25m; U.S.
Synopsis: Ted Koppel hosts a look at the impact of the automation of the coalfields, the most important development in mining coal in West Virginia since the 1950’s. Chief reporter Barry Serafin and others visit various mine sites in West Virginia and talk to residents as well as mine operators who have been affected by the huge machines now used in the largest mines east of the Mississippi River.
Contact: WVLC
28m; Germany
Director: Alexandra Welt
Synopsis: Digital handcraft is an educational film, a portrait of the process of computer hardware production. It displays the organisation of production in global value chains and investigates the conditions of life and labour for millions of migrant worker in China’s factories, which manufacture the hardware for the immaterial production of the 21st century. This film takes a look at the flipside of globalised computer production, which is incongruous with the “clean” image the industry usually displays. By interviewing both activists and workers, the film investigates the current situation as well as future possibilities for improving their situation. Furthermore, the film looks at issues surrounding the illegal shipping of computer scrap parts from Germany to developing countries.
Contact: http://vimeo.com/18616242 PARKAFILM Alexandra Weltz aw@parkafilm.cc
27m; U.S.
Director: Marc Siegel
Synopsis: Story of 5,000 steelworkers who lost their jobs when Lykes Corporation closed the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The plant reopened under worker-community ownership.
Director: David Sampliner & Tim Nackashi
Synopsis (IMDB): Documentarians David Sampliner & Tim Nackashi follow three men with odd, potentially unpleasant careers — a bull semen collector, a sewage tank pumper, and an embalmer.
Cast: Ken Hechler, J. Davitt McAteer, Ben Franklken
Synopsis: 78 miners lost their lives in one of the worst mine disasters in U.S. history, the Farmington, WV. Mine Disaster on Nov. 20, 1968. This documentary investigates the causes and effects of the disaster. Former U.S. Congressman Ken Hechler is one of the people interviewed since he lead the battle in Congress to change federal mine safety regulations. Also interviewed are J. Davitt McAteer of Shepherdstown, the head of the Occupational Health and Safety Center. Ben Franklin, a former New York Times correspondent who covered the disaster, provides some critical assessment. This was a watershed event led Congress to create a tough new mine safety law limiting the amount of coal dust produced in mines for the first time in U.S. history. The new legislation also compensated miners with black lung disease.
Contact: A & E
30m
Director: Will Durst
Synopsis (WordCat): Discusses the difficulties faced by K-Mart warehouse employees during their attempts to organize unions at the Manteno, Illinois and Greensboro, N.C. locations.
15m; U.S.
Director: US Department of Education in association with the AFL-CIO Department of Research
9m; U.S.
Director: Maurer, Fleisher, and Zon
Synopsis: Educational still film with voice-over narration explains why and how to organize a COPE within a union.
55m; U.S.
Director: Rebecca Schanberg
Synopsis: Two reluctant whistleblowers in a small Georgia town endure relentless attacks as the struggle to draw national attention to hospital corruption and the plight of the uninsured.
49m; Israel
Director: Hedva Galili-Smolinsky
Synopsis: Immigrant workers’ children in Israel.
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