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Category Archives: Technology

The Red Tail (2009)

86m; U.S.

Director: Dawn Mikkelson & Melissa Koch

Synopsis: In August of 2005 the mechanics at Northwest Airlines went on strike. Soon after, an anonymous flight attendant quit her job rather than cross the picket line. Disillusioned and inspired, this woman went in search of an established documentary filmmaker to tell the story of the workers of NWA.

Contact: info@redtailmovie.com http://www.redtailmovie.com

 

Totally Connected (2006)

4m; 

Director: Randy  Brown

Synopsis: Overwork Overbearing supervision Invasion of privacy (including GPS tracking) Impact of technology.

Contact: Randy Brown randy@brownragfilms.com 512-698-7328

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Technology

 

Linotype: In Search of the Eighth Wonder of the World (2012)

U.S.

Director: Douglas Wilson

Synopsis: Douglas Wilson is a graphic designer and letterpress printer by trade, and Linotype: The Film, a documentary on the amazing Linotype machine, is his first film. He launched head-long into the project with two friends. They have worked on it for more than a year and a half, researching and traveling from tiny towns in rural Iowa to the official print shop of the United States government. He traveled to the modern headquarters of Linotype in Germany and a Linotype museum outside of Basel, Switzerland, and created a film that documents in words and pictures Ottmar Mergenthaler’s weird contraption, whose importance is next to Gutenberg’s press in shaping the way typography—and therefore words, messages, and ideas—is presented to the public. Now that is power!

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Technology

 

Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001)

60m; U.S.

Director: Deborah Kaufman/Alan Snitow

Synopsis: Temp workers/high tech workers

 

Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (2002)

60m

Director: Katerina CizekPeter Wintonick

Synopsis: The impact of consumer video equipment on international political activism efforts.

 

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Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Labor Struggle in the Post Office (1980)

By Tami Gold, Dan Gordon, Erik Lewis
1980, 45 minutes, Color and B&W, Video

On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers across the country walked off their jobs when their contract expired, saying “No” to mandatory overtime, forced speedups and hazardous working conditions. As a result of this wildcat strike, six hundred thousand postal workers won a better contract. But two hundred workers were arbitrarily fired by management to teach all postal workers a lesson.

SIGNED, SEALED and DELIVERED… is the story of the struggle these postal workers waged to win back their jobs. It follows their fight into the streets, onto the floor of the American Postal Workers Union’s National Convention and among workers and communities nationwide. But it took the tragic death of Michael McDermott, a 25 year old mailhandler who was sucked into a conveyor belt and crushed to death, to bring their hazardous working conditions to national attention.

SIGNED, SEALED and DELIVERED… speaks loudly and clearly to people everywhere who are organizing for safe and humane conditions in the workplace.

http://andersongoldfilms.com/films/documentaries/ssd.htm

 

The Sleep Dealer (2008)

90m; Mexico

Director: Alex Rivera

Cast: Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela and Jacob Vargas

Synopsis: Mexican man from the provinces whose family and home are destroyed by terrorist-seeking drones goes to Tijuana, where he joins a workforce of illegal workers whose labor is transported electronically across the border.

Contact: alex@alexrivera.com http://sleepdealer.com/ Alex Rivera 611 Broadway, #836 NY NY 10012

 

Startup.com (2001)

107m; U.S.

Director: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim

Cast: Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, Tom Herman and Kenneth Austin

Synopsis (IMDB): Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have had a dream since they became friends at age fifteen: get rich by developing their own dot com company, in some aspect of computer technology interface. Now in their late twenties, they have now come up with the idea they believe will make their riches, namely as Tom refers to it, “parking tickets”: the company will be the on-line revenue collection interface for municipal governments. GovWorks.com came into existence in May 1999 with only an idea. The process of building the business focuses on obtaining venture capital based solely on the idea, with the actual mechanics of the website seemingly almost an afterthought, or at least one left primarily to the hired help. Regardless of the strength of the idea itself in raising this capital, another initial problem they face is what they see as non-commitment by a third partner, Kaleil’s friend Chieh Cheung.

 

Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers (2003)

54m; Sweden

Director: Erik Gandini & Johan Söderberg

Synopsis (Wikipedia): An award winning 2003 Swedish documentary film on consumerism and globalization, created by director Erik Gandini and editor Johan Söderberg. It looks at the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, and argues that these are not being fulfilled, and they never will be. The film leans towards anarcho-primitivist ideology and argues for ‘a simple and fulfilling life’.

 

Swiped? (2008)

6m; U.S.

Director: Fivel Rothberg

Synopsis: Effect of credit card/GPS machines on NYC cabbies, who see them as “an affront to their autonomy and dignity.” Investigates how cabbies are faring under the TLC’s “Technology Enhancement” program.

Contact: Fivel Rothberg 6 Saint Francis Place, Apt 2 Brooklyn, NY 11216 fivel.rothberg@gmail.com 215-990-4442