(Nathaniel Thomas McGill & Vincent Vittorio, 2013, 82 min) The positive impact of domestic manufacturing jobs on national and local economies in the face of declining employment in this sector.
http://theamericanmademovie.com/
Category Archives: Manufacturing
American Made Movie
On The Art Of War
2012, Italy
directed by silvia luzi, luca bellino
Synopsis
Milan, Italy, August 2009.
Four workers climb a 20 metres high gantry crane inside the hangar of the INNSE, the last active factory in Milan. They threaten to throw themselves down to stop the dismantling of the machineries and the closure of the factory they work in. The hangar is surrounded by dozens of policemen and supporters from all over Italy.
It is not a simple struggle.
They have a clear strategy.
They have an organized army.
They know perfectly their territory and their enemy.
There are clear rules, it is a war with a workable paradigm for all forms of struggle.
http://dellartedellaguerra.com/index.php?lang=en
Luca Bellino tfilm.luca@gmail.com
The Women Workers’ War
Director Massimo Ferrari | Italy, 67min.
When an Italian factory fires its all-female workforce, workers take over the factory for over a year. When one of those workers, Rosa, meets Margherita – who owns another factory – new possibilities are hatched.
Farewell to Factory Towns?
Director Maynard Seider | USA, 61 min.
When a New England town creates an art museum in an old building, it fails to produce the jobs promised, and the city’s downtown remains semi-deserted. Should national policy change to bring a new “New Deal” to such towns?
A Job at Ford’s: PBS Great Depression Series (1993)
PBS Great Depression Series, #1
Producer: WGBH, Boston
Narrator: Joe Morton
51 minutes
The first film in the WGBH Great Depression Series, this documentary uses the rise of the Ford system of manufacturing and workplace control as a prism into the onset of the socioeconomic cataclysm by the end of the 1920s known as the Great Depression. Stocked with oral histories with workers, managers, and working-class families, as well as archival film footage, it analyzes the ways in which the automobile, as a product of labor and a catalyst for deep transformations in American society, dominated American life and dictated its economic fortunes. Cars offered far greater access to travel and cultural experiences, especially for women and rural residents, than ever before. Auto work also attracted migrants from across the country, as well as from Mexico, to manufacturing centers in Detroit and the industrial North. Crucially, “A Job at Ford’s” illustrates the repressive labor-relations system that governed not only the workplace environment of auto workers, but also the daily lives of their families in order to ensure compliance with Henry Ford’s desires for social control. Additionally, the film devotes ample time to Ford’s anti-Semitic, racist beliefs, to the worsening conditions of the Depressions, the struggles of everyday people to survive largely without the direct help of the federal government, and the community-based efforts of political radicals and neighborhood groups to respond to the crises. Culminating with the Ford Hunger March in which Ford security guards killed four marchers and wounded over sixty others, the film conveys violence as not only a real threat to organizing at this time, but also a thread through, and force mitigating, working-class daily life in the early twentieth century.
Arsenal of Democracy: PBS Great Depression Series (1993)
PBS Great Depression Series, #7
Producer: WGBH, Boston
Narrator: Joe Morton
53 minutes
The seventh and final installment in the PBS Great Depression series, this film links the onset of World War II and the role of the United States as the primary producer of war materiel with the lingering struggles of the Great Depression. Blending oral history with photos from Dorothea Lange and others, archival films, and audio clips, “Arsenal of Democracy” details the persistent plight of the poor throughout the 1930s, especially for migrant workers, farmers, and the homeless who, despite the historical attention they received, often remained outside the public and political scope at that time. It also explores the social, cultural, and economic changes that the transition from peace to war wrought, such as the racism and discrimination that African Americans and Asians experienced during the 1930s and in hiring and job opportunities; the internment of Japanese Americans after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; the use of racist imagery in wartime propaganda; greater employment opportunities for women and African Americans in wartime production; California’s incredible growth due to massive outlays of federal spending; and the end of the Great Depression.
As Goes Janesville (2012)
Brad Lichtenstein
US, documentary
83m
http://asgoesjanesville.com/
Goes to the front lines over the future of America’s middle class – by insightfully tracking the recent battle over union rights in Wisconsin, and by focusing on the hometown of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. First, General Motors shut down Janesville’s century-old auto plant, leading to massive layoffs. Then, newly elected governor Scott Walker ignited a firestorm by ending collective bargaining and unleashing a protest movement that led to his recall election. Director Brad Lichtenstein followed the lives of Janesville’s auto workers for over three years, as they tried to save their jobs.
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/53693696″>”As Goes Janesville” Official Theatrical Trailer</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/371productions”>371 Productions</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>The Last Pullman Car (1984)
53m; U.S.
Director: Jenny Rohrer, Greg LeRoy
http://www.kartemquin.com/films/the-last-pullman-car
Synopsis: In 1864, George Pullman began selling his famous railroad sleeping cars which helped him build a vast industrial empire that was supposed to last forever. In 1981, however, Pullman workers found themselves in the midst of a fight not only for their jobs but the future of the American rail car industry. One hundred years of government, union and corporate policies are traced in this engaging story.
Contact: Available from New Day Films 22 Riverview Drive, Wayne, NJ 07470.
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