129m; U.S.
Director: John Sayles
Synopsis: Urban politics, focusing on the tensions between urban redevelopment and community development in a city undergoing gentrification; based on Jersey City or Hoboken, NJ. It has some interesting scenes about organizing and politics.
51m; U.S.
Director: Alex Szalat
Synopsis: Biographical film about Clara Lelich, a Jewish socialist textile worker who played a major role in the “Uprising of the 20,000” which was a powerful moment in organizing New York’s textile sector and the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU).
Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2005/clar.html
62m; U.S.
Director: Loretta Alper & Pepi Leistyna
Synopsis: How TV views the working class; Ed Asner narrates. A tad pedantic but well-done look at how the working class has been portrayed on television.
128m; France
Director: Laurent Cantent
Synopsis: Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
4m; U.K.
Director: Chris Kasrils
Synopsis: Living wage fight of rail and tube cleaners in UK
93m; Czechoslovakia
Director: Jirí Menzel
Cast: Václav Neckár, Josef Somr and Vlastimil Brodský
Synopsis: An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform.
78m; U.S.
Director: Karen Vuranch
Synopsis: chronicles the life of a woman living in a West Virginia coal camp of the 1920’s and 30’s
Contact: Teacher’s website at – http://www.coalcampmemories.com/ Access – WV Enterprises at http://www.wventerprises.com/
125m; U.S.
Director: Michael Apted
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones and Levon Helm
Synopsis: Biography of Loretta Lynn, a country and western singer that came from poverty to fame.
U.S.
Synopsis: Three-part documentary of a political movement called the Black Lung Movement, centered in southern West Virginia. The DVD has three separate films on it – “Black Lung: A History (MSHA), News coverage of 1960’s Black Lung Movement, and “Reflections” which is a history of MSHA and federal government agencies over the decades that worked on protecting miners.
Contact: Richard Hanna, District Director U.S. Department of Labor ESA/OWCP/DCMWC Charleston Federal Center – Suite 110 500 Quarrier Street Charleston, West Virginia 25301 Commercial: (304) 347-7100 Toll-Free (800) 347-3749 Hanna.Richard@dol.gov
29m; U.S.
Director: Kathleen Foster
Synopsis: In the tradition of Harlan County, USA, this documentary looks at the role women played in the 1989-90 coal strike in the Southern Appalachian coalfields. The location is Dehue – Logan County, WV. The miners and their wives are fighting one of the most intense battles since the 1920s. Clips from other films made about that era, along with photographs, are used to illustrate the conclusion – namely that “its workers again’ bosses…forever!”
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