Labor History | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

The New Los Angeles (2006)

Director: Lyn Goldfarb

Synopsis (Lyn Goldfarb): The New Los Angeles paints a portrait of an extraordinary city poised to re-frame America’s dialogue about urban political and economic change. This powerful documentary takes the viewer on a journey from the bitterly fought, racially driven elections that brought Mayor Tom Bradley to power in 1973, to the historic 2005 election of L.A.’s first Latino mayor in more than 130 years, Antonio Villaraigosa. Along the way, The New Los Angeles examines how race, labor, and immigration have shaped and reshaped the city’s political life and landscape. This is a story about forging coalitions, nurturing inclusion, seeding innovation, salvaging identity and building community -messages that will resonate throughout America and the world.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History

The Women of Brukman (Les femmes de la Brukman) [2008]

07 May

90m; Canada

Director: Isaac Isitan, Carole Poliquin

Synopsis: Argentina’s “fabrica ocupanda” phenomenon, where workers run abandoned factories where they had previously been employed, is explored in this rousing documentary about what happened at one specific suit manufacturer. The group of women who took over the Brukman factory have become international symbols for workers, standing as an inspiring solution to daunting economic challenges.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, Manufacturing, Women, Working Class

Talkin’ Union (1979)

07 May

58m; U.S.

Director: Glenn Scott

Synopsis: An oral history of 4 women union activists in Texas from 1934 – 1950’s.

Contact: Glenn Scott glenns1048@yahoo.com The collective: People’s History in Texas, Inc.

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Posted by Metro Council on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Women

Professional Revolutionary: The Life of Saul Wellman (2004)

26 Apr

65m; U.S.

Director: Judith Montell & Ronald Aronson

Synopsis (Wikipedia): Under-educated, Wellman fought in the army, worked in a car factory for Ford and was employed at a printing company; Wellman fought against Fascism in both the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Wellman returned home at the start of the Cold War, to help organize and lead the Communist Party in America. Then when the 60s came along, Wellman latched onto the civil rights movement. The documentary deals with wheelchair-using Wellman, during the last years of his life, at an Iraq war protest. Throughout his life, Wellman was an organizer and passionate speaker.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Unemployment-Wages, War, Working Class

Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (2007)

26 Apr

58m; U.S.

Director: John Gianvito

Synopsis: Using Howard Zinn’s A People¹s History of the United States as a basis, filmmaker Gianvito crafts an elegant and elegiac chronicle of the progressive movement in America by visiting cemeteries, plaques, and monuments. Told without narration, Gianvito pays homage to those who fought for their beliefs and who have been forgotten by popular history.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

The Progressive Era (1971)

26 Apr

20m; U.S.

Director: Encyclopedia Brittanica Educational Corporation

Synopsis: An overview of the social contrasts in American life from the Gilded Age through WWI, with comparisons to the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

The Progressives (1969)

26 Apr

20m; U.S.

Director: McGraw-Hill Book Company

Synopsis: Traces the progressive movement from its beginning in 1890 through WWI. Notes that it was a revolt of the American conscience in the cities and on the state and federal levels corruption, poverty, prejudice and other social evils.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History

Project XX: The Innocent Years (1957)

26 Apr

53m; U.S.

Director: Donald Hyatt

Synopsis: A record of America changing from a rural to an industrialized society. Highlighting major events in national life through 1917.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Automation, Documentary, Farm & Food, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History

Quilombo (1986)

26 Apr

119; Brazil

Director: Carlos Diegues

Cast: Jonas Bloch, Zózimo Bulbul and Emmanuel Cavalcanti

Synopsis (IMDB): Palmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his warriors hold off Portuguese raiders; then he agrees to leave the mountains in exchange for reservation land and peace. It’s a mistake. Zumbi, a warrior whose mother was killed by Portuguese and who spent 15 years with the Whites, stays in the mountains to lead Palmares. In 1694, the Portuguese import a ruthless captain from São Paulo to lead an assault on the free Blacks. Can Zumbi keep Palmares free?

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Posted by Metro Council on April 26, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Labor History, Slavery