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Girl Model (2011)

15 Apr

77m

Directors: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin

Synopsis (TIFF): Girl Model shows a rarely seen side of the fashion industry. The film brings a novelist’s eye for emotional and psychological complexity to its portrait of two women. Ashley, an American former model, travels to remote Siberian villages to scout young teenaged girls for fashion shoots in Japan. We see her discover Nadya, a thirteen-year old blonde, who radiates the innocence coveted by Ashley’s clients. Like thousands of other Russian girls, Nadya sees modeling as the best chance to support her family. She feels lucky when Ashley’s agency offers a contract with guarantees. But as the film follows Nadya to Japan and Ashley on her further scouting trips, we see each one grapple with the kind of harsh realities that fashion magazines tend to ignore.

Filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (a different Ashley from the one onscreen) demonstrate an intrepid ability to track an unregulated system, and go far beyond mere fact collecting. Their attention to poetic detail — in faces, interactions and environments — elevates the film to a work of art.

Website: http://www.girlmodelthemovie.com

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy

 

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Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Labor Struggle in the Post Office (1980)

14 Apr

45m

Directors: Tami Gold, Dan Gordon, Erik Lewis

Synopsis (AndersonGold Films): On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers across the country walked off their jobs when their contract expired, saying “No” to mandatory overtime, forced speedups and hazardous working conditions. As a result of this wildcat strike, six hundred thousand postal workers won a better contract. But two hundred workers were arbitrarily fired by management to teach all postal workers a lesson.

SIGNED, SEALED and DELIVERED… is the story of the struggle these postal workers waged to win back their jobs. It follows their fight into the streets, onto the floor of the American Postal Workers Union’s National Convention and among workers and communities nationwide. But it took the tragic death of Michael McDermott, a 25 year old mailhandler who was sucked into a conveyor belt and crushed to death, to bring their hazardous working conditions to national attention.

Website: http://www.andersongoldfilms.com/films/documentaries/ssd.htm

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Documentary, Public Sector, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Sometimes I Run: Stanley Maupin, Sidewalk Flusher (1973)

14 Apr

21m

Director: Blaine Dunlap

Synopsis (Southeast Media Preservation Lab): Portrait of Stanley Maupin, sidewalk flusher on the late-night streets of Dallas, Texas. Filmed in the winter of 1972-1973.

Website: http://analoglab.drupalgardens.com/content/sometimes-i-run

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Documentary, Public Sector, Working Class

 

The Miners’ Hymns (2011)

14 Apr

52m

Director: Bill Morrison

Synopsis (REDCAT): Since The Film of Her (1996), award-winning filmmaker Bill Morrison has completed more than 20 experimental pieces in which he poetically and rhythmically reworks archival footage in various stages of preservation or decomposition. With The Miners’ Hymns, he teams up with Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson to celebrate the culture and political struggles of the Durham collieries in northeastern England. Weaving together stunning black-and-white footage from the early 1900s through the massive 1984 strikes, the film montages different aspects of the miners’ lives—the hardship of pit work, the role of the trade unions, the tradition of the colliery brass bands and the annual Miners’ Gala in Durham.

Website: http://billmorrisonfilm.com/feature-length-films/the-miners-hymns

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Documentary, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Working Class

 

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Strike in Town (1955)

12 Apr

37m

Director: Leslie McFarlane

Synopsis (NFB): This short film depicts the act of collective bargaining common to Canadian industry and shows how it affected a union, a company and a community. In Strike in Town the events that led to a deadlock in negotiations between management and employees at a furniture factory are staged against the backdrop of a one-industry town. It’s the story of a strike nobody wanted, but which everyone was powerless to stop.

Website: http://www.nfb.ca/film/strike_in_town

 
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Posted by on April 12, 2012 in Drama, Manufacturing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

We Are Wisconsin (2012)

11 Apr

74m (2013 version)WeAreWisconsin
Director: Amie Williams
Follows the day-to-day unfolding of the public outcry against Governor Walker’s bill, and lets ordinary people on the ground tell the story.  The film does not rely on pundits, experts, labor leaders and media, but instead presents the Wisconsin story through the powerful voice of ordinary citizens.  This film transcends single-issue politics, and is a powerful argument for staying in the fight. An inspiring testament to the power of citizen activism and our movement.  In addition, the latest version (March 2012) includes an updated ending to the film, with footage from the successes Nov. 6 2012 for Senator Tammy Baldwin and President Barack Obama in Wisconsin.

Synopsis (Hot Docs): “When Republican Governor Scott Walker tries to introduce a budget repair bill in early 2011 that threatens to eliminate worker rights and prevent public debate, an unlikely group of six local citizens is compelled to stand against it. A police officer, a nurse, a high school teacher, a union electrician, a county social worker and a student leader become the driving force behind a take-over of the Capitol building. In less than a month, the local population unites in a way they had never done before. We Are Wisconsin puts a different face to the stereotypes of activism as the protestors we encounter are from all walks of life, united by a common goal of fighting a hyper-conservative wave sweeping the Midwest. These six characters reveal the motives that inspire ordinary citizens to act, showing us how social movements begin and unfold.”

Website: http://wearewisconsinthefilm.com/

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2012 in Documentary, Politics

 

Struggle in the Heartland: A.E. Staley Workers Fight Back (1994)

09 Apr

19m

Synopsis (AFSC): Focuses on the events of June 4, 1994 when 5,000 workers from the midwest came together in solidarity with the 750 striking workers of the A.E. Staley company in Decatur. Helmeted police attack the workers non-violent sit-down protest of Staley’s management locking them out. Raises issues of the right to collective bargaining and to protest peacefully. Since this show does not clarify the issues involved in the strike, it is best to show it with Deadly Corn. It does not stand alone unless the purpose is to educate the audience about civil disobedience and intimidation by authorities.

 
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Posted by on April 9, 2012 in Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Taylor Chain II: A Story of Collective Bargaining (1983)

08 Apr

30m

Directors: Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn

Synopsis (Kartemquin): In 1981-2, the Kartemquin filmmakers returned to the Taylor Chain plant to show labor and management working together against the odds, trying to save the plant from becoming the latest victim of anti-union legislation and the globalization of cheap, exploitable labor.

 
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Posted by on April 8, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing

 

Labor Day (2009)

07 Apr

76m

Director: Glenn Silber

Synopsis (Labor Day): The 2008 Presidential Campaign was an extraordinary moment in U.S. history—not only because of the race and gender of the candidates, but also because of the passions they inspired.

Millions of Americans and hundreds of organizations became actively engaged in the democratic process of choosing the next president. Labor Day, a new feature documentary directed by two-time Oscar Nominee, Glenn Silber, tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of one of them, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s fastest-growing labor union with more than two million members.

Labor Day is a chronicle of this union’s mobilization to ensure a Democratic victory in 2008. For Labor, the Presidential campaign was mission critical. After eight years of Republican policies, the SEIU felt an incredible sense of urgency to change the direction of the economy and the country.

Website: http://www.labordaythemovie.com

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2012 in Documentary, Politics

 

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Employee’s Entrance (1933)

06 Apr

75m

Director: Roy del Ruth

Synopsis (WorldCat): A pre-code film about a heartless manager of a department store who makes a penniless woman pay dearly for her job. He forbids his apprentice to marry, but the apprentice secretly marries a bride with secrets of her own.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2012 in Drama, Retail, Women

 
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