Themes | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Two Family House (2000)

108m; U.S.

Director: Raymond De Felitta

Cast: Michael Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald and Kathrine Narducci

Synopsis (IMDB): An unseen narrator looks back to 1956, on Staten Island, when Buddy, an Italian guy with big dreams, buys a house planning to live upstairs with his wife Estelle and run a bar downstairs. The first problem is Estelle’s lack of confidence in Buddy. Then, Irish tenants upstairs refuse to move and won’t pay rent; plus, the woman upstairs is about to have a baby. The next problem is the baby: once he’s born, it’s clear his father was Black. The Irish guy splits; Buddy evicts mother and child, then feels guilt and sets her up in a flat while she sorts out an adoption. Estelle’s lack of faith, the Irish lass’s spirit, Buddy’s dream, racial prejudice, and the baby’s fate play out.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Drama, White Collar, Working Class

Two Seconds (1932)

13 Jun

67m; U.S.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne and Guy Kibbee

Synopsis (IMDB): Allen claims he his being executed for the wrong murder. Flashbacks show him working with Clark as a riveter. When he makes a killing on the horses he meets Shirley and gets married. When Clark tells him Shirley is unfaithful they fight and Clark falls to his death. Later he finds that Clark was telling the truth.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Working Class

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle) [1967]

13 Jun

90m; France

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Cast: Joseph Gehrard, Marina Vlady and Anny Duperey

Synopsis: Prostitution becomes a metaphor for marriage and for working class; selling one’s body for food, shelter and consumer goods.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Consumerism, Drama, Sex Industry/Sexuality

USA vs Al-Arian (2007)

13 Jun

52m; U.S.

Director: Line Halvorsen

Synopsis: University Professor Sami Al-Arian targeted by US after 9/11

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Education

Tags: Government

The Hawks and the Sparrows (Uccellacci e uccellini) [1966]

13 Jun

89m; Italy

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Contact: Totò, Ninetto Davoli and Femi Benussi

Synopsis: Humorous jaunt of working class young man and father to the big city accompanied by a crow who talks revolution and whom they eventually kill and eat.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Children, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Experimental, Philosophy

Umberto D (1952)

13 Jun

91m; Italy

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio and Lina Gennari

Synopsis (IMDB): Umberto Ferrari, aged government-pensioner, attends a street demonstration held by his fellow pensioners. The police dispense the crowd and Unberto returns to his cheap furnished room which he shares with his dog Flick. Umberto’s lone friend is Maria, servant of the boarding house. She is a simple girl who is pregnant by one of two soldiers and neither will admit to being the father. When Umberto’s landlady Antonia demands the rent owed her and threatens eviction if she is not paid, Umberto tries desperately to raise the money by selling his books and watch. He is too proud to beg in the streets and can not get a loan from any of his acquaintances. He contracts a sore throat, is admitted to a hospital and this puts a delay on his financial difficulty. Discharged, he finds that his dog is gone and, following a frantic search, locates him in the city dog pound.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Organizing, Working Class

Umbrella (2007)

13 Jun

93m;
Director: Du Haibin
Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2008/umb.html
lori@icarusfilms.com

The program of economic reforms initiated in China in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping aimed to finance the modernization of the nation. But what Communist Party leaders called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” looked suspiciously to many as a return to capitalism. Today, some three decades later, the results of those sweeping economic reforms have become plainly visible in a country increasingly divided between its rural and urban sectors.

Filmed in five different regions of China, UMBRELLA provides a telling look at the vast changes that have taken place in Chinese society, including a massive migration from the countryside to the cities, the rise of a prosperous new class of businesspeople, millions of new college graduates competing for a shrinking number of jobs, and the neglect of China’s largest population group, its rural peasants.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Consumerism, Documentary, Global Economy

Uncle Moses (1932)

13 Jun

88m; U.S.

Director: Sidney M. Goldin, Aubrey Scotto

Cast: Maurice Schwartz, Judith Abarbanel and Mark Schweid

Synopsis (IMDB): “Uncle” Moses is a wealthy garment store owner in the Lower East Side. He lords his wealth and its attendant power over the neighborhood, dispensing noblesse oblige and conducting casual affairs with numerous women. When he falls in love with the beautiful young daughter of one of his employees, he discovers what it is like to be beholden to another person. He convinces her to marry him, but she does so out of financial and social obligation, and Moses’ love remains distressingly unrequited. At the same time, the growing labor movement attacks him for his exploitative employment conditions, and Moses begins to doubt the truth of the American Dream he thought he had achieved.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Organizing, Textile Industry, Working Class