128m; UK
Director: Michael Apted
Stars: Bruce Balden, Jacqueline Bassett and Symon Basterfield
Documentary tracking group of British people of different classes.
“If there’s ever been a more telling indictment that, indeed, the poor stay poor and the rich get rich, I haven’t found it. 35 Up is nothing less than a bleak yet scathing documentary skewering the class structure of Britain.”
Christopher Null
55M; U.S.
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Cast: Morgan Spurlock
30 Days TV series (FX) creator Morgan Spurlock returns to his home state of West Virginia, to work as a rookie apprentice coalminer known as a “redhat” for 30 days. He also takes a little time to socialize with the miners and their families, and briefly explores the problems of mountaintop removal mining and the destruction of both the environment and the coal miners’ health.
24m; Canada 
Director: Dana Inkster
In a decade, tiny Brooks, Alberta has been transformed from a socially conservative, primarily Caucasian town to one of the most diverse places in Canada. Hijabs have become commonplace, downtown bars feature calypso and residents speak 90 different languages. Immigrants and refugees have flocked here to work at Lakeside Packers – one of the world’s largest slaughterhouses. Centering on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside, this film is a nuanced portrait of people working together and adapting to change. They are people like Peter Jany Khwai, who escaped war in Sudan, wears an African shirt and a cowboy hat, and affirms his Canadian identity as well as his determination to fight for his rights. Or Edil Hassan, a devout Muslim born in Somalia, who counts her hours of organizing and picketing among her proudest moments. As 24 Days in Brooks shows, people from widely different backgrounds can work together for respect, dignity, and change – even though getting there is not easy.
24 Days in Brooks was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour. Reel Diversity is a National Film Board of Canada initiative in partnership with CBC Newsworld. The DVD includes the original English version of the film and the English version with French subtitles.
Contact Info: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=56986
90m; UK
Director: Gary Williams
It’s 40 years since the Equal Pay Act, but when will the gender pay gap close?
Contact: G.Williams@unison.co.uk
4m; US
Director: Dolissa Medina
Experimental short film about undocumented immigrants who died while trapped inside a tractor near the town of Victoria, Texas.
30m; US (click above for excerpt)
James Earl Jones narrates the first film made by the American Social History Project’s series on American working people and U.S. history. Using rare documents and pictures, it explores the massive national railroad strikes of 1877, a watershed event in Pittsburgh and U.S. history
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/4451/Alethea
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