 100,000 families prepare to occupy land in order to feed themselves. They live under plastic tents, by the roads, waiting for their chance to work and produce. They are the soldiers on the front line in the battle for Brazil’s future. – http://www.meaningfulmovies.org/film_list/films/film_187.htm

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Farm & Food, Organizing

 

Struggle in Italy (Lotte in Italia) [1971]

07 May

62m; Italy

Director: Groupe Dziga Vertov

Cast: Cristiana Tullio-Altan, Paolo Pozzesi and Jerome Hinstin

Synopsis (IMDB): The film reveals how and why a supposedly revolutionary Italian girl has in fact fallen prey to bourgeois ideology.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama

 

Sunset Story (2003)

07 May

73m; U.S.

Director: Laura Gabbert

Synopsis (IMDB): Lucille and Irja are retired residents of Sunset Hall, a Los Angeles home for the elderly. Residents of Sunset Hall are retired radicals; they have retired from work but not from protesting against injustice. Bitter Lucille considers herself a realist. Wheelchair-bound Irja is sunny and optimistic. Lucille was raised a Jew but always aspired to assimilate. Irja wants to explore all sorts of new traditions. Through the lives of these women, Sunset Story shows the life at Sunset Hall: teachers, a dancer, an engineer, a social worker, and others, all living out their golden years in a unique environment.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Women

 
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