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Category Archives: Legal System

Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (2009)

07 May

120m; U.S.

Director: Bradley Beesley

Synopsis: Since 1940, the Oklahoma State Penitentiary has held an annual rodeo in which inmates compete, to the delight of thousands of spectators. Since 2006, female inmates have been allowed to take part. Many of them are young mothers, separated from their families because of drug-related crimes. The rodeo poses the real possibility of lifelong injury, especially for these amateurs with only minimal training, but both women and men participate to relieve the intense boredom of prison life. This two-hour, heartbreaking documentary introduces some of them, and in the process provides a poignant portrait of the inhumanity of the U.S. prison system.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Legal System, Sports, Women

 

Sacco & Vanzetti (1971)

26 Apr

120m; Italy

Director: Giuliano Montaldo

Cast: Gian Maria Volonté, Riccardo Cucciolla and Cyril Cusack

Synopsis: The story of two anarchists who were charged and unfairly tried for murder when it was really for their political convictions.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Legal System

 

Sacco and Vanzetti (2007)

26 Apr

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.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Legal System

 

The Last Campaign (2005)

20 Apr

107m; U.S.

Director: Wayne Ewing

Synopsis: “The Last Campaign” – a sequel to Ewing’s legendary first film in 1972, “If Elected…” – covers the 2004 campaign of Justice Warren McGraw for the re-election to the West Virginia Supreme Court, dubbed the ‘nastiest’ judicial race, if not the most expensive in the nation. Scenes from “If Elected…” -which covered Warren McGraw’s 1972 race for the West Virginia State Senate and was originally broadcast by Bill Moyers in 1973 – are interspersed with the story of McGraw’s 2004 Supreme Court race to create a unique, cinema verite portrait of American politics over a 32 year span. One man’s struggle to resist corporate interference in the electoral process is the continuing theme. In 2004, the US Chamber of Commerce is suspected, of funneling millions of dollars from multi-national corporations into West Virginia in the primary and general election in a successful effort to defeat Justice Warren McGraw as a part of what Forbes Magazine described as a “secret war” against judges in America. The Chamber’s shadowy efforts were joined in the general election by a group calling itself “For the Sake of the Kids” which spent millions, supplied from a coal company executive to wage a smear campaign against McGraw alleging that he let a sexual predator loose to work in a school. That same coal company executive has a pending 50 million dollar judgment against his company on appeal before the West Virginia State Supreme Court.

Contact: http://www.thelastcampaign.com/

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Legal System, Politics

 

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Los Olvidados (1950)

20 Apr

86m; Mexico

Director: Luis Buñuel

Cast: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo and Estela Inda

Synopsis: A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Children, Crime-Action, Drama, Legal System, Working Class

 

Mad Money (2008)

20 Apr

104m; U.S.

Director: Callie Khouri

Cast: Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes

Synopsis: Three female employees of the Federal Reserve plot to steal money that is about to be destroyed.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Comedy, Crime-Action, Finance, Legal System, Public Sector, Women

 

Native Land (1942)

20 Apr

80m; U.S.

Director: Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand

Cast:  Paul Robeson, Fred Johnson and Mary George

Synopsis (IMDB): Paul Robeson narrates a mix of dramatizations and archival footage about the bill of rights being under attack during the 1930s by union busting corporations, their spies and contractors. In dramatizations, we see a farmer beaten for speaking up at a meeting, a union man murdered in a boarding house, two sharecroppers near Fort Smith Arkansas shot by men deputized by the local sheriff, a spy stealing the names of union members, and a dead Chicago union man eulogized. In archival footage we witness police and goons beating lawfully assembled union organizers, and we see men at work and union families at play. The narration celebrates patriotism and democracy.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Blacks, Class, Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Farm & Food, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Legal System, Organizing, Politics, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

 

Off the Books: How Corporations Hide their Environmental and Human Rights Liabilities (2002)

20 Apr

20m; U.S.

Director: Stanford Lewis

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Legal System

 

Out of the Shadows: A Story form the Heart of Working America (2001)

20 Apr

Director: Bal-Maiden Films

Synopsis: Workers in Minneapolis fight deportation after organizing for union voice.

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Organizing

 

La Americana (2008)

30 Mar

65m; 

Director: Nicholas Bruckman, John Mattiuzzi

Synopsis: When nine-year-old Carla suffers a life-threatening accident, her mother, Carmen, must leave her behind and make the dangerous and illegal journey from Bolivia to the U.S., where she hopes to earn enough to save her daughter’s life. Working in New York to support Carla’s medical needs, Carmen struggles in vain to legalize her immigration status, and wrestles with the prospect of never seeing her daughter again. Then, after six years of separation, Congress proposes “amnesty” legislation that could allow Carmen and Carla to be reunited at last… Filmed across three countries in a captivating cinematic narrative, LA AMERICANA is Carmen’s story, and the story of millions of illegal immigrants who must leave their families behind to pursue the elusive American dream. An intimate and powerful story, LA AMERICANA shows how immigration policy affects families on both sides of the border, putting a human face on this timely and controversial issue. Winner of multiple awards at film festivals across the country, La Americana is now being used as the centerpiece for a nationwide campaign to engage and inspire audiences to dialogue about immigrants’ rights and immigration reform.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Politics, Women

 
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