105m
Director: Russ Hexter
Synopsis (WorldCat): Interviews in the Michael Moore/Roger and me tradition examine life in small-town America, class conflicts and the collapse of an upstate New York community, Dadetown, when the town’s once-prosperous factory, reduced to the manufacture of paper clips and staples, finally closes.
113m; Spain
Director: Fernando Leon de Aranoa
Cast: Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar and José Ángel Egido
Synopsis (IMDB): 2001: men without jobs, in the port city of Vigo. Six men worked in a shipyard, now shuttered. They pass the time at La Naval, a bar opened by one of them after the yard closed. They face their futures in makeshift ways: Rico has his bar and a sharp 15-year-old daughter, Reina has become a watchman and a moralizer, Lino fills out job applications, Amador drinks heavily and talks of his wife’s return; José is married to Ana, who works at a cannery and tires of being the breadwinner amidst José’s emasculated moodiness; Santa, the group’s conscience and troublemaker, occasionally fantasizes about Australia. In truth, all are joined like Siamese twins, adrift.
Contact: distributor: Lions Gate Films Alyssa Chinn Ph: 310 314-9597 Fax: 310 396-6041 achinn@lgecorp.com
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87m; U.S.
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard and Henry Bergman
Synopsis (IMDB): Chaplin’s last ‘silent’ film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age, (The use of sound in films ?) and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital… When he gets out, he is mistaken for a communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. We follow Charlie through many more escapades before the film is out.
Trailer
96m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Dean Andrews, Thomas Craig and Joe Duttine
Synopsis (IMDB): In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords. A cheery camaraderie is soon replaced by uncertainty and turmoil when their depot manager fills them in on the details of the new arrangement. Privatization means that the customer now comes first, something that is instilled into the men in new training sessions. But there are inconsistencies and shortsightedness to the new ways. Men used to working together now find themselves belonging to different, competing companies. Some even have to tender for their old jobs. Others decide to take the redundancy packages offered by the firm. As always, corners are cut in the interest of lowering costs, leading to a series of misadventures.
Contact: “From: Cary Jones cjones@firstlookmedia.com To: manderson@igc.org Subject: Date: Tue, May 7, 2002, 9:35 PM Dear Mr. Garlock: Jon Flanders sent me a copy of your inquiry regarding our film “The Navigators”. We do not have any plans to open the film until later in the fall at the very earliest. When we do open the film in the Rochester area, it might be possible to arrange a special premiere in conjunction with the opening. While I can’t tell you for sure where we will open the film, in the past we’ve often booked our films in the Little Theatre. You may want to contact them about your interest in the film. Thanks for your interest in the Navigators. Cary Jones Tiffany Naiman International Marketing Coordinator Overseas Filmgroup A Division of First Look Media 8000 Sunset Blvd., East Penthouse Los Angeles, CA 90046 Tel: 323.337.1000 Fax: 323.337.1078
Trailer
91m; U.S.
Director: Michael Moore
Synopsis: Michael Moore’s documentary about the decline of Flint, Michigan and the role of GM in the deindustrialization of a once-thriving industrial city.
Trailer
134m; France
Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard and Serge Livrozet
Synopsis (IMDB): Recently fired from his job, but unable to confess the truth to his close-knit family, Vincent spends his days driving around the countryside, talking into his cell phone and staring into space. Vincent fabricates a new job for himself so his family and friends will not know that he is out of work. At one point, he even sneaks into an office building. As Vincent roams the building’s sterile halls, peeking into meeting rooms where men are busy at work, we see a man who yearns not just for a new job, but also for a place in the world. While this pantomime of work initially registers as sad and even a little pathetic, it slowly and unnervingly becomes terrifying.
Trailer
99m; France
Director: Jean-Marc Moutout
Cast: Jérémie Renier, Laurent Lucas and Cylia Malki
Synopsis (IMDB): Philippe Seigner, a charming business school graduate from the French Pyrenees, starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is a delicate one, an audit at the Janson food cans factory in the provinces, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees, as his boss Hugo Paradis knew from the start. However, his Paris girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be stopped or mitigated by him bowing out. Nevertheless, as he gets to knew the threatened staff better he considers risking his career when his boss orders him to chose who should go. Meanwhile the factory staff starts realizing what’s about to happening
Contact: Antoine Sebire frenchcinemawashington@yahoo.com Audiovisual Affairs Embassy of France – La Maison Française 4101 Reservoir Road, NW Washington DC, 20007 Ph: 202.944.6287 Fax: 202.944.6043 http://www.la-maison-francaise.org
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