Women | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

The Trickle Down Theory of Sorrow (2002)

15m; U.S.

Director: Mary Filippo

Synopsis: Veteran experimental filmmaker Mary Filippo tackles issues of work, class and gender roles in this visually captivating and provocative autobiographical piece. At the core of this engaging autobiographical piece is an interview with Filippo’s mother, as she recounts incidents of exploitation and gender discrimination she experienced working in jewelry factories in the 1940’s and 50’s. The filmmaker contrasts her mother’s quiet acquiescence with her own attitudes about social injustices of her culture through a striking montage of images and audio clips—moving the viewer to consider connections between consumerism and global labor practices, motherhood, money and happiness. – http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c615.shtml

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Manufacturing, Women

There Oughta Be A Law: NoJobIsWorthThis.com (2009)

13 Jun

Director: Beverly Peterson

Synopsis: Documentary about the devastating impact of abusive bosses. And their victims’ national struggle to pass anti-harassment laws.

Contact: http://nojobisworththis.com/about Beverly Peterson 347-229-6815 peterson.beverly@gmail.com

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Whistleblowers, Women

These Hands (1992)

13 Jun

DVD
45 minutes, 1992, Tanzania, Africa
Director: Flora M’mbugu-Schelling
in Kimakonde and Swahili with English subtitles
http://newsreel.org/video/THESE-HANDS

Who would have suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks, without narration or plot, would offer one of the most unforgettable and rewarding experiences of recent African cinema? Flora M’mbugu-Schelling’s quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the international economic order ultimately deepens into a mediation on human labor itself. These Hands will stimulate viewers to rethink documentary and to question their own role as consumers in a global economy.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Blacks, Construction Trades, Documentary, Global Economy, Women

Tags: Mining

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?

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

Tillie Olsen: A Heart In Action (2006)

13 Jun

30m; U.S.

Director: Ann Hershey

Synopsis: Shows the explosive experiences of writer and activist Tillie Olsen in her youth that helped form her views.

Contact: http://www.laborfest.net/2006schedule.htm

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Women

Transnational Tradeswomen (2006)

13 Jun

2006, 62 minutes, Color, DVD, Thai, Chinese, Tamil, Urdu, Japanese, Subtitled

available from Women Make Movies

Inspired by organizers at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, former construction worker Vivian Price spent years documenting the current and historical roles of women in the construction industry in Asia – discovering several startling facts. Capturing footage that shatters any stereotypes of delicate, submissive Asian women, Price discovers that women in many parts of Asia have been doing construction labor for centuries. But conversations with these women show that development and the resulting mechanization are pushing them out of the industry. Their stories disturb the notion of “progress” that many people hold and show how globalization, modernization, education and technology don’t always result in gender equality and the alleviation of poverty.Celebrating a range of women workers – from a Japanese truck driver, to two young Pakistani women working on a construction site in Lahore, to a Taiwanese woman doing concrete work alongside her husband – this film deftly probes the connections in their experiences. In a segment exploring the history of the Samsui women in Singapore (Chinese women who were recruited as construction laborers in the 1920’s until they lost their jobs to mechanization in the 1970’s) unique archival footage and interviews with surviving Samsui offer an importation perspective on the historical and global scope of women workers’ struggles.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Construction Trades, Documentary, Women

The Triangle Fire

13 Jun

52m; U.S.

Director: Roy Campolongo

Synopsis: The Triangle Fire documentary chronicles those remarkable times, when the rising forces of industry converged with the greatest mass migration in history. We explore the dramatic events of the late 19th, and early 20th century labor movement, that reached a crescendo with the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911. This film examines the relationship between New York’s rapidly growing metropolis, corrupt political infrastructure, an industry’s desire for profit, and the human rights of its workers. Furthermore, the documentary investigates how we have adapted today, to those epic events that would forever change the fabric of our nation. Part of PBS’ “American Experience” series.

Contact: View online here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Communism/Socialism, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Labor History, Safety & Health, Textile Industry, Women

Union Maids (1976)

13 Jun

48m; U.S.

Director: Julia Reichert, James Klein and Miles Mogulescu

Synopsis: Traces the organizing activities of three working class women in the laundry, meat packing and garment industries in Chicago in the 1930s. Features the oral histories of 3 women labor activists involved in the workers’ movements in the early 1930s: Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods. The women are figures of dignity and beauty amid their experiences of social injustice.

Nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for best feature documentary, and winner in 1978 of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics’ “Critics Award” for Best Short.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Labor History, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Textile Industry, Women

Tags: Food Service Industry

Up to a Certain Point (Hasta cierto punto) [1983]

13 Jun

68m; Cuba

Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Cast: Óscar Álvarez, Mirta Ibarra and Omar Valdés

Synopsis (IMDB): A theater director and script-writer falls for a female worker from the Havana docks, but his machismo, social and working conflicts, and the Cuban woman’s condition interfere with their relationship.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Women, Working Class