28m; U.S.
Director: Greg Boozell
Synopsis: Industrial workers caught up in globalization.
Category Archives: Global Economy
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006)
75m; U.S.
Director: Robert Greenwald
Synopsis (IMDB): Documentary portraying the actions of U.S. corporate contractors in the U.S.-Iraq war. Interviews with employees and former employees of such companies as Halliburton, CACI, and KBR suggest that government cronyism is behind apparent “sweetheart” deals that give such contractors enormous freedom to profit from supplying support and material to American troops while providing little oversight. Survivors of employees who were killed discuss the claim that the companies cared more for profit than for the welfare of their own workers, and soldiers indicate that the quality of services provided is sub-standard and severely in contradiction to the comparatively huge profits being generated. Also depicted are the unsuccessful attempts by the filmmakers to get company spokesmen to respond to the charges made by the interviewees.
Ironeaters
85m; Bangladesh
Director: Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Synopsis: The Ironeaters is a beautiful film about the workers in the ship dismantling industry. This industry, which now employs three million workers has replaced the jute textile industry which was destroyed by the IMF and World Bank in order to eliminate competition to the international chemical companies. The workers in the Ironeaters face a brutal exploitation at 70 cents a day, and deadly health and safety conditions, which destroy their bodies and their lives. This non-union industry, with contractors pushing the workers to get the job done regardless of the costs, and they are deadly as they disfigure many of the workers. The systemic poverty used by the contractors drives these workers to desperation. This is the first film to show the workers in this industry and the work they do as “the rope carriers go home without a penny of wages.”
Contact: info@lemmefilm.de
Hyenas (1992)
110m; Senegal
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Cast: Ami Diakhate, Djibril Diop Mambéty and Mansour Diouf
Synopsis: A once-prosperous Senegalese village has been falling further into poverty year by year until the village’s elders are reduced to selling town possessions to pay debts. Linguère, a former resident and local beauty, now very rich, returns to this, the village of her birth. The elders hope that she will be a benefactor to the village. To encourage her generosity, they appoint a local grocer, Dramaan, as mayor–who once courted her and will now try to persuade her to help. In fact, Linguère has returned with the intention of sharing her millions with the village but only in return for an unexpected action. This plot twist brings human folly and cynicism into sharp focus.
I Always Dream of Tomorrow (2001)
38m; South Korea
Director: Kim Mi-Re
Synopsis: Women workers in South Korea
Contact: Produced by the Korean Women Workers Associations United and the Korean Women’s Trade Union.
The Globalization Tapes (2002)
85m
Director: Vision Machine Film Project
Synopsis: The film powerfully documents workers exploration of history, globalization, and how unions around the world can support each other and struggle together.
Granito de Arena (2005)
Mexico
Director: Jill Freidberg
Synopsis: Resistance to attacks on public education in Mexico as result of globalization.
Global Village or Global Pillage (2001)
USA; 27m
Director: Jeremy Brecher
Synopsis: A documentary that shows how ordinary people around the world are taking on the global economy.
From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks (2006)
U.S.
Director: Haskell Wexler
Synopsis: A filmed version of a Ian Ruskin’s one man-play covering the life of International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union founder and labor radical Harry Bridges.
Contact: Ian Ruskin, theharrybridgesproject@comcast.net; http://www.theharrybridgesproject.org
From the Mountains to the Maquiladoras
Synopsis: Laid-off Tennessee factory workers visit Mexican communities where factories moved.
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