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Category Archives: Documentary

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For “Superman”(2011)

16 Feb

Directed by: Julie Cavanagh, Darren Marelli, Norm Scott, Mollie Bruhn, and Lisa Donlan
Running Time: 69 min
Starring: N/A

Website: https://theinconvenienttruthbehindwaitingforsuperman.com/

Synopsis: A group of New York City public school teachers and parents from the Grassroots Education Movement wrote and produced this documentary in response to Davis Guggenheim’s highly misleading film, Waiting for “Superman.” Guggenheim’s film would have audiences believe that free-market competition, standardized tests, destroying teacher unions, and above all, the proliferation of charter schools are just what this country needs to create great schools.

The film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman highlights the real life experiences of public school parents and educators to show how these so-called reforms are actually hurting education. The film talks about the kinds of real reform–inside schools and in society as a whole–that we urgently need to genuinely transform education in this country.

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2017 in Documentary, Education

 

Hard Earned (2015)

16 Feb

Directed by: Katy Chevigny, Maria Finitzo, Ruth Leitman, Brad Lichtenstein, and Joanna Rudnick
Running Time: 312 min
Starring: N/A

Website: https://www.kartemquin.com/films/hard-earned/about

Synopsis: Hard Earned, a six-hour documentary series for Al Jazeera America, puts aside economic debates and follows five families around the country to find out what it takes to get by on eight, ten or even 15 dollars an hour. The series turns an intimate lens on this group of 21st century American dreamers. They fight against all odds to thrive, when it takes everything they have to simply survive.

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2017 in Documentary

 

Gasland (2010)

16 Feb

Directed by: Josh Fox
Running Time: 104 min
Starring: N/A

Website: http://one.gaslandthemovie.com/home

Synopsis: “The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.”

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2017 in Documentary, Environment

 

From Bedside to Bargaining Table (1984)

16 Feb

Directed by: Lyn Goldfarb and Tami Gold
Running Time: 20 min
Starring: N/A

Synopsis: This inspiring documentary looks at nursing from the nurse’s point of view, encouraging healthcare professionals to work together to change their poor working conditions and gain self-respect.

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2017 in Documentary, Safety & Health, Short

 

Ditching the Fear (2015)

16 Feb

Trailer: http://en.labournet.tv/video/6941/ditching-fear-trailer

Directed by: Rosa Cannone/Johanna Schellhagen

Running Time: 80 minutes.
Starring: N/A

Since 2008 in northern Italy, unusual things have been happening. Companies, the political class and the media are using the onset of the crisis to further undermine workers’ rights, which have been, up until now, crushed. On the other side, a lively and strong resistance has been forming at the bottom end of the wage scale.

Of all people, it is the precarious and largely migrant workers in the logistics sector who have, through solidarity and effective organizing, been successful in overcoming their isolation and degrading working conditions. A struggle that hasn’t just changed their working conditions but has changed their whole lives.

“I’d been talking with the girls since 2012 because I came to know about this union called SI Cobas. But there has been a lot of fear because they put you in a condition of servility, you are enslaved to the point that you can’t even say ‘a’. You don’t say anything, you work item after item after item… So I’d been speaking with the girls since 2012 and I don’t know how it happened. It was good luck.” (Yoox Worker, from the film)

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2017 in Documentary, Manufacturing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo)

 

Robot Somnambulism (2016)

18 Dec

Richard HSIAO
2016 / Taiwan / Documentary / 90min /
Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics OEM factory, manufactured and assembled more than 50% iPhone of the world. In 2010, the serial jumping of Foxconn workers caught attention. People holding iPhone suddenly noticed that it’s producer were working like a robot, acting every 7 seconds, 12 hour a day. They felt a bit uneasy, but cannot loosen their hand. Smartphone has changed human life completely. On the other side, the company supplying touch panels to HTC were suppressing worker union. Union and supporting students choose HTC to protest, making its managers feel embarrassed and aggrieved. Meanwhile, one of HTC engineer died possibly because of overworking. His last message on Facebook was “off work, issue still not resolved”, AM 3 o’clock, Sunday. In this era, robotic people making humanized machine, is it a hopeless tragedy, or the beginning of a brave new world?

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2016 in Automation, Consumerism, Documentary, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Safety & Health, Technology

 

When Two Worlds Collide

18 Dec
An indigenous environmental activist takes on the large businesses that are destroying the Amazon.
Initial release: January 22, 2016
Directors: Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel
Producer: Taira Akbar
Website

Backed by a “free trade” agreement with the U.S., the president of Peru launched a plan to turn over indigenous Amazonian land to big corporations for mining and oil and gas extraction. Indigenous communities fought back. The filmmakers immersed themselves in this drama and produced incredible footage showing the courage and sacrifice of the native people, juxtaposed with the familiar invoking of “progress” and “the rule of the law” by the corporations’ allies in government.

 

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2016 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Environment, Global Economy, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing

 

Lamb (2015)

18 Dec
Initial release: November 26, 2015 (Germany)
Director: Yared Zeleke
Music composed by: Christophe Chassol
Cast: Kidist Siyum, Wolela Assefa, Rediat Amare, Rahel Teshome, More
Screenplay: Yared Zeleke, Géraldine Bajard
Producers: Johannes Rexin, Laurent Lavolé, Ama Ampadu

A beautiful Ethiopian feature film tells the story of two characters who don’t fit into traditional rural life in that country. One is a young boy more adept at cooking than typically male tasks. The other is an outspoken teenage girl who is being drawn into local radical political debates.

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2016 in Children, Documentary, Farm & Food, Politics, Women

 

The Workers Cup (2016)

18 Dec

United Kingdom (Director: Adam Sobel) — Inside Qatar’s labor camps, African and Asian migrant workers building the facilities of the 2022 World Cup compete in a football tournament of their own. World Premiere. DAY ONE

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2016 in Blacks, Class, Documentary, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Migrant workers

 

Plastic China (2016)

18 Dec

China (Director: Jiu-liang Wang) — Yi-Jie, an 11-year-old girl, works alongside her parents in a recycling facility while dreaming of attending school. Kun, the facility’s ambitious foreman, dreams of a better life. Through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse, comes an examination of global consumption and culture. International Premiere. THE NEW CLIMATE

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2016 in Consumerism, Documentary, Environment, Global Economy, Immigrants/Immigration, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Migrant workers

 
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