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Category Archives: Global Economy

Under Rich Earth (Bajo Suelos Ricos) [2008]

13 Jun

92m; Ecuador

Director: Malcolm Rogge

Synopsis: Under Rich Earth is a story about ordinary people with extraordinary courage. In a remote mountain valley in Ecuador, coffee and sugarcane farmers face the dismal prospect of being forced off their land to make way for a mining project. Unprotected by the police and ignored by their government, they prepare to face down the invaders on their own. Their resistance ultimately leads to a remarkable and dangerous stand off between farmers and a band of armed paramilitaries deep in the cloud forest. In a world dominated by news of massacres and terrorism, Under Rich Earth offers a surprising and poignant tale of hope and determination.

Contact: rogge@ryecinema.com distribution@ryecinema.com http://underrichearth.ryecinema.com

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Farm & Food, Global Economy, Organizing

 

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Union Roadshow: Organising EPZ Workers in Indonesia (2009)

13 Jun

10m; Indonesia

Synopsis: It has always been extremely difficult for unions to organise EPZ workers, with employers and even governments crushing unionisation attempts. But in Indonesia, unions are helping workers to move from temporary contracts to permanent employment. Wages are increasing and so is union membership. Premiered at the International Metalworkers’ Federation’s World Congress, Union Roadshow shows that there are reasons to be optimistic about the possibility of unionising EPZs, and aims to inspire unions in other parts of the world to intensify their efforts to organise EPZ workers.

Spanish Version here:
Roadshow Sindical: Sindicalizar las zonas francas de Indonesia

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Documentary, Global Economy, Organizing

 

Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy

13 Jun

28m;

Synopsis: The compelling tale of those forced by the global economy to leave their home countries.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Migrant workers

 

We Didn’t Want It to Happen This Way (1978)

13 Jun

30m; U.S.

Director: George Lindblade

Synopsis:  Shot on film in 1978, this project was commissioned by the Zenith Corporation and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It chronicles the effect of the Sioux City Zenith plant closing on the lives of nine people from seven families. The film crew then traveled to Taiwan and Mexico, where the Sioux City jobs relocated. This was the first wave of US manufacturing jobs moving to offshore facilities. 1500 people, mostly women, lost their jobs. The film was intended to encourage Congress to pass antidumping laws that would protect American workers. We Didn’t Want it to Happen This Way was the winner of the 1979 American Film Festival Award. – https://siouxcitygifts.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/48?osCsid=7kdbncntn103lnet2704fo4086

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Manufacturing, Outsourcing

 

We Feed the World (2005)

13 Jun

96m; U.S.

Director: Erwin Wagenhofer

Synopsis: Every day in Vienna the amount of unsold bread sent back to be disposed of is enough to supply Austria’s second-largest city, Graz. Around 350,000 hectares of agricultural land, above all in Latin America, are dedicated to the cultivation of soybeans to feed Austria’s livestock while one quarter of the local population starves. Every European eats ten kilograms a year of artificially irrigated greenhouse vegetables from southern Spain, with water shortages the result. This documentary about food and globalization traces the origins of the food we eat, depicting fishermen and farmers, long-distance truckers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash – contrasting scarcity amid plenty. An insight into the production of our food, the film answers the question of what world hunger has to do with us. Interviewed are not only fishermen, farmers, agronomists, biologists and the UN’s Jean Ziegler, but also the director of production at Pioneer, the world’s largest seed company, as well as Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International, the largest food company in the world. Erwin Wagenhofer received the 2006 Fipresci Award for We Feed the World at the Motovun Film Festival (Croatia). Other films include Agnes (short, 2002) and his latest documentary, Let’s Make Money (2008).

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Global Economy

 

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Who Killed Chea Vichea? (2010)

13 Jun

85m; 

Director: Bradley Cox

Synopsis: In 1999, Cambodian garment workers demanding decent wages and working conditions found their leader in Chea Vichea. As president of Cambodia’s free trade union, he stood with them despite beatings and death threats. Until a sunny morning in 2004. As Vichea read the paper at a sidewalk newsstand, three bullets silenced him forever. Under intense international pressure, the police arrested two men and extracted a confession. They were sentenced to 20 years each. But did they have anything to do with the crime? What seems at first to be justice done starts to look like a frame-up. And the implications reach far beyond the police station and the courtroom: to the headquarters of the ruling party and to the garment trade that is Cambodia’s economic lifeblood. Director Bradley Cox shot Who Killed Chea Vichea? over five years, covering events as they happened and tracking down witnesses in a country where knowing too much can cost you your life. Who Killed Chea Vichea? is a highly charged murder mystery, a political thriller, and a documentary like no other.

Contact: http://www.whokilledcheavichea.com/

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Organizing

 

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Wild Caught (2006)

13 Jun

98m; U.S.

Director: Matthew Barr

Synopsis: Effects of globalization on small-sclae fishing in N.C.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy

 

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Wittstock, Wittstock (1997)

13 Jun

Running Time: 117 Minutes
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary
Director – Volker Koepp
Screenplay – Volker Koepp
Producer – Herbert Kruschke

Three East German women spend over twenty years at a textile mill in Wittstock only to find themselves jobless shortly after the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1990. In telling their tragic story, this provocative documentary–begun by filmmaker Volker Koepp and his cameraman Christian Lehmann in 1974 and finished in 1996–offers a critical look at the downside of Germany’s reunification. In 1974, the three women, Renata, Elizabeth and Edith were all young woman working in the Wittstock textile mill. The filmmakers return to the women in 1983. By this time, the women have matured and experienced marriages, divorces and had children. Their hard work at the mill has paid off and each has been promoted. In 1990, following the demise of the Wall, their heretofore contented lives are destroyed when their company is purchased by Fashion Ltd and massive downsizing efforts begin. Women are the primary targets, especially those who make a fuss. Within a year, all three women are unemployed and struggling to find new jobs. The film rejoins them in 1993 and finds that things have not improved. By 1996, the unemployment level has reached 90% and things look bleak for the women, who despite the poor economic prognosis continue struggling to find new jobs. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Unemployment-Wages, Women

 

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Women, Free Trade Zones and the Multinationals (1992)

13 Jun

58m; U.S.

Synopsis: Women in sweatshops and factories in Central and South America.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Manufacturing, Women

 

Workers Dreams (2007)

13 Jun

50m; Vietnam

Director: Tran Phuong Thao

Synopsis: Thousands of young women now work in foreign owned factories in Vietnam for approximately $2 a day. This film shows the lives of these young rural women who end up in a Japanese Canon factory in the Hanoi area. Hoping to make a new life with many consumer goods around them they are ground up in the capitalist system and their dreams and illusions about the new Vietnam are crushed.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Migrant workers, Women

 
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