90m; Africa
Director: Kollo Daniel Sanou
Synopsis (NYT): Sogo Sanou (played with dignity and reserve by Mamadou Zerbo) is a veteran of the French colonial army who saw battle in Indochina and Algiers. Long retired to his tiny village, atop a rock-strewn hill in a distant outback, Sogo has been patiently waiting for his pension from the French government. But each time he makes the arduous trip to town, bumping his bicycle along dirt roads, he is met with blank stares at the government offices. No, his name is not on the list today. Maybe tomorrow.
51m; U.S.
Director: Christopher Walken
Synopsis (Icarus Film): Alpha is a New York City taxi-driver. He comes from Batama, a village in the poorest region of Mali, Africa, a country among the poorest on earth. Since the drought of 1973, there has never been enough rain – the rivers have dried up, the animals have died, the trees are gone and the fields have turned to desert. The men of Batama have gone abroad, hoping to earn enough to keep the women and children alive.
Director: Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn
Contact: andrew rohn rohn@chorus.net http://www.laborfest.net or http://home.collegeclub.com/tempslave/tshome.html or Labor Video Project, 415-282-1908 lvpsf@labornet.org
151m; Japan
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori and Kyôko Kagawa
Synopsis: A 1960 film directed by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. It was the first film to be produced under Kurosawa’s own independent production company. The film stars Toshirō Mifune as a young man who gets a prominent position in a corrupt postwar Japanese company in order to expose the men responsible for his father’s death. It is Kurosawa’s unofficial Hamlet, reportedly the director’s favourite Shakespeare play. It also doubles as a critique of corporate corruption. Koichi Nishi (Toshirō Mifune) wants revenge for his father’s death. Nishi is a complex man, playing the troubled Hamletesque character, who lets his father’s past destroy his own future. Nishi is the easiest character to draw parallels with Shakespeare’s play. Nishi seeks to avenge the unnatural death of his father. Maysayuki Mori’s performance as the evil Iwabuchi resembles Claudius. The only other clearly corresponding character between Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well and Hamlet is Horatio with Nishi’s accomplice. Nevertheless, the underlying themes of circumstance, revenge, and justice, connect the film and play. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Sleep_Well
65m; U.S.
Director: Judith Montell & Ronald Aronson
Synopsis (Wikipedia): Under-educated, Wellman fought in the army, worked in a car factory for Ford and was employed at a printing company; Wellman fought against Fascism in both the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Wellman returned home at the start of the Cold War, to help organize and lead the Communist Party in America. Then when the 60s came along, Wellman latched onto the civil rights movement. The documentary deals with wheelchair-using Wellman, during the last years of his life, at an Iraq war protest. Throughout his life, Wellman was an organizer and passionate speaker.
57m; Netherlands
Director: Sven Jense
Synopsis: Documentary about African immigrants coming to work in Europe – if they make it. Sven Jense reversed their route, traveling from Amsterdam to Mali, West Africa. On his way he meets with different migrants, from a mother in Paris to a construction engineer who never made it. Sven Jense is a filmmaker who has his roots in theatre and political science. REplace is his first documentary. THEME: Migrant workers
89m; Mexico
Director: Sebastián Cordero
Synopsis: A romantic thriller about a construction worker in hiding for killing his foreman who hides in the mansion where his girlfriend works as a maid.
Contact: Esther Devos edevos@wildbunch.eu
90m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Bruce Jones, Julie Brown and Gemma Phoenix
Synopsis: The story of a man devoted to his family and his religion. Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to more and more questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.
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