Global Economy | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Over Land (2008)

59m; Canada
Director: Steve Suderman

Synopsis: Family farmers face the threat of closing.

Over Land is an intimate and personal portrait of a family facing a crisis in agriculture. Between 1996 and 2006, despite warnings of an impending food shortage, prices for farm goods dropped to their lowest point in Canadian history, driving many farmers off the land. With a family history of farming spanning generations, the Sudermans now face a challenge that threatens to pull the family apart.

Over Land features original music composed and performed by Dirk Powell.The executive producer is Robin Schlaht. Directed by Steve Suderman.

Contact: steve@gorgeousproductions.ca 306-525-2524 (Home)

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

Tags: Food Service Industry

Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009)

20 Apr

52m; U.S.

Director: Renée Bergan and Mark Schuller

Cast: Marie-Jeanne Solange Frisline Thérèse Hélène

Synopsis: The compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers give the global economy a human face. Each woman’s personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti: inhumane working/living conditions, violence, poverty, lack of education, and poor health care. While the film offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women’s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance demonstrates these are global struggles. Finally, through their collective activism, these women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.

Contact: TÈT ANSANM PRODUCTIONS 139 Clinton Ave. #4, Brooklyn, NY 11205 347-599-1116 (phone/fax) info@potomitan.net

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Posted by iwwggrandson on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Manufacturing, Outsourcing, Politics, Women, Working Class

Performing the Border (1999)

19 Apr

42m

Director: Ursula Biemann

Synopsis (Women Make Movies): A video essay set in the Mexican-U.S. border town of Ciudad Juarez, where U.S. multinational corporations assemble electronic and digital equipment just across from El Paso, Texas. This imaginative, experimental work investigates the growing feminization of the global economy and its impact on Mexican women living and working in the area. Looking at the border as both a discursive and material space, the video explores the sexualization of the border region through labor division, prostitution, the expression of female desires in the entertainment industry, and sexual violence in the public sphere. Candid interviews with Mexican women factory and sex workers, as well as activists and journalists, are combined with scripted voiceover analysis, screen text, scenes and sounds recorded on site, and found footage to give new insights into the gendered conditions inscribed by the high-tech industry at its low-wage end.

Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c474.shtml

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Posted by jca on April 19, 2012 in Experimental, Global Economy, Manufacturing, Women

Remote Sensing (2001)

19 Apr

53m

Director: Ursula Biemann

Synopsis (Women Make Movies): In Biemann’s latest video, she traces the routes and reasons of women who travel across the globe for work in the sex industry. By using the latest images from NASA satellites, the film investigates the consequences of the U.S. military presence in South East Asia as well as European migration politics. This video-essay takes an earthly perspective on cross-border circuits, where women have emerged as key actors and expertly links new geographic technologies to the sexualization and displacement of women on a global scale. By revealing how technologies of marginalization affect women in their sexuality, REMOTE SENSING aspires to displace and resignify the feminine within sexual difference and cultural representation.

Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c564.shtml

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Posted by jca on April 19, 2012 in Experimental, Global Economy, Sex Industry/Sexuality, Women

Love, Women and Flowers (1988)

18 Apr

58m

Directors: Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva

Synopsis (Women Make Movies): At any time of year in the U.S., carnations of every color are plentiful and cheap – but the ready availability of these beautiful flowers comes at a global price. Thousands of miles away from the bright displays in U.S. stores, hazardous labor conditions endanger the 90,000 women who work in Colombia’s flower industry.

According to a 2007 report, approximately 60 percent of all flowers sold in the U.S. come from Colombia, where the use of pesticides and fungicides – some banned in the developed countries that export them – has drastic health and environmental consequences. With urgency and intimacy, this film evokes the testimonies of the women workers and documents their efforts to organize. As women workers continue to struggle in this industry (in 2007 almost 200 workers were fired from the largest flower plantation in Colombia for their attempts to unionize and improve their conditions) this powerful and unique documentary remains an important resource for those interested in globalization, environmentalism, labor issues, social struggles, and Latin American studies.

Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c71.shtml

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Posted by jca on April 18, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Women

Made In Thailand (1999)

18 Apr

30m

Directors: Eve-Laure Moros and Linzy Emery

Synopsis (Women Make Movies): In Thailand, women make up 90 percent of the labor force responsible for garments and toys for export by multinational corporations. This powerful, revealing documentary about women factory workers and their struggle to organize unions exposes the human cost behind the production of everyday items that reach our shores. Probing the profound impact of the New World Order on the populations that provide the global economy with cheap labor, MADE IN THAILAND also profiles women newly empowered by their campaign for human and worker’s rights. Several of these women are survivors of the 1993 Kader Toy Factory fire, one of the worst industrial fires in history. Today they are highly effective leaders in the grass-roots movement mobilizing workers in their recently industrialized country.

Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c472.shtml

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Posted by jca on April 18, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Organizing, Women

Nalini By Day, Nancy by Night (2005)

18 Apr

27m

Director: Sonali Gulati

Synopsis (Women Make Movies): In this insightful documentary, filmmaker Sonali Gulati explores complex issues of globalization, capitalism and identity through a witty and personal account of her journey into India’s call centers. Gulati, herself an Indian immigrant living in the US, explores the fascinating ramifications of outsourcing telephone service jobs to India—including how native telemarketers take on Western names and accents to take calls from the US, UK and Australia.

A fresh juxtaposition of animation, archival footage, live action shots and narrative work highlight the filmmaker’s presence and reveal the performative aspects of her subjects. With fascinating observations on how call centers affect the Indian culture and economy, NALINI BY DAY, NANCY BY NIGHT raises important questions about the complicated consequences of globalization.

Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c682.shtml

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Posted by jca on April 18, 2012 in Communications, Documentary, Global Economy, Women

Deadline for Action (1946)

17 Apr

40m

Director: Carl Marzani

Synopsis (WorldCat): This film analyses the post-World War II economic situation as experienced by one UE worker named Bill Turner. It focuses on the impact of the nation-wide strike in 1946 when over two million workers went out in protest over wage cutbacks. An animation sequence explains the role of multinational corporations and reveals their questionable business practices overseas during the war.

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Posted by jca on April 17, 2012 in Drama, Global Economy, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Tags: Power Generation Industries

Girl Model (2011)

15 Apr

77m

Directors: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin

Synopsis (TIFF): Girl Model shows a rarely seen side of the fashion industry. The film brings a novelist’s eye for emotional and psychological complexity to its portrait of two women. Ashley, an American former model, travels to remote Siberian villages to scout young teenaged girls for fashion shoots in Japan. We see her discover Nadya, a thirteen-year old blonde, who radiates the innocence coveted by Ashley’s clients. Like thousands of other Russian girls, Nadya sees modeling as the best chance to support her family. She feels lucky when Ashley’s agency offers a contract with guarantees. But as the film follows Nadya to Japan and Ashley on her further scouting trips, we see each one grapple with the kind of harsh realities that fashion magazines tend to ignore.

Filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (a different Ashley from the one onscreen) demonstrate an intrepid ability to track an unregulated system, and go far beyond mere fact collecting. Their attention to poetic detail — in faces, interactions and environments — elevates the film to a work of art.

Website: http://www.girlmodelthemovie.com

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Posted by jca on April 15, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy

Tags: Textile