Themes | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Keeping on (1983)

75m; U.S.

Director: Barbara Kopple

Synopsis (Allmovie.com): Keeping On was the only “fiction” film directed by documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Like her earlier Harlan County USA and The American Dream, the film examines a labor-management struggle in a hardscrabble Southern mill town. Dick Anthony Williams plays a minister who encourages the activities of labor unionist James Broderick. Williams’ stand polarizes the community, and the cleric is ostracized by the so-called “right” people. Completed in 1981, Keeping On premiered February 8, 1983 on PBS’ American Playhouse.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Organizing, Working Class

Ken Hechler, In Pursuit of Justice (2008)

28 Mar

120m

Director: Russ Barbour

Synopsis: As a Congressman and WV Secretary of State, professor/author, and environmental activist,Ken Hechler changed the face of West Virginia and national politics starting in 1958 when he was first elected to Congress. Highlights include interviews with many celebrities including Senators George McGovern, Robert Dole, Tom Harkin, James Symington and John Brademas.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Documentary, Politics

Tags: Mining

Kes (1969)

28 Mar

110m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: David Bradley, Brian Glover and Freddie Fletcher

Synopsis (IMDB): A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

Kick Like a Girl (2008)

28 Mar

25m; U.S.

Director: Jenny Mackenzie

Synopsis: A soccer team of third-grade girls in Utah can’t find adequate competition against other girls’ teams and decides to enter the local boys’ league instead. The 24-minute film follows their season and the reactions of girls, boys, and parents.

Contact: http://www.kicklikeagirlmovie.com/

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Children, Documentary, Sports, Women

Kids Stonewalled at Vale-INCO Gate (2009)

28 Mar

5:30; U.S.

Director: Stuart Cryer

Synopsis: The strike of USW Local 6500 against Vale-INCO is into its sixth month. The strikers’ kids want to deliver their Xmas cards to Vale-INCO, but are left hanging at the company gates.

Contact: Stuart Cryer terraV@cyberbeach.net http://www.vimeo.com/8228584

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Available Online, Children, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Killer of Sheep (1977)

28 Mar

83m; U.S.

Director: Charles Burnett

Cast: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore and Charles Bracy

Synopsis: Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Working Class

The Killing Floor (1985)

28 Mar

118m; U.S.
Director: Bill Duke
Cast: Cynthia Baker, Dennis Farina and Clarence Felder

Synopsis (IMDB): During World War I, a poor black Southerner travels north to Chicago to get work in the city’s slaughterhouses, where he becomes embroiled in the organized labor movement. He becomes prominent as a leader of fellow African-Americans in the union, though many, including his best friend, view him as a sell-out.

Contact: Elsa Rassbach elsarassbach@gmail.com http://www.thekillingfloor-thefilm.com

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Blacks, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Outsourcing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

Kings (2007)

28 Mar

88m; Ireland

Director: Tom Collins

Cast: Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly and Brendan Conroy

Synopsis: In the twenty five years they have been there, done that, the Navvy (Irish working man) clock does not stop for alienation or inner despair. They are working men, strong even indestructible. Those gnawing feelings of something not being quite right are ameliorated by the camaraderie of their mates. So what if it all ends in tears or a thumping. They can give as good as they get or used to. At least they are alive and having the craic. Until it all changes, and a silence falls on the reverie of the gang. Tragedy has struck Jackie the youngest, the brightest and the bravest. The gang does what has always been done – they gather together for a Wake, a final celebration, a cheer, to give Jackie Flavin a send off fit for a king, a king of the Kilburn High Road. He, unlike them is set to return to Ireland – his body found bruised and battered on the railway track, crushed by the passing Kilburn train

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

Kinky Boots (2005)

28 Mar

107m; U.K.

Director: Julian Jarrold

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts

Synopsis (IMDB): A drag queen comes to the rescue of a man who, after inheriting his father’s shoe factory, needs to diversify his product if he wants to keep the business afloat.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, White Collar, Working Class