4m; US
Director: Dolissa Medina
Experimental short film about undocumented immigrants who died while trapped inside a tractor near the town of Victoria, Texas.
Category Archives: Themes
1900 (Novecento) (1977)
245m; Italy
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu and Dominique Sanda
Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock (Depardieu), the other born to a land owner (de Niro). The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants’ eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.
1877: Grand Army of Starvation (1987)
30m; US (click above for excerpt)
James Earl Jones narrates the first film made by the American Social History Project’s series on American working people and U.S. history. Using rare documents and pictures, it explores the massive national railroad strikes of 1877, a watershed event in Pittsburgh and U.S. history
15 Days With You (15 Dias Contigo) (2005)
94m; Spain
Director: Jesus Ponce
Released back onto the streets after serving her time behind bars, a woman determined to keep out of trouble crosses paths with a shady old friend who might just drag her under in this drama from first-time director Jesus Ponce. Isabel (Isabel Ampudia) has barely been out of the joint for a day when she goes to the local hostel to rent a room and runs across her old pal Rufo (Sabastian Haro). Though Isabel knows that she would have to jettison her past in order to build any kind of sustainable future, the fact remains that she has no home to speak of so she reluctantly accepts Rufo’s offer to become roommates. Rufo is an AIDS-afflicted junkie who earns a meager living by parking cars, but while he’s a generous soul at heart he’s still an unpredictable addict willing to do anything for his next fix. Upon moving in with Rufo, Isabel begins to connect with a number of her new neighbors in the barrio – including friendly shop assistant Manuela (Mercedes Hoyos). At first it seems as if Isabel may be mindful enough to live on the streets without succumbing to the dangers that such a life implies, but when Rufo nicks a handbag and kills his dealer any sense of low-rent stability quickly dissipates.
~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
12,000 Men (1978)
34m, Canada
Director: Martin Duckworth
Powerful documentary brings alive the brave story of Cape Breton’s union struggles in the coal and steel industries from the 1890s through the labour wars of the 1920s.The fight for decent wages and improved working conditions took on an urgency when the British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. When the Montreal-based company cut wages by a third, a long and bitter dispute began. The lockouts, picket lines and strikes were finally ended by brute force when provincial police and federal troops were sent in. The mine owners, however, were ultimately forced to recognize the union. This film combines vintage footage, photographs, drawings and interviews with men and women who were actually in the pits and on the front lines. These Cape Bretoners speak of the hardship and brief victories of the coal miners and their families–people who COULD stand the gaff!
http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=12936
Play for Today: Hard Labour (1973)
70m; UK
Director: Mike Leigh
Brutally harsh study of an aging Englishwoman and her daily grind cleaning the homes of the wealthy. She returns to her own home each night to face whines and rants from her husband, an alcoholic custodian.
From the BBC series “Play for Today.”
10,000 Black Men Named George (2002)
95m; US
Director: Robert Townsend
Starring: André Braugher, Charles S. Dutton & Mario Van Peebles
Dramatic film inspired by the life of black organizer, A. Philip Randolph (Braugher), an early champion of the Civil Rights movement. From1925 to 1937, Randolph led the railway car porters’ bruising battle against the notoriously anti-union Pullman Company, one of the most powerful companies in the United States in the 1920’s. His efforts helped create the first black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Charles S. Dutton portrays Webster, the union’s Chicago-based organizer.Mario Van Peebles plays Ashley Totten, one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.Philip Randolph (Braugher) was an ardent socialist and publisher of a struggling radical Harlem magazine called “The Messenger.” Because traditional trade unions such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL)had not yet invited the black working-class to join in the 1920’s, the black labor movement was initiated by the railway porters who worked on the sleeping cars for the Pullman company. Although they were proud of their profession, the porters were often humiliated and dismissed by the upper-class white passengers. They were grossly underpaid. In the eyes of the Pullman Company and many of their patrons alike, the porters were not seen as individuals and were simply referred to “George” after the owner of the railway company.
Originally broadcast on Showtime on February 24, 2002
Ngreenlighthouse@aol.comShowtime
DCLF (VHS)
Alethea (2007)
Director: Petra Holzer & Ethem Ozguven | Producer: Petra Holzer & Ethem Ozguven
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2007 | Story Teller’s Country: Turkey
Synopsis: Since the year of 1989, multinational mining companies have been coming to Turkey in order to mine gold using the cyanide leaching process. Eurogold, an Australian and Canadian joint venture, is one of them. Their mine is situated in Bergama. The people living in Bergama and the 17 surrounding villages started to resist the project. The people won all the instances of their legal struggle. However, the mine still operates. The story of “Alethea” is about the people and their long struggle. We followed their struggle since 1996.
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2007 | Story Teller’s Country: Turkey
Synopsis: Since the year of 1989, multinational mining companies have been coming to Turkey in order to mine gold using the cyanide leaching process. Eurogold, an Australian and Canadian joint venture, is one of them. Their mine is situated in Bergama. The people living in Bergama and the 17 surrounding villages started to resist the project. The people won all the instances of their legal struggle. However, the mine still operates. The story of “Alethea” is about the people and their long struggle. We followed their struggle since 1996.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/4451/Alethea
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 