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.
Category Archives: Politics
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. –
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.
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.
I Am A Man: Dr. King and the 1968 AFSCME Memphis Sanitation Strike
Synopsis: On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to support AFSCME sanitation workers. That evening, he delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to a packed room of supporters. The next day, he was assassinated. (NOTE: see At The River I Stand for a 56m version of this issue).
I Am Cuba (1964)
141m; U.S.S.R.-Cuba
Director: Mikhail Kalatozov
Cast: Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood and José Gallardo
Synopsis (IMDB): Four vignettes in Batista’s Cuba dramatize the need for revolution; long, mobile shots tell almost wordless stories. In Havana, Maria faces shame when a man who fancies her discovers how she earns her living. Pedro, an aging peasant, is summarily told that the land he farms has been sold to United Fruit. A university student faces down a crowd of swaggering U.S. sailors and then watches friends shot by police when they try to distribute a pro-Castro leaflet. The war arrives on the doorstep of peasants Mariano, Amelia, and their four children when Batista’s forces bomb the hills. Mariano wants peace, so he seeks out the guerrillas to join the fight. If nothing else, an incredible example of pure film-making with stunning and innovative camera work.
I Know I’m Not Alone (2004)
93m; U.S.
Director: Michael Franti
Synopsis: Musician and activist Michael Franti’s documentary on his mission of peace in the Middle East.
Contact: Alex Lawson alex.lawson@gmail.com 847.219.8393 http://www.iknowimnotalone.com/ Guerrilla Management 2180 Bryant Street STE #206 San Francisco, CA 94110 415.865.2170
A bientôt j’espère: Be Seeing You (1968)
38m; Franc9
Director: Mario Marret and Chris Marker
Synopsis: From 1967 to 1976 Chris Marker was a member of SLON (the “Company for the Launching of New Works”). One of several groups that emerged in those years in which filmmakers, militants, and others came together on a cooperative, parallel basis, SLON was based on the idea that cinema should not be thought of solely in terms of commerce. 1967 was also the year an important strike broke out at Rhodiaceta, a textile plant owned by the Rhone-Poulenc trust in the city of Besançon, France. The strike was unusual in character because the workers refused to disassociate the industrial conflict from a social and cultural agenda. The workers’ demands concerned not only salary and job security, but also the very lifestyle imposed on them by society. So it was only natural that Chris Marker, along with other technicians and members of SLON, would visit Besançon to document the strike, and the lives and attitudes of the workers. The film’s most important moments are composed of conversations with workers and their wives. They believe the working class is increasingly at the mercy of a system that gives them no power, a system that would like them to remain powerless. And so it was that their local demands grew into questions about the larger political system. The strikers eventually returned to work with few gains, but had developed a sense of their power, which helped lay the groundwork for May ’68, when France was rocked by revolutionary protests.
Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2003/bien.html
Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1953)
Synopsis: Mexico City transit workers commandeer a streetcar and expose the contradictions of capitalism. Spanish with English subtitles.
Immigrant Nation (2010)
96m; U.S.
Director: Esau Melendez
Synopsis: Using the resistance of illegal immigrant Elvira Arellano, the film documents the rise of the pro-immigrant movement in Chicago.
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