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Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work (2012)

13 Jun

Director: Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin

Synopsis: Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work is a documentary film in progress by veteran award-winning filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin. It tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.

With the long decline in US manufacturing and today’s economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside of the box, to reinvent our failing economy in order to restore long term community stability and a more egalitarian way of life.

There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a better life.

When Shift Change is released this year, the film will encourage support for employee ownership, and provide on-the-ground experience from a variety of enterprises and locations. Screenings are being planned already for several cities, and we expect it to be presented on television, as well as in academic, public planning, business and community settings.

Contact: http://shiftchange.org/

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Manufacturing, Working Class

 

A Tale of O

13 Jun

18 and 27m; U.S.

Synopsis: A Tale of “O” video explores the consequences of being different. It focuses on a group of people in which some are “the many”, who are referred to as the X’s, and some are ”the few,” the O’s. Look at the factors that create O’s and X’s in groups and the impact. The animated A Tale of “O” video clarifies and explores the personal and societal dynamics of being different.

Contact: http://trainerstoolchest.com/show_product.php?idnum=356

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing

 

The Story of Stuff (2000)

13 Jun

20m; U.S

Director: Louis Fox

Synopsis (IMDB): For most of the world, consumption has been the unquestioned duty of every individual. Then garbage activist Annie Leonard brought her two-hour lecture to Free Range who helped her turn it into a 20-minute animated revolution. Shown in thousands of classrooms, endlessly blasted by Fox News, viewed more than 10 million times, The Store of Stuff finally opens the door to a serious cultural dialog about the costs of consumption.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Animation, Consumerism

 

False Profits (2009)

13 Jun

48m

Director: AIDC & WWMP

Synopsis: The first documentary film for both organisations and it focuses on the current global economic crisis – its impact on the working class and the responses by trade unions, government and big business in South Africa. It includes interviews with leading trade unionists, workers, community members, NGO workers and academics.  The film is decidedly leftwing and critical in its approach and attempts to explain the crisis in Marxist terms and poses serious questions about alternative responses to the crisis, that constantly impacts negatively on the working class and the world’s poor. Moreover, this current crisis is also ecological and renders capitalism unsustainable and a threat to life on Earth. – http://www.wwmp.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=518&Itemid=19

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Environment, Philosophy

 

Home (2009)

13 Jun

93m

Director: Yann Arthus-Bertran

Synopsis: The compelling and captivating film works partly because of the high-resolution cinematography used to present our high resolution global environment, documenting the wide time span of terrestrial evolution through to the present. Clearly explained is the urgent situation that we must resolve or our planet will suffer more deep catastrophic damages from climate and environmental disruption.
The style of the film makes it quite educational for audiences of all ages. There’s a vast number of local and global issues that must be resolved. This film shows us the interconnected dependency of these issues. Expect to see this film used in elementary school presentations all the way through universities, neighborhood gatherings, movie theaters, corporate presentations and more. The gravity and urgency of the global environmental quality of life crisis affects us all. So will false “solutions” along with the dismissal of ancient, proven ways of surviving and thriving.
In overview of the images near the end, where the “solutions” are presented, the solutions presented are technological and industrial in nature, reconstructing the power sources with wind, solar, geothermal, and wave energy, clean coal, and more jobs.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Environment

 

Even the Rain (También la Lluvia) [2010]

13 Jun

103m; Spain/Mexico/France

Director: Icíar Bollaín

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar and Karra Elejalde

Synopsis: A Spanish film crew comes to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999 to make a film about Christopher Columbus.  The intent is to do a revisionist account portraying Columbus not as a hero, but as a conqueror.  The film crew is not well financed and looking to cut costs, which includes to indigenous Bolivians being hired to star in the movie.  At the same time, a mounting wave of protests is occurring, with one of the film extras serving as a major leader, over the privatization of Cochabamba’s water supply.  The film crew becomes entangled in the protests in an ever more complex and deep ways.  A superb film about the intersections and limits of art and politics.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Labor History, Netflix Watch Instantly, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

The Harvest (La Cosecha) [2010]

13 Jun

Synopsis: THE HARVEST will be told from adolescents’ perspectives as we meet 5 of the more than 400,000 to 500,000 children between the ages of 5 and 16 who labor in fields and factories to feed us, lacking the protections offered by the Fair Labor Standards Act that all other American children enjoy. We follow them as they follow the 2009 harvest, working throughout the spring, summer and early fall until they return to school in early November, struggle to catch up, only to be forced to leave school again the following April.

Contact: Shine Global 973 746-7257 646 442-1712 http://www.shineglobal.org/?page_id=19 Susan MacLaury, Executive Director: susan@shineglobal.org Rebecca Katz, Executive Assistant: rebecca@shineglobal.org Ruth Sarlin, Fundraising: ruth@shineglobal.org

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Children, Documentary, Farm & Food, Netflix Watch Instantly

 

Zoned for Slavery: The Child Behind the Label (1995)

13 Jun

23m; U.S.

Director: National Labor Committee

Synopsis: Investigation of very young working women in the Free Trade Zone in Honduras and consequences on their lives due to exploitation (below subsistence wages, lack of access to education, health hazards, forced contraception, denied freedom, harassment, etc.). A National Labor Committee (NLC) representative speaks about workers’ actual wages, the cost of production (for ex., 12 cents for a 20$ Gap shirt), the US tax support for free trade zones, and the pressure on companies to produce in free trade zones and the effect on American workers. The NLC representative looks at the wider economic impact of paying low wages (trading with people earning wages below the subsistence level is impossible). Detailed interviews with workers. Heated discussion with management as the representative gets caught asking workers questions without management’s permission.

–http://www.cleanclothes.org/campaigns-list/839–dvd-title-zoned-for-slavery-the-child-behind-the-label

Contact: Available online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XtYhfcEZ9A

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Children, Documentary, Global Economy, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Textile Industry

 

Who’s Getting Rich and Why Aren’t You? (1996)

13 Jun

60m; U.S.

Synopsis: The eleventh CBS Report since 1993 provides an intimate look at the changing US economy and the middle class it is affecting, interviewing people whose stories represent the human aspects of profound economic change, from the entrepreneurs and specialists who became successful to the workers holding on to ideals that may no longer apply.

Contact: Available in 6 parts on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJcpO-pCdc&feature=plcp

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Class, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), White Collar, Working Class

 

Westinghouse Works (1904)

13 Jun

40m; U.S.

Director: G.W. Bitzer

Synopsis (Wikipedia): A collection of 21 short films, averaging about three minutes each, taken of various Westinghouse manufacturing plants from April 13, 1904 to May 16, 1904. They were made by G. W. Bitzer of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, were shown at the Westinghouse Auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and may have been made for that purpose. At least 29 films were shot. The films are now part of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Contact: All available on Youtube via the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Works,_1904

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Manufacturing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 
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