80m; U.S.
Director: Peter Miller
Synopsis (IMDB): The story of two Italian immigrant radicals who were executed in 1927 offers insights into present-day issues of civil liberties and the rights of immigrants.
Category Archives: Labor History
The Liquid Fire (1962)
29m; U.S.
Director: Martin Hoade
Synopsis: This is an episode of the NBC religious program “The Eternal Light” and was produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary. It is a docu-drama presentation of the life of Samuel Gompers, a key founder and first head of the American Federation of Labor from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Contact: The film can be viewed here: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc13671/m1/
Lockout (2007)
56m; Australia
Director: Jason van Genderen
Synopsis: Story of the 1929 Australian mineworker lockout, aka the Rothbury Riots, that country’s most violent industrial conflict.
Contact: greg@lockout.tv 61 413 017 771 (Cell)
Lucia (1969)
160m; Cuba
Director: Humberto Solas
Cast: Raquel Revuelta, Eslinda Núñez and Adela Legrá
Synopsis: Traces episodes in the lives of three Cuban working women, each named Lucía, from three different historical periods: the Cuban war of independence (with Spain), the 1930’s, and the 1960’s.
Monogah Heroine (2007)
25m; U.S.
Director: Gina Martino Dahlia
Synopsis: The film focuses on the widows left behind from the December 6, 1907 Monongah mine disaster, still dubbed the worst disaster in American history.
Contact: WVU School of Journalism – gmartino@mix.wvu.edu , 304-293-3505 ext. 5407
Machuca (2004)
121m; Chile
Director: Andrés Wood
Cast: Matías Quer, Ariel Mateluna and Manuela Martelli
Synopsis (IMDB): A wonderful coming-of-age film set in Santiago, Chile during the last year of Salvador Allende’s democratic socialist government and the first years of the Augusto Pinochet regime. The film follows two boys, one Pedro Machuca from the city’s poor slums and the other, Gonzalo Infante, from an upper-class family. The two meet when a new government program starts placing children from poorer communities in more affluent schools and the two start to bond.
Making History: An Introduction to SEIU and the Labor Movement (2001)
40m; U.S.
Director: Lucia Duncan
Synopsis: Tells six pivotal labor stories, three from SEIU’s history and three from earlier struggles in other unions’ each story is about 6 minutes long.
Contact: alva.hines@seiu.org luciaduncan@gmail.com
Man of Iron (1981)
153m
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Cast: Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda and Marian Opania
Synopsis (IMDB): Andrzej Wajda’s account of the events at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980. Winkiel (Marian Opania), a burned-out, alcoholic journalist is assigned to look into the activities of Maciek Tomzyk (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), the charismatic and articulate leader of striking shipyard workers. He turns out to be the son of Mateusz Birkut. The journalist makes use of her own reputation as a youthful radical, implying a solidarity with Tomzyk even as she searches for the dirty laundry the party bosses hope she’ll find. But as she interviews the labour leader’s associates and his detained wife, Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda), and hears of his travails and of his father’s death in the 1970 crackdown against the workers, Opania begins to feel his former idealism returning, forcing her to consider putting her own career at risk to side with the strikers.
The Masses and the Millionaires: the Homestead Strike (1974)
30m; U.S.
Director: Robert Saudek Associates
Synopsis: Homestead steel strike in PA.
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