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Category Archives: Themes

Sounder (1972)

07 May

105m; U.S.

Director: Martin Ritt

Cast: Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield and Kevin Hooks

Synopsis (IMDB): The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Farm & Food, Labor History, Legal System, Working Class

 

South Riding (2011)

07 May

 

Cast: Anna Maxwell Martin, David Morrissey and Penelope Wilton

Synopsis (IMDB): Set in the 1930s, Britain is in depression and still scarred by the effects of World War I. Young and passionate Sarah Burton returns to her conservative home-county, bursting with modern ideas. As the new headmistress in South Riding, she inspires her girls –including Lydia Holly, a scholarship student from the slums– to think for themselves. But not everyone sees eye-to-eye with Miss Burton. She finds a few allies, Joe Astell being one; but the sparks really start to fly when she crosses paths with Robert Carne, a haughty landlord whom she despises.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Education, Women, Working Class

 

The Southerner (1945)

07 May

92m; U.S.

Director: Jean Renoir

Cast: Zachary Scott, Betty Field and J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis (IMDB): Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a flood, and a jealous neighbor. Can they make it as farmers?

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Environment, Farm & Food, Working Class

 

The Spanish Earth (1937)

07 May

52m; U.S./Spain

Director: Joris Ivens

Cast: Manuel Azaña, José Díaz and Dolores Ibárruri

Synopsis (IMDB): This documentary tells of the struggles during the Spanish Civil War. It deals with the war at different levels: from the political level, at the ground military level focusing on battles in Madrid and the road from Madrid to Valencia, and at the support level. With the latter, a key project was building an irrigation system for an agricultural field near Fuentedueña so that food could be grown to feed the soldiers.

Narration and writing done by John Dos Passos, Jean Renoir, and Ernest Hemingway.

 

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Labor History, War

 

Spare Parts (2003)

07 May

87m; Italy

Director: Damjan Kozole

Cast: Peter Musevski, Aljosa Kovacic and Primoz Petkovsek

Synopsis (IMDB): Embittered widower, Ludvik, spends his nights transporting illegal refugees in his van from Croatia, across Slovenia, and into Italy. The young and inexperienced Rudi acts as his helpmate. Together they become a well-trained duo who almost every night convey “spare parts” to Italy. Of course the story of their illegitimate exports into Europe ends tragically, for everyone. The whole idea of this account is that everyone – including ourselves – is looking for happiness: the “spare parts” because of the misery they are plunged into without, and our characters because they can’t find it inside

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Migrant workers

 

Spare Time (1939)

07 May

15m; U.S.

Director: Humphrey Jennings

Synopsis (IMDB); A look at how industry workers spend their time when they are not at work.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

 

Spartacus (1960)

07 May

184m; U.S.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons

Synopsis: This sweeping epic, set in the 1st Century B.C., stars Kirk Douglas. An enslaved army deserter and gladiator, he escapes and recruits 120,000 followers who defeat several Roman legions before finally losing. Stellar cast includes Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov. Screenplay by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, from also black-listed Howard Fast’s novel. ‘Who is Spartacus?’ ‘I am Spartacus!’ (Rochester Labor Film Series)

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Slavery, War

 

Special Pass (2009)

07 May

24m; Singapore

Director: Vicknesh Varan

Synopsis: A documentary about a group of foreign workers in Singapore who attempt to seek shelter and support themselves while out of work. This is the lesser-known story of foreigners who receive little support in a country that, ironically, was built by the work of immigrants.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration

 

Standing Tall, Women Unionize the Catfish Industry (2001)

07 May
Run Time: 50min.
Produced, written and directed by Donald Blank
The boom in Mississippi catfish farming, in the 1980’s, required processing plants and hundreds of workers. The mostly black female workforce had to work, in noisy and wet factories for minimum wage, without any benefits, bathroom breaks or recourse if a worker was mistreated. The Mississippi Delta, at the time, was notoriously poor, neglected, and resistant to change.This historical documentary chronicles the risky and difficult effort of a few women working at Delta Pride Catfish to organize a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 1529 at their plant. The 1986 union election victory surprised many locals, especially management at Delta Pride. In 1990, the workers at Delta Pride struck for two months and won better wages and working conditions. The strike established local 1529 as an important player in the catfish industry, with a membership today of 3,000 workers.

Rose Turner, Mary Young and Sarah White, who initiated and led local 1529, tell the story with passion and humor.

available from Filmakers Library

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Blacks, Collective Bargaining, Documentary

 

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Standing on My Sisters’ Shoulders (2002)

07 May

61m; U.S.

Director: Laura J. Lipson

Synopsis (official website): The award-winning documentary “Standing On My Sisters’ Shoulders” takes on the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders. These women stood up and fought for the right to vote and the right to an equal education. They not only brought about change in Mississippi, but they altered the course of American history.

This documentary presents original interviews with many of the Civil Rights movement’s most remarkable women: Unita Blackwell, a sharecropper turned activist, who became Mississippi’s first female black mayor; Mae Bertha Carter, a mother of 13, whose children became the first to integrate the Drew County schools against dangerous opposition; white student activist Joan Trumpauer Mulholland who not only participated in sit-ins but took a stand on integration by attending an all black university; Annie Devine and Victoria Gray Adams, who, along with Fannie Lou Hamer, stepped up and challenged the Democratic Party and President Johnson at the 1964 Convention.

Contact: http://www.sisters-shoulders.org/film.html

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Blacks, Documentary, Organizing, Women

 
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