RSS

Category Archives: Unemployment-Wages

The Temptation of St Tony (2009)

13 Jun

110m; Estonia/Finland/Sweden

Director: Veiko Õunpuu

Synopsis: Veiko Õunpuu’s follow-up to the award-winning AUTUMN BALL (2008 AFI European Union Film Showcase) confirms him as one of Europe’s brightest young talents. Filmed in striking widescreen black and white, Õunpuu’s tale follows the passive, put-upon Tony (hangdog Taavi Eelmaa) through increasingly surreal tableaux: his father’s funeral procession, interrupted by a car crash; a bourgeois dinner party disrupted by vagrants; the shuttering of a factory and firing of its workers; and a rural police station manned by comically grotesque cops from which Tony, on a whim, helps a mysterious young beauty to escape. Following her to a sinister cabaret, Tony may have discovered the heart of darkness of today’s Eastern Europe. Winner, Horizons Award, 2009 Venice Film Festival; East of the West Award, 2010, Karlovy Vary Film Festival; Official Selection, 2010 Sundance and Rotterdam Film Festivals.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Experimental, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages

 

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

13 Jun

129m; U.S.

Director: Sydney Pollack

Cast: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin and Susannah York

Synopsis: Gloria is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. While recovering from a suicide attempt, she gets the idea from a movie magazine to head for Hollywood to make it as an actress. Robert is a desperate Hollywood citizen trying to become a director, never doubting that he’ll make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria’s already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she’d be better off dead, that her life is hopeless – all the while acting cruelly and bitterly, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they?

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Women, Working Class

 

Thurmond, West Virginia (1996)

13 Jun

22m; U.S.

Director: Laura Harrison

Synopsis: This films documents the falling fortunes of Thurmond, a coal town. Thurmond was once a thriving community, yet today it stands as a ghost town in the making. It was also the main filming location for John Sayles’ film “Matewan.”  This film, directed by Laura Harrison, looks at the history the town, while subtly probing deeper issues about the importance of community and the identity of a place.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Unemployment-Wages

 

Tags:

Tokyo Sonata (2009)

13 Jun

121m; Japan

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa (Ryuhei Sasaki), Kyoko Koizumi (Megumi Sasaki), Yu Koyanagi (Takashi Sasaki), Kai Inowaki (Kenji Sasaki), Haruka Igawa (Kaneko), Kanji Tsuda (Kurosu), Koji Yakusho (Thief)

Synopsis (IMDB): An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.

Contact: Regent Releasing 310-806-4288 info@regentreleasing.com http://www.regentreleasing.com

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, White Collar

 

Up In The Air (2010)

13 Jun

108m; U.S.

Director: Jason Reitman

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Synopsis: With a job that has him traveling around the country firing people, Ryan Bingham leads an empty life out of a suitcase, until his company does the unexpected: ground him.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, White Collar

 

Valley Town (1940)

13 Jun

27m; U.S.

Director: Willard Van Dyke

Synopsis: This social documentary that premiered at the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee’s convention in Chicago in May 1940 portrays life in New Castle, Pa., during the Great Depression. Unemployment and poverty transformed the town and its people as automation made its impact in the steel industry. Because of what was considered an anticorporate view, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which funded the film, withdrew it from release and redid the film. Two very different versions, the original director’s cut and the remake, exist.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Unemployment-Wages

 

Tags:

We ‘re Not Just Fighting For Our Own Skins (2007)

13 Jun

81m; Germany

Director: Holger Wayman

Synopsis: In May 2005, the Bosch-Siemens workers in Berlin who produce Siemens household appliances were threatened with the closure of their factory and the loss of 600 jobs.

Contact: http://www.videowerkstatt.de/ autofocus@videowerkstatt.de Holger Wayman: howeg@hotmail.de

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Manufacturing, Unemployment-Wages

 

Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

13 Jun

68m; U.S.

Director: William A. Wellman

Synopsis: Presents a picture of hobo towns of jobless youth springing up during the depression in the US

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

With These Hands: The Story Of An American Furniture Factory (2009)

13 Jun

80m; U.S.

Director: Matthew Barr

Synopsis: In March 2007, unable to compete with cheaper offshore production, Hooker Furniture Company closed its plant in Martinsville, Virginia, after 83 years in operation. “With These Hands” follows the last load of kiln-dried wood down the assembly line as it is cut, honed, and assembled into fine furniture. Along the way, employees at the factory share their perspectives on work, community, and survival in a country devastated by deindustrialization and outsourcing.

Contact: Matthew Barr Associate Professor Department of Broadcasting and Cinema (336) 334-3887 m_barr@uncg.edu

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Manufacturing, Outsourcing, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

 

Wittstock, Wittstock (1997)

13 Jun

Running Time: 117 Minutes
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary
Director – Volker Koepp
Screenplay – Volker Koepp
Producer – Herbert Kruschke

Three East German women spend over twenty years at a textile mill in Wittstock only to find themselves jobless shortly after the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1990. In telling their tragic story, this provocative documentary–begun by filmmaker Volker Koepp and his cameraman Christian Lehmann in 1974 and finished in 1996–offers a critical look at the downside of Germany’s reunification. In 1974, the three women, Renata, Elizabeth and Edith were all young woman working in the Wittstock textile mill. The filmmakers return to the women in 1983. By this time, the women have matured and experienced marriages, divorces and had children. Their hard work at the mill has paid off and each has been promoted. In 1990, following the demise of the Wall, their heretofore contented lives are destroyed when their company is purchased by Fashion Ltd and massive downsizing efforts begin. Women are the primary targets, especially those who make a fuss. Within a year, all three women are unemployed and struggling to find new jobs. The film rejoins them in 1993 and finds that things have not improved. By 1996, the unemployment level has reached 90% and things look bleak for the women, who despite the poor economic prognosis continue struggling to find new jobs. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Unemployment-Wages, Women

 

Tags:

← Older posts
Newer posts →