Working Class | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Les destinées (2000)

180m; France

Director: Olivier Assayas

Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert

Synopsis (IMDB): Responsibility versus happiness. Jean Barnery is a young Protestant cleric in Barbazac in 1900 when he divorces his severe wife after falling in love with Pauline, the independent-minded niece of an upper-crust parishioner. Jean’s also an heir to a high-end porcelain factory in Limoges. He gives his fortune to his wife to assuage his guilt over the divorce. He pursues Pauline; they marry and live idyllically in Switzerland. Then, duty calls: his family asks him to come to Limoges to run the business. He accepts, ignoring Pauline’s wishes. His new responsibilities, as well as his fighting in the Great War, change him and his relationship with Pauline

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Romance, White Collar, Working Class

Liam (2001)

20 Apr

90m; U.K.

Director: Stephen Frears

Cast: Anthony Borrows, Ian Hart and Claire Hackett

Synopsis: Film follows a family and the effects of the Great Depression on the working class in 1930’s Liverpool.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Working Class

Life in Tuzla Shipyards, The/ Tuzla Tersaneleri’nde Hayat (2008)

20 Apr

41m; Turkey

Director: Petra Holzer, Selçuk Erzurumlu, Ethem Özgüven Kurgu

Synopsis: Tuzla graveyard overlooks massive shipbuilding area where great profits are made and workers die.

Contact: http://4857-documentary.blogspot.com/ petramh@gmail.com

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Safety & Health, Transportation, Working Class

Live-In Maid (2004)

20 Apr

83m; Argentina

Director: Jorge Gaggero

Cast: Norma Aleandro, Norma Argentina and Marcos Mundstock

Synopsis (IMDB): A wealthy woman and her live-in housekeeper must adjust their entrenched routine and relationship when Buenos Aires is plunged into economic crisis.,

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Netflix Watch Instantly, Service Workers, White Collar, Women, Working Class

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

20 Apr

104m; U.K.

Director: Tony Richardson

Cast: Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay and Avis Bunnage

Synopsis: A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor’s prize runner.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

Long Distance Love (2009)

20 Apr

77m; Russia

Director: Magnus Gertten, Elin Jönsson

Synopsis: Kyrgyzstan today: Just married Alisher (18y) has to leave his pregnant wife Dildora (17y) to work in Russia, 3.500 km from home. He’s one of the 12-16 million Russian guest workers, who are forced to leave their countries and work, mostly illegally, under harsh conditions in low-paid jobs in order to support their families. After eight months of hardship in Moscow, Alisher decides to return to his young family, although he has failed to earn enough money to provide for them. This is a love story clouded by migration and modern slavery.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

20 Apr

Directed by John Ford
Features John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson,John Qualen, Mildred Natwick, Ward Bond

The film tells the story of the crew aboard an English cargo ship named the SS Glencairn,during World War II, on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The ship carries a cargo of high-explosives.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

Tags: Boating and Shipping

Look Back in Anger (1959)

20 Apr

98m; U.K.

Director: Tony Richardson

Cast: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Mary Ure

Synopsis (IMDB): A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Romance, Working Class

Looks and Smiles (1981)

20 Apr

104m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Graham Green, Carolyn Nicholson and Tony Pitts

Synopsis: Thatcherism and the Irish troubles provide the backdrop for this study of Mick, a well-meaning youth in Sheffield, who has, unlike Dickens’ Pip, no expectations. Mick lives with his parents, works on his motorbike, looks for work, and every two weeks gets his check from the dole. There are no jobs. His best mate Alan joins the army to fix tanks and is sent to Belfast to quell Catholics. At a disco, Mick meets Karen, who works at a shoe shop and lives with her recently-separated mom. Karen misses her dad. She offers Mick emotional stability and a route to adulthood; Alan pitches the army. Does Mick have a future?

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Posted by Metro Council on April 20, 2012 in Drama, Politics, Unemployment-Wages, War, Working Class