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Category Archives: Environment

The Oldest New River (1980)

13 Jun

21m; U.S.

Synopsis: A trip back in time to the early days of the New River Community, Thurmond, WV. Once a larger raildroad town than Cincinatti, Thurmond and the local area was a booming coal mining region. Many of the buildings no longer exist. Slowly, the area is slipping into the growing forest. See film “Thurmond.” Background: In 1980 Steve Fesenmaier and Ken Sullivan traveled to John Dragon’s Class IV whitewater company on the New River. Dragon gave them a U-matic video copy of a recent TV show made in North Carolina about Thurmond. Fesenmaier and film archivist Richard Fauss worked together to have the film transferred to 16 mm film for showing around the state.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Working Class

 

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Thirst (2004)

13 Jun

62m; U.S.

Director: Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman

Synopsis: Community resistance to water privatization, union-community coalitions, public employees, need for public investment in infrastructure.

Contact: Alan Snitow & Deborah Kaufman Snitow-Kaufman Productions 2600 Tenth Street #603 Berkeley, CA 94710 510 841-1068 amsnitow@igc.org http://www.snitow-kaufman.org

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Organizing

 

Time to Tackle Climate Change (2010)

13 Jun

20m

Synopsis: Showcases trade unions´ concrete experiences, challenges, opportunities, and commitments for action on climate change and features contributions from over 45 trade union organizations from all over the world. Unions´messages for action highlight that the environment, employment, social justice and a just transition are all part of the same fight.

Contact: Julianna Angelova Sustainlabour International Labour Foundation for Sustainable Development Fundación Internacional Laboral para el Desarrollo Sostenible C/ Pedro Teixeira, 3 1ºC 28020 Madrid, SPAIN Tel: +34 91 4491045 jangelova@sustainlabour.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Organizing

 

To Save the Land and the People (1999)

13 Jun

59m; U.S.

Director: Anne Lewis

Synopsis: Strip or “surface” mining – where coal is blasted and scraped from the mountain surface – increased dramatically in the Appalachian region in 1961 when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) signed contracts to buy over 16 million tons of strip-mined coal. Though cheaper for the buyer than deep-mined coal, the damage done by strip mining was far reaching and had immediate impact on coalfield residents. To Save the Land and People is a history of the early grassroots efforts to stop strip mining in eastern Kentucky, where “broad form” deeds, signed at the beginning of the 20th Century, were used by coal operators to destroy the surface land without permission or compensation of the surface owner. The program focuses on the Appalachian Group to Save the Land and People, whose members used every means possible – from legal petitions and local ordinances, to guns and dynamite – to fight strip mining. The documentary makes a powerful statement about the land and how we use it, and how its misuse conflicts with local cultures and values.

Contact: Anne Lewis 512-656-0507 (cell) http://www.annelewis.org

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Organizing

 

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eDump (2008)

13 Jun

20m; U.S.

Director: Michael Zhao

Synopsis: Poor countries like China and India are the victims of a nasty electronic waste dumping business. E-waste brokers make money by polluting the environment and harming public health in trash towns like Guiyu, Guangdong.

Contact: http://MichaelZhao.net zhaoyunfeng78@gmail.com

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Safety & Health

 

False Profits (2009)

13 Jun

48m

Director: AIDC & WWMP

Synopsis: The first documentary film for both organisations and it focuses on the current global economic crisis – its impact on the working class and the responses by trade unions, government and big business in South Africa. It includes interviews with leading trade unionists, workers, community members, NGO workers and academics.  The film is decidedly leftwing and critical in its approach and attempts to explain the crisis in Marxist terms and poses serious questions about alternative responses to the crisis, that constantly impacts negatively on the working class and the world’s poor. Moreover, this current crisis is also ecological and renders capitalism unsustainable and a threat to life on Earth. – http://www.wwmp.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=518&Itemid=19

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Environment, Philosophy

 

Home (2009)

13 Jun

93m

Director: Yann Arthus-Bertran

Synopsis: The compelling and captivating film works partly because of the high-resolution cinematography used to present our high resolution global environment, documenting the wide time span of terrestrial evolution through to the present. Clearly explained is the urgent situation that we must resolve or our planet will suffer more deep catastrophic damages from climate and environmental disruption.
The style of the film makes it quite educational for audiences of all ages. There’s a vast number of local and global issues that must be resolved. This film shows us the interconnected dependency of these issues. Expect to see this film used in elementary school presentations all the way through universities, neighborhood gatherings, movie theaters, corporate presentations and more. The gravity and urgency of the global environmental quality of life crisis affects us all. So will false “solutions” along with the dismissal of ancient, proven ways of surviving and thriving.
In overview of the images near the end, where the “solutions” are presented, the solutions presented are technological and industrial in nature, reconstructing the power sources with wind, solar, geothermal, and wave energy, clean coal, and more jobs.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment

 

The Southerner (1945)

07 May

92m; U.S.

Director: Jean Renoir

Cast: Zachary Scott, Betty Field and J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis (IMDB): Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a flood, and a jealous neighbor. Can they make it as farmers?

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Environment, Farm & Food, Working Class

 

Texas Gold (2008)

07 May

21m; U.S.

Director: Carolyn M. Scott

Cast: Peter Coyote, Kinnu Krishnaveni and Patsy Northcutt

Synopsis (IMDB): Portrait of Diane Wilson, local shrimper turned activist in Seadrift, Texas, along Highway 185 where giant petrochemical companies make Calhoun County the nation’s most polluting. Wilson has engaged in hunger strikes seeking changes in companies’ behavior, and she has embarrassed Dow/Union Carbide by entering their plant and hanging a banner from atop a tower. We meet a neighbor, see the vacant Seadrift main street (the fishing industry is virtually gone), and hear from talking heads about Texas’s environmental policies since George W. Bush was governor. We see Wilson’s mock commercial for “Texas Gold,” the local undrinkable water. Wilson remains cheerful and tough.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Organizing, Politics, Women

 

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Pulp Fiction, Poison Promises (1995)

26 Apr

14m; U.S.

Director: Mimi Pickering

Synopsis: Mimi Pickering of Appalshop was hired to direct a film about the proposed pulp mill to be built at Apple Grove, Mason County. The Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation paid for the film that explores the dangers that the pulp mill would present – to the workers and the local environment including dumping dioxin into the Ohio River. Many groups, both labor and environmental, opposed the mill, supported by Gov. Caperton and the Legislature. Eventually, the mill was not built. The film also examines the impact that the company’s pulp mill had in the area around Monroe, AL. The film was broadcast on WV television several times. See Doug Hawes-Davis’ film,” Green Rolling Hills” and “Southbound” from High Plains Films. Access: Steve Fesenmaier, WVLC

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Environment, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Organizing

 
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