10m; France
Director: Franck Dion
Synopsis: Looking for efficiency and profit in his bomb factory, Mister Cok decides to replace his workers with sophisticated robots, but one worker is not discarded so easily.
Contact: rvdboom@papy3d.com Papy3d productions, 43 Bd Auguste Blanqui 75013 Paris, France
12m; U.S.
Director: A.J. Eaton
Synopsis: Bill, a retired construction expert, is offered the job of ‘Mr. Fix-It’ on a local television show. His debut, however, seems to be a bit confused…although he does seem to be ‘fixing’ things.
Contact: ajeaton@ajeaton.com 310-601-7898 Found on 2007 Palm Springs Shorts Film Fest: http://www.psfilmfest.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=19323&FID=31
124m; U.S.
Director: Martin Ritt
Cast: Sean Connery, Richard Harris and Samantha Eggar
Synopsis (IMDB): Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?
29m; U.S.
Director: Arthur Young
Synopsis: Davitt McAteer is one of America’s leading experts on coal mine safety. In 1984, he founded the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center (OSHLC), a public interest law firm based in Shepherdstown that engages in education, training and policy analysis of issues involving workplace safety and health. While director of this Center, he produced this film. In 1993, he was named assistant secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton. This film tells the story of the struggle for mine safety in the U.S., focusing on the tragedy of Monongah, WV, in which 362 miners died. In December 2007, WVU Press released his book on the subject, “Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Mine Disaster.”
Contact: Debbie Roberts, droberts@mcateer-assoc.com
97m; U.K.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Eugene Lipinski and Jirí Stanislav
Synopsis (IMDB): A Polish contractor, Nowak, leads a group of workmen to London so they can provide cheap labor for a government official based there. Nowak (Irons) has to manage the project and the men as they encounter the tempations of the West and loneliness and separation from their families. Nowak is the only one of the group who speaks English, and he uses this as a tool over his team. When the unrest in Poland leads to a military takeover, Nowak is faced with a much more difficult situation than he expected.
121m; Germany
Director: Phil Jutzi
Cast: Alexandra Schmitt, Holmes Zimmermann and Ilse Trautschold
Synopsis (IMDB): A masterpiece about a working-class family in the late twenties in Berlin. You see Mutter Krauses fight for survival shown in such a modern way that you feel close even if it is nearly ninety years away. The way the camera (operated by the director himself) films the scenes and sometimes just the everyday life on the streets of Berlin is so energetic and real. The actors are playing very physical and natural (which was surprising for me as i expected acting in silent movies as much more stiff and awkward). All characters are very pure and just like in a documentary. Ilse Trautschold as the daughter is unforgettable. Whenever you get the chance to see this film go and watch it. Faßbinder once said it was his favorite film.
89m; U.S.
Director: Sturla Gunnarsson
Cast: Barbara Williams, Timothy Webber and Rob Lee
Synopsis: Women making it in trucking.
60m; U.S.
Director: Harold Meyer
Synopsis: This roaring railroad film (1968) reveals the incredible history of railroading from the 1830s until today. The Hell on Wheels towns, the Chinese and Irish immigrants building a railroad with their sweat and brawn but battling each other along the way, the robber barons and their union busting, Mr. Pullman and his Pullman car, the glitter of the “golden age”, Eugene V. Debs, the glory days of the passenger trains of the 1930s and 40s.
30m; U.S.
Director: Virginia Bendl Moore
Cast: Earl Ray Tomlin (Himself); Senator Jay Rockefeller (Himself); Gov. Manchin (Himself); Bill Raney (Himself- President of the WV Coal Association); Warren Hylton (Himself- President of Patents Coal); Larry Gibson (Himself); Ed Wiley (Himself); Maria Gunnoe (Himself); Lenny Kohn (Himself- reporter from Appalachian Voices); Sam Cook (Himself- Appalachian Studies Professor at Virginia Tech)
Synopsis: A student made documentary about the effects of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. West Virginia; Coal Mining; Mountaintop Removal Mining; Strip Mining
Contact: E-mail filmmaker at movingmountains@virginia.edu
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