RSS

Category Archives: Themes

Korea, Labor, and the FTA

Director: MediAct

Synopsis: Korean workers against the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

 

Kuhle Wampe (1932)

71m; Germany

Director: Slatan Dudow

Synopsis: Fragmented vignettes combine to make a political statement about working class potential in Germany, just before it was blocked by Fascism.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Politics, Working Class

 

L’America (1994)

116m; Italy

Director: Gianni Amelio

Cast: Enrico Lo VersoMichele Placido and Piro Milkani

Synopsis: (IMDB): Two Italian racketeers come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants. They need a stooge. They choose an old one in a jail : Spiro. But the youngest italian, Gino, once alone with Spiro, encounter a few problems. Far from his roots, loosing his identity in deep Albania, he begins to change…

 

L’Atalante (1934)

89m; France

Director: Jean Vigo

Synopsis: Portrait of couple and the crew of a cargo boat on the Seine. When separated, the women finds a job and survives and the man falls apart.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Women, Working Class

 

L’enfant (The Infant) [2005]

95m; Belgium

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François and Jérémie Segard

Synopsis: Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son.

 
Leave a comment

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

 

Land of the Dead (2005)

93m; U.S.

Director: George Romero

Cast: John Leguizamo, Asia Argento and Simon Baker

Synopsis: The fourth and most politically savvy of Romero¹s gory and satirical cycle of flesh-eating zombie movies shows us a world almost completely taken over by the ghouls. A group of rich Americans (led by Dennis Hopper) have protected themselves from the living dead in a heavily guarded luxury high-rise. Outside, other survivors with presumably less money scavenge for the wealthy amidst the zombie population, which is becoming increasingly intelligent and organized. –

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 28, 2012 in Politics, SciFi, War

 

Ironweed (1987)

143m; U.S.

Director: Hector Babenco

Cast: Jack NicholsonMeryl Streep and Carroll Baker

Synopsis (IMDB): A schizophrenic drifter spends Halloween in his home town after returning there for the first time in decades.

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 23, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

 

Island in the Sun (1957)

119m; U.K.

Director: Robert Rossen

Cast: James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte 

Synopsis (IMDB): Set on a fictitious island in the Carribean during colonial British rule. It focuses on the life of a young charismatic and handsome black man with political aspirations. He finds himself confused on returning home when his romantic liaison with a white female tends to conflict with his political views. As rumor has it an interracial screen kiss caused quite a commotion in the U.S. when the film was released. The plot is further strengthened by a look at the lives of a white ex-pat family also living on the island. The family has to deal with problems of infidelity, racism and murder.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 23, 2012 in Drama, Politics, Romance

 

Isn’t This a Time! (2004)

90m; U.S.

Director: Jim Brown

Synopsis: Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Theodore Bikel, Peter Paul & Mary and more celebrate folk music as an agent of social change, and links it explicitly to today’s struggles, including the war in Iraq. Inspiring.

 

Tags:

It All Starts Today (2001)

France

Director: Bertrand Tavernier

Synopsis: Depressed coalmining region of France

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 23, 2012 in Documentary, Working Class

 

Tags: