Working Class | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Keeping on (1983)

75m; U.S.

Director: Barbara Kopple

Synopsis (Allmovie.com): Keeping On was the only “fiction” film directed by documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Like her earlier Harlan County USA and The American Dream, the film examines a labor-management struggle in a hardscrabble Southern mill town. Dick Anthony Williams plays a minister who encourages the activities of labor unionist James Broderick. Williams’ stand polarizes the community, and the cleric is ostracized by the so-called “right” people. Completed in 1981, Keeping On premiered February 8, 1983 on PBS’ American Playhouse.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Organizing, Working Class

Killer of Sheep (1977)

28 Mar

83m; U.S.

Director: Charles Burnett

Cast: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore and Charles Bracy

Synopsis: Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Working Class

Kings (2007)

28 Mar

88m; Ireland

Director: Tom Collins

Cast: Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly and Brendan Conroy

Synopsis: In the twenty five years they have been there, done that, the Navvy (Irish working man) clock does not stop for alienation or inner despair. They are working men, strong even indestructible. Those gnawing feelings of something not being quite right are ameliorated by the camaraderie of their mates. So what if it all ends in tears or a thumping. They can give as good as they get or used to. At least they are alive and having the craic. Until it all changes, and a silence falls on the reverie of the gang. Tragedy has struck Jackie the youngest, the brightest and the bravest. The gang does what has always been done – they gather together for a Wake, a final celebration, a cheer, to give Jackie Flavin a send off fit for a king, a king of the Kilburn High Road. He, unlike them is set to return to Ireland – his body found bruised and battered on the railway track, crushed by the passing Kilburn train

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

Kinky Boots (2005)

28 Mar

107m; U.K.

Director: Julian Jarrold

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts

Synopsis (IMDB): A drag queen comes to the rescue of a man who, after inheriting his father’s shoe factory, needs to diversify his product if he wants to keep the business afloat.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, White Collar, Working Class

Kuhle Wampe (1932)

28 Mar

71m; Germany

Director: Slatan Dudow

Synopsis: Fragmented vignettes combine to make a political statement about working class potential in Germany, just before it was blocked by Fascism.

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Politics, Working Class

L’America (1994)

28 Mar

116m; Italy

Director: Gianni Amelio

Cast: Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido and Piro Milkani

Synopsis: (IMDB): Two Italian racketeers come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants. They need a stooge. They choose an old one in a jail : Spiro. But the youngest italian, Gino, once alone with Spiro, encounter a few problems. Far from his roots, loosing his identity in deep Albania, he begins to change…

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Posted by Metro Council on March 28, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class