40m; U.S.
Director: Steve Zeltzer
Synopsis: Unions’ participation in the protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.
Contact: View here: http://blip.tv/laborvideo/labor-battles-the-wto-seattle-1999-2642482
Category Archives: Global Economy
John & Jane Toll-Free (2005)
77m; India
Director: Ashim Ahluwalia
Synopsis: Eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at an Indian call-center.
Katanga Business (2009)
120m; Belguim
Director: Thierry Michel
Synopsis: After Mobutu, King of Zaire and Congo River, the Belgian director Thierry Michel pursues his exploration of Central Africa. His new documentary, entitled Katanga Business, is a kind of political economic thriller, which takes place in this south-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the world’s richest regions in mining resources. While the inhabitants of Katanga continue to live in extreme poverty, multinationals are rivalled by China, newly arrived with its billions of dollars. Staged on economic war, Katanga Business is a tale of globalisation.
Contact: http://ks29982.kimsufi.com/katanga-lefilm/ films@passerelle.be
Korea, Labor, and the FTA
Director: MediAct
Synopsis: Korean workers against the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
It Takes a Child (1998)
56m
Director: Judy Jackson
Synopsis (Bulldog Films): Craig Kielburger was 12 years old when child labor activist Iqbal Massih was killed in Pakistan. He immediately went on a seven-week trip to South Asia. What he learned has turned him into a passionate, articulate and effective advocate on behalf of child laborers everywhere. He is determined to put child labor on the international agenda. He is 15 years old in this film.
He started a child-run organization called Free the Children, which now has 10,000 members worldwide. It directs lobbying and petition efforts at governments and big business. F.I.F.A. now won’t put its logo on any soccer balls that are made with child labor. Free the Children has raised over $150,000 to buy children out of bondage and create a school for them, while raising world awareness
Contact: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/child.html
It’s An Attack (2008)
8m; U.S.
Synopsis: From Seattle and the WTO, to Mexico and the struggles of Los Mineros, to Colombia and the brutal murders of trade union activists, It’s an Attack highlights the global attack on workers and the ongoing activism of the United Steelworkers in fighting for the rights of all workers, in the U.S. and around the world. The video premiered at the USW 2008 Convention.
I Am Cuba (1964)
141m; U.S.S.R.-Cuba
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Cast: Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood and José Gallardo
Synopsis (IMDB): Four vignettes in Batista’s Cuba dramatize the need for revolution; long, mobile shots tell almost wordless stories. In Havana, Maria faces shame when a man who fancies her discovers how she earns her living. Pedro, an aging peasant, is summarily told that the land he farms has been sold to United Fruit. A university student faces down a crowd of swaggering U.S. sailors and then watches friends shot by police when they try to distribute a pro-Castro leaflet. The war arrives on the doorstep of peasants Mariano, Amelia, and their four children when Batista’s forces bomb the hills. Mariano wants peace, so he seeks out the guerrillas to join the fight. If nothing else, an incredible example of pure film-making with stunning and innovative camera work.
Import Export (2007)
135m;
Director: Ulrich Seidl
Cast: Ekateryna Rak, Paul Hofmann, Michael Thomas, Maria Hofstätter, Georg Friedrich, Natalija Baranova, Natalia Epureanu, Petra Morzé, Dirk Stermann, Erich Finsches
Synopsis: This dark comedy is about the crossing stories of a Ukrainian nurse (import) and a maladjusted Viennese security man (export).
Contact: (http://importexport.ulrichseidl.com/en/) Sarah Wilby 45a rathbone Street London W1T 1NW, GB, T +44 20 7580 0222 F +44 20 7580 0333 sarahwilby@mac.com
Indentured (2010)
10m; U.S./Iraq
Director: Cy Kuckenbaker
Synopsis: “Indentured” investigates the living conditions of South Asian laborers working on US military bases in Iraq. Thousands of nameless workers, called “Third Country Nationals” because they’re neither American nor Iraqi, toil inside US bases in Iraq as food servers, custodians, construction workers and more. But unlike American contractors who often make six figure salaries in Iraq, these men typically make less than two dollars an hour. Nepalese custodians talk about the illegal broker’s fees they had to pay to get their jobs on the base. Inside a company-run camp a Nepalese supervisor explains how they are brought into Iraq against Nepalese and Iraqi law.
Intel inside – Where? (2005)
60m; Israel
Director: Ayelet Bargur
Synopsis: What happens when globalization — in the form of high-tech giant Intel — comes to a small, remote community in southern Israel?
Contact: Ayelet Bargur, eyelet6@013.net 971-3-6041225; 972-52-2204734
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