39m; U.S.
Director: Jon Alpert, Matthew O’Neill
Synopsis (IMDB): Follows the struggle of 138 mostly immigrant workers who strike to save their jobs at a famous bakery in the Bronx when a private equity firm buys the bakery and demands wage cuts of up to 30%.
Contact: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/no-contract-no-cookies-the-stella-doro-strike/index.html#/documentaries/no-contract-no-cookies-the-stella-doro-strike/synopsis.html
54m; U.S.
Director: Amie Williams
Synopsis (IMDB): An all-American tale about an all-American garment: The T-shirt, NO SWEAT takes a wild ride into the bowels of Los Angeles garment industry. Mostly undocumented workers at American Apparel and SweatX are offered better wages, benefits, even a shot at worker-ownership. But what’s really behind the label?
Contact: http://www.balmaidenfilms.com/who.html
29m; Canada
Director: Helene Klodawsky
Synopsis: Kwai Fong Lai is from Hong Kong, Alberta Onyejekwe from Ghana, and Angela Williams from Jamaica. They are immigrants to Canada, visible minorities, and women, a combination designed to make their lives difficult. While Canadian society has yet to accustom itself to its immigrant reality, these strong and resilient women manage to adapt and survive. At home and at work, they speak candidly about the conditions that shape their lives. (Synopsis from: http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=18377)
11m; U.S.
Director: Jon Lewis
Synopsis: Farm Workers’ struggle in the US.
7m; U.K.
Synopsis: Directed and produced by Mat Haywood and Lihee Avidan for Channel 4TV Two of four stories about migrant health care workers in England, the films show a brief look at how migrant workers contribute to the labour force in the NHS and the connection between working abroad and the life they have left behind. Produced with the assistance of Public Services International.
98m; Italy/France
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Synopsis: Construction foreman Claudio (Elio Germano) has a good job, a beautiful wife (Isabella Ragonese), two young boys and a third on the way. But tragedy strikes when his wife dies giving birth. Now child care and the explosive demands of his job–a complex web that includes highly leveraged loans from the neighborhood pimp (Luca Zingaretti), the hiring of illegal immigrant workers and blackmailing his boss to get a prized contract–have him working harder than ever. The latest from Daniele Luchetti (MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD, 2008 AFI European Union Film Showcase) explores everyday melodrama in a working-class milieu.
10m; U.S.
Director: Tania Millan, Loyda Alvarado & Marie Marroquin
Synopsis: An immigrant woman of color becoming a labor activist.
Contact: Jennifer McNulty (831) 459-2495; jmcnulty@ucsc.edu (wrote story on UCSC website: http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=2149) Neidi Dominguez is the subject of the film and she can help you get in contact with the film makers, her email is: ndomingu@ucsc.edu
80m; Israel
Director: Tomer Heymann
Synopsis: “Paper Dolls” is a documentary film which explores changing patterns of global immigration and expanding notions of family through the prism of a community of Filipino transvestites who live illegally in Israel. Cast out by their families because of their sexual and gender preferences, these people work 6 days a week as live-in, 24 hour a day care givers (and in many cases as surrogate children) for elderly orthodox Jewish men, in order to earn money to send to their families in the Philippines that had rejected them. On their one free night per week, they pursue their own personal dreams as drag performers in the group they call “The Paper Dolls” in the relative freedom of cosmopolitan Tel Aviv. Despite having to deal with often harsh working conditions, threats by street criminals, fear of terrorist bombings and the constant peril of deportation, The Paper Dolls demonstrate a rare generosity of spirit, humanity and lust for life. Award winning filmmaker Tomer Heymann enters this unusual world and by coming to know and love these subjects unearths joy, sorrow and humanity which change his life forever
Contact: http://www.heymann-films.com/en/Films/Details/Paper-Dolls#/Images/Films/paper_dolls_1.jpg
83m; France/Algeria
Director: Annie Tresgot
Synopsis: Cinema verite portrayal of Algerian emigrant labor problems, racism, and alienation in Paris.
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