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Category Archives: Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc

Jai Bhim Comrade: Blast From The Caste

17 Jul

Director – Anand Patwardhan (180 min) 2012

The recent election in India of a rightwing reactionary government and the collapse of the Congress Party again exposes the basic contradictions within India. The lowest caste, the Dalit or “untouchables,” for thousands of years, was denied education and treated as bonded labour. By 1923 Bhimrao Ambedkar broke the taboo, won doctorates abroad and fought for the emancipation of his people. He helped draft India’s Constitution and led his followers to discard Hinduism for Buddhism. His legend still spreads through poetry and song.

In 1997, a Dalit protest erupted in a Mumbai slum after a statue of B.R. Ambedkar was desecrated. Ambedkar (1891-1956) was a reformist who agitated to end the caste system, helped Gandhi write the Indian constitution and amassed a large following among the Dalit. At the protest, 10 unarmed people were killed when police opened fire. Singer, poet and activist Vilas Ghogre later committed suicide to protest the killings.

Shot over 14 years, this three hour film is jam-packed with information. The film covers the biographies of both Ghogre and Ambedkar as well as Indian politics and the day-to-day lives of the Dalit who are still struggling for freedom and justice in India.

 

 
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Posted by on July 17, 2014 in Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Service Workers, Working Class

 

All Points North

17 Jul

Documentary (Athens/ London 2013, 25 minutes)
Producer: BlueArts Film, Mizgin Müjde Arslan, Dir: Therese Koppe
Original Language: French, with English subtitles.
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“It certainly will be a different Europe, not like here in Greece”, states Laurent in an assuring voice. The dream of heading North is the driving motivation for Laurent and Ibrahim, two young men leaving their country of Senegal in search of a better life.As undocumented migrants, they find themselves trapped in Greece, bound to the Greek borders by the lack of immigration papers. Before leaving their homeland their impressions of Europe were very different from the harsh realities they faced once arriving. For migrants such as Laurent and Ibrahim, there is no stability in a better, safer land; their journeys to find such are continually ongoing.

 
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Posted by on July 17, 2014 in Blacks, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Migrant workers

 

Miners Shot Down (2014)

02 Jul

(85 min) 2014 by Rehad Desai (South Africa)

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.  What emerges is collusion at the top, spiraling violence and the country’s first post-apartheid massacre. South Africa will never be the same again.
Film Website

 
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Posted by on July 2, 2014 in Collective Bargaining, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Grace

23 Jun

Grace is about the daily obstacles and dangers of living in America as an undocumented worker. Grace is a woman, a mother and an immigrant with everything to lose except her faith in someone from her past. She gives a face to the faceless, those who work tirelessly behind the scenes of our families and our nation.

Directed by: Alrick Brown, from a story by Julian Pimiento

http://gracethefilm.wordpress.com/

 
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Posted by on June 23, 2014 in Cities-Urban, Class, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Women

 

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Arsenal of Democracy: PBS Great Depression Series (1993)

02 Jul

PBS Great Depression Series, #7

Producer: WGBH, Boston

Narrator: Joe Morton

53 minutes

The seventh and final installment in the PBS Great Depression series, this film links the onset of World War II and the role of the United States as the primary producer of war materiel with the lingering struggles of the Great Depression. Blending oral history with photos from Dorothea Lange and others, archival films, and audio clips, “Arsenal of Democracy” details the persistent plight of the poor throughout the 1930s, especially for migrant workers, farmers, and the homeless who, despite the historical attention they received, often remained outside the public and political scope at that time. It also explores the social, cultural, and economic changes that the transition from peace to war wrought, such as the racism and discrimination that African Americans and Asians experienced during the 1930s and in hiring and job opportunities; the internment of Japanese Americans after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; the use of racist imagery in wartime propaganda; greater employment opportunities for women and African Americans in wartime production; California’s incredible growth due to massive outlays of federal spending; and the end of the Great Depression.

 

 

 
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Posted by on July 2, 2013 in Arts/Culture, Blacks, Class, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Labor History, Manufacturing, Migrant workers, Politics, War, Women, Working Class

 

No Job For A Woman: The Women Who Fought To Report WWII (2011)

22 Mar

61 minutes, Color/BW, DVD, English NoJobforWoman
A film by Michèle Midori Fillion
available from Women Make Movies

When World War II broke out, reporter Martha Gellhorn was so determined to get to the frontlines that she left husband Ernest Hemingway, never to be reunited. Ruth Cowan’s reporting was hampered by a bureau chief who refused to talk to her. Meanwhile, photojournalist Dickey Chappelle wanted to get so close to the action that she could feel bullets whizzing by. This award-winning documentary tells the colorful story of how these three tenacious war correspondents forged their now legendary reputations during the war—when battlefields were considered no place for a woman.

Narrated by Emmy® Award winner Julianna Margulies, this film features an abundance of archival photos and interviews with modern female war correspondents, as well as actresses bringing to life the written words of these remarkable women. Their repeated delegation to the sidelines to cover the “woman’s angle” succeeded in expanding the focus of war coverage to bring home a new kind of story— a personal look at the human cost of war.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in Biography, Communications, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Women

 

The Brotherhood of Man (1946)

30 Aug

10:36; U.S.

Director: Robert Cannon

Synopsis: An animated short film sponsored by the United Autoworkers which breaks down various racist ideas of difference among peoples.  In some ways the presentation will seem awkward to a modern audience, but considering when it was made and the intended audience (rank-and-file white workers), it is an impressive document.

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Animation, Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Angel City (1980)

24 Jan

Director: Philip LeacockAngelCity
Cast: Ralph Waite, Paul Winfield, Jennifer Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Ralph Waite stars as the head of a rural mountain family that journeys to south Florida as migrant workers only to find themselves trapped in a squalid labor camp controlled by money-hungry Mitchell Ryan and his two henchmen.

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2012 in Discrimination: Racism, Sexism, etc, Drama, Farm & Food, Immigrants/Immigration, Slavery

 
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