55m; U.S.
Director: Kelley Thompson
Synopsis: Life in Widen, WV, the famous company town built by J.G. Bradley who was a national and state coal mining leader. Includes the 1952 U.M.W.A. strike.
Contact: Kelley Thompson, killer64@suddenlink.net, 304-344-1990 (home)
284m; Australia
Director: Chris Thomson
Cast: Jack Thompson, Greta Scacchi and Frank Gallacher
Synopsis (IMDB): Australian dockyard workers go on strike. Immigrant Italian workers are brought in as scab labour. In the midst of all this, an Italian woman meets & falls in love with one of the Australians.
65m; U.S.
Director: Jon Silver
Synopsis: Teamster cannery workers’ 18-month struggle.
25m; U.S.
Director: Gordon Simmons
Synopsis: Host Gordon Simmons interviews Shawn Bennett, the director of the new WV labor documentary, “The Battle of Local 5668.” Bennett talks about his father and family in Parkersburg. His father worked for years at the Ravenswood Aluminum plant including during the lock-out shown in his film. He also talks about spending several years making the film, commuting from his Hollywood job where he is currently trying to organize members of his profession.
Contact: http://librarycommission.lib.wv.us/html/ltn/index_ltn.html
90m; U.S.
Director: John M. Stahl
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer and Barbara O’Neil
Synopsis: Washington Post columnist and American Prospect editor Harold Meyerson is one of the most incisive political commentators in the United States. Harold has also written about movies and entertainment (He is author of the book “Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz?” about the lyricist Yip Harburg) so I asked him to write about anything he wanted to related to movies and politics. Harold can write authoritatively about almost anything. His fascinating review of the 1930s movie When Tomorrow Comes – a film he calls the “Lefty-est Thirties studio movie you’ve never heard of,” can be found at http://www.politicsfilm.blogspot.com/ Hope you enjoy this look back in film history which is an implicit critique of the state of filmmaking today. Kelly Candaele
53m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Synopsis: Workers’ perspective on massive miners’ strike.
55m; U.S.
Director: Lee Grant
Synopsis (IMDB): Risking jobs, friends, family and the opposition of church and community, eight unassuming women begin the longest bank strike in American history.
45m; U.S.
Director: Lorraine W. Gray
Synopsis (IMDB): From December 1936 to February 1937 members of the United Auto Workers organized a sit-down strike inside the General Motors Fisher Body 1 and 2 plants in Flint, Michigan. They ultimately won recognition of their union and improved wages and conditions. “With Babies and Banners” tells the story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade, composed of female GM workers and the wives of men involved in the sit-down strike, which not only provided support services (like running the union kitchens that provided food to the strikers occupying the plants) but did picket duty themselves. It intercuts footage from 1937 with interviews with the same women 40 years later, still active in union politics and still pressuring the UAW to acknowledge women as equals.
50m; U.S.
Director: Andrew Freund
Synopsis: Three weeks before Christmas 2008, in the depths of the economic crisis, Chicago company Republic Windows and Doors told their workforce that the factory was closing shop. Republic executives complained about dwindling sales due to the crash of the housing market. Three days later, when the Republic employees came in to pick up their final paychecks, they were informed that they would not be paid for their final week or receive their accrued vacation pay. Their insurance benefits were cut immediately, and they were denied the 60-day severance guaranteed under the federal WARN Act.
Contact: Labor Beat in Chicago 312-316-4458 videoinsurgent@gmail.com
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 