Working Class | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Can’t Take No More (1979)

29:03; U.S.
Director: Mark Catlin
Cast: Studs Terkel

Synopsis: “Studs Terkel narrates this fast-paced history of occupational health and safety in the U.S. from the Industrial Revolution to the 1970s, which OSHA produced in 1979. Rare archival footage and photos illustrate the problems behind dramatic tragedies as well as the daily dangers that put workers at risk for long-term health problems. It also connects the health and safety movement with the civil rights and environmental movements. This is one of three wonderful films produced and distributed by OSHA during the administration of Dr. Eula Bingham – Can’t Take No More; Worker to Worker; and OSHA. Then in 1981, the new head of OSHA, under the Reagan Administration, Thorne Auchter recalled most copies and they disappeared. A few copies were kept alive by union officials who refused to return their copies. The penalty for being discovered in possession of one of these films was losing all OSHA funding for their safety and health programs.”

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Posted by Metro Council on January 24, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing, Politics, Safety & Health, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

Chop Shop (2007)

24 Jan

84m; U.S.

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Cast: ALEJANDRO POLANCO ISAMAR GONZALES ROB SOWULSKI CARLOS ZAPATA AHMAD RAZVI

Synopsis: Latino street orphan lives and works in an auto-body repair shop in a sprawling junkyard on the outskirts of Queens, New York.

Contact: Director: Ramin Bahrani raminbahrani@yahoo.com Distributor: Koch Lorber Suzanne Fedak ; Dan Sherman ; http://noruzfilms.com/films/chopshop.html Jeb Brody Big Beach 41 Great Jones St. Fifth Floor New York, NY 10012 P: 212-473-5800 F: 212-473-5805 jeb@bigbeachfilms.com

Trailer

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Posted by Metro Council on January 24, 2012 in A: Highly Recommended Labor Films, Drama, Working Class

Blue Elephants (2010)

23 Jan

14m; Germany

Director: Moritz Siebert

Synopsis: This short documentary shows the dire labour conditions of migrant workers in the Malaysian electronics industry. Men and women from Nepal, Indonesia and other countries come as contract workers to work for Dell, HP, Intell and other well known brand companies. Migrant workers pay several thousands of dollars in commission to labour agents to get work permits. Workers often engage in heavy debts to obtain such permits which may grant them a stay in Malaysia for five year maximum. Time to pay off these debts is limited, while pay is low. Migrant workers face discrimination in Malaysian society as well as on the work floor, and have to accept bad housing conditions. The work load is heavy, and when worker fail to meet set targets, they risk immediate dismissal. When workers get pregnant or fall ill, they are sent back home at their own expenses. The documentary has been produced by Moritz Siebert in cooperation with World Economy, Ecology, development (WEED), for the European Procure IT Fair campaign.

Contact: http://www.vimeo.com/18617196

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Available Online, Documentary, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Outsourcing, Safety & Health, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Working Class

Blue Collar Trap (1972)

23 Jan

50m; U.S.

Synopsis: Study of the modern assembly line worker. Although he is better educated, more affluent and has more leisure time than his predecessors, the sense of purpose and meaning in life an individual is able to maintain is questioned.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

Blue Collar (1978)

23 Jan

114m; U.S.
Director: Paul Schraeder
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Richard Pryor

Synopsis: A band of auto workers decide to rob the local union office. They find $600 and a ledger book. The book reveals that the local has been loan sharking, so the workers decide to blackmail the union officers. The local first announces that $10,000 had been stolen and the figure later rose to $20,600 in an effort to cheat the insurance company.

Where to watch: Available for rental on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms.

If you’re looking for something more tart than inspirational for your Labor Day viewing, the directorial debut of Paul Schrader will do the trick. (Back then he was best known as the writer of “Taxi Driver”; now he’s the provocative éminence grise behind “First Reformed.”) Set and shot on location in Detroit, the movie stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto as autoworkers thoroughly disillusioned with being exploited on the assembly line. Schrader’s analysis of their plight is informed by Marx but also exposes racial inequality. The movie is excessive, profane and relentlessly angry, with some comedic detours that fall flat. But it’s also razor-sharp in its examination of how working people can be turned against their own interests, and each other, by the crassly manipulative forces above them. GLENN KENNY (NYT)

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

Blow for Blow (1972)

23 Jan

90m; France

Director: Marin Karmitz

Synopsis: A film about a worker’s strike at a textile plant, written and enacted by the actual striking workers. This film was a collaborative and collective effort. Videotapes of upcoming scenes were discussed by the workers, and camera angles as well as dramatic refinements were agreed on before any film was exposed. Given that the film presents the worker’s point of view and is a largely amateur effort, reviewers found it surprisingly effective as a dramatic piece. One interesting feature of the film, and of the strike itself, is that it was organized and led by women. While there had been male union leaders, they were bypassed or ousted for their lack of leadership, understanding, or negotiating skills. A small textile factory, like many others. At the beginning, women in a clothing or weaving workshop. Some of them are young, some of them are old and others are middle-aged; they come here, every day, to produce in the heat, forcing the pace, enduring their tiredness. As well as can be expected, each of them lives her life : 8 hours in the factory, a new workday begins at the way out : shopping, housework, children, husbands. New financial or affective concerns. Anyway, so many women’s life. But in the workshop, things are progressively changing. They less and less can stand to be oppressed : they sabotage machines, they stop working… The boss reacts quickly and roughly: agitators are fired. To obtain two womens reinstatement, they are all going to unite. Unite to find every kind of action which could make them attempt their goal. From union speech to the final sequestration they are going to manage a terrible fight.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts, Women, Working Class

Bloodbrothers (1978)

23 Jan

116m; U.S.

Director: Robert Mulligan

Cast: Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco, Richard Gere

Synopsis: A young man is torn between following in his brothers’ footsteps or striking out on his own.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Construction Trades, Drama, Working Class

Black Orpheus (1959)

23 Jan

107m; Brazil

Director: Marcel Camus

Cast: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn and Lourdes de Oliveira

Synopsis: A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Working Class

Black Legion (1937)

23 Jan

83m; U.S.

Director: Archie Mayo

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran

Synopsis: When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.

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Posted by iwwggrandson on January 23, 2012 in 2026 Shortlist, Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class