55m; U.S.
Director: Suzanne Bauman, Rita Heller
Synopsis (IMDB): A look at the controversial Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers of the 1920s and 1930s.
Category Archives: Women
Women, Free Trade Zones and the Multinationals (1992)
58m; U.S.
Synopsis: Women in sweatshops and factories in Central and South America.
Workers Dreams (2007)
50m; Vietnam
Director: Tran Phuong Thao
Synopsis: Thousands of young women now work in foreign owned factories in Vietnam for approximately $2 a day. This film shows the lives of these young rural women who end up in a Japanese Canon factory in the Hanoi area. Hoping to make a new life with many consumer goods around them they are ground up in the capitalist system and their dreams and illusions about the new Vietnam are crushed.
Working For Your Life (1979)
55m; U.S.
Director: Andrea Hricko and Ken Light
Synopsis: Covers working women and their problems and struggles to correct workplace hazards. Filmed in over 40 workplaces, the film interviews injured workers, including a woman who lost her finger in an industrial accident and another who has asbestos-related disease. Sterilization of women workers is discussed. Unlike many health and safety films, this one points out that organization is one of the best ways to protect one’s health.
Working Girl (1988)
113m; U.S.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis (IMDB): Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss.
Working Women of the World (2001)
54m; France
Director: Marie France Collard
Synopsis: Effects of globalization on European and Asian women.
Xica da Silva (1976)
Release Date: 1996 Duration: 107 min
Cast: José Wilker
Xica da Silva (released as Xica in the United States) is a 1976 Brazilian film directed and written by Carlos Diegues, based on the novel by João Felício dos Santos pt:João Felício dos Santos. It stars Zezé Motta, Walmor Chagas and José Wilker. It was chosen as the Brazilian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards, but it failed to get a nomination. The film is based on the novel Memórias do Distrito de Diamantina, written by João Felicio dos Santos (who has a small role in the film as a Roman Catholic pastor). It is a romanticized retelling of the true story of Chica da Silva, an 18th century African slave in the state of Minas Gerais, who attracts the attention of João Fernandes de Oliveira, a Portuguese sent by Lisbon with the Crown’s exclusive contract for mining diamonds, and eventually becomes his lover. He quickly asserts control, letting the intendant and other authorities know that he’s onto their corruption scheme. Eventually Lisbon hears of João’s excesses and sends an inspector. José, a political radical, provides Xica refuge.
We Were There
5m; U.S.
Synopsis: Theme song by Bev Grant, written for a multi-media show by the same name, about women’s labor history.
Contact: available online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjnyk06MZRY
Seacoal (1985)
82m;
Synopsis (IMDB): A visually powerful drama exploring the raw capitalism of seacoaling, rooted in a documentary engagement with the community of seacoalers on Lynemouth Beach in Northumberland.
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