Documentary | THE LABOR FILM DATABASE

Black and White and Dead All Over (2012)

Directed by Lenny Feinberg & Chris Foster
83m; US

An in-depth look at the newspaper industry as it struggles to remain financially viable and to keep the presses rolling. Through the voices of prominent journalists including Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and David Carr of the New York Times, we reveal an industry in the midst of a financial death spiral, as readers abandon print for online news sources. We see publishers and editors desperately trying to create a sustainable business model for their dying papers.

Our film examines the importance journalism has on our society by following two fearless investigators into the badlands of North Philadelphia. With the economic crisis in the newsroom threatening to shutter their struggling tabloid, these courageous women bring down a dangerous and corrupt narcotics squad.

If the American newspaper dies, who will conduct investigative journalism, who will hold public officials accountable?

Click here to see the trailer
For more information on the film visit blackandwhiteanddeadallover.net

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Posted by Labor Film Database on January 10, 2013 in Arts/Culture, Communications, Documentary

The Second Cooler (est 2013)

04 Dec

Writer / Director Ellin Jimmerson
Narrated by Martin Sheen
Run time: approximately 87 minutes
Anticipated release date is Winter, 2013
Sub-titled in English and Spanish

SYNOPSIS
Documentary about illegal immigration shot primarily in Alabama, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The premise is that Arizona is the new Alabama, the epicenter of an intense struggle for migrant justice. The documentary’s purpose is to bring basic immigration issues into focus. Those issues include the impact of free trade agreements on migration, the lack of a legal way for poor Latin Americans to come to the United States, the inherent abuses of the guest worker program, the fact that many migrants are indigenous people, anti-immigrant politics, the reality of thousands of migrant deaths at the border, and an escalating ideology of the border.
The Second Cooler raises the question “Who benefits?” from illegal migration. It has interviews with 25 illegal migrants, including three children under the age of 12. It follows several of them throughout the film. In addition, it includes interviews with 55 professionals including historians, lawyers, clergy, labor union organizers, politicians, a Border Patrol agent, human rights advocates and others who untangle the threads of a complicated issue. When a viewer reaches the end of The Second Cooler, he or she will understand why 12 million migrants are in the United States illegally and will be able to offer an informed answer to the question, “Who benefits?”

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Posted by Labor Film Database on December 4, 2012 in Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration

161 Days: The Vita Cortex Workers Struggle (2012)

03 Dec

Ireland | 2012 | 45mins | Colour
The 16th of December 2011 was to be the final day for workers at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork. Their redundancy payments had been agreed but in the final days of their employment they were informed that the payments could not or would not be made. A decision was made to occupy the plant which they did for 161 days, one of the longest running industrial disputes in the history of the Irish state.
The campaign attracted support from football stars Alex Ferguson and Paul McGrath, former President Mary Robinson, actor Cillian Murphy and philosopher Noam Chomsky.
This is the story of the occupation.

Producer Barra O’Connell
Print Sourceinfo@wildacre.ie

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Posted by Labor Film Database on December 3, 2012 in Documentary, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

Drivers Wanted (2012)

30 Nov

Directed by Jean Tsien & Joshua Z Weinstein
Run time: 53 min. | USA

It takes persistence to run a taxi service in New York City, and new drivers are always needed. Long hours, disrespectful customers and the blinding snow of a blizzard are just some of the challenges they must face. DRIVERS WANTED explores the daily workings of one Queens garage as a new driver transitions from double-decker tour buses to taxis. Throughout it all, 90-year-old Johnnie “Spider” Footman keeps showing up for work. – MRR

Click here for trailer.

Joshuazweinstein@gmail.com
WeinsteinFilm.com

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Posted by Labor Film Database on November 30, 2012 in Documentary, Service Workers, Transportation

Portraits from Cameroon

20 Nov

Director: Jan Nimmo
Cameroon/ Scotland
between 2.30 mins and 4 mins

A collection of banana workers’ testimonies filmed in the Fako region of Cameroon. These short stories give the viewer an intimate insight into what daily life is like for workers who produce bananas for the European market. The online testimonies were edited for Make Fruit Fair/ Banana Link and these stories are also available as a video wall installation for exhibitions and events.

The films are currently being edited into one short film of around 18 mins for festival distribution – for more information contact Jan Nimmo: jan@greengold.org.uk

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Posted by Labor Film Database on November 20, 2012 in Big Business/Corporations, Documentary, Farm & Food

The Waiting Room (2012)

24 Oct

Directed by Peter Nicks
Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.

24 hours in a public hospital emergency room waiting room.

The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that uses extraordinary access to go behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. The film – using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover – offers a raw, intimate, and even uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers each cope with disease, bureaucracy and hard choices.

The ER waiting room serves as the grounding point for the film, capturing in vivid detail what it means for millions of Americans to live without health insurance. Young victims of gun violence take their turn alongside artists and small business owners who lack insurance. Steel workers, taxi cab drivers and international asylum seekers crowd the halls. The film weaves the stories of several patients – as well as the hospital staff charged with caring for them – as they cope with the complexity of the nation’s public health care system, while weathering the storm of a national recession.

The Waiting Room lays bare the struggle and determination of both a community and an institution coping with limited resources and no road map for navigating a health care landscape marked by historic economic and political dysfunction. It is a film about one hospital, its multifaceted community, and how our common vulnerability to illness binds us together as humans.

trailer at whatruwaitingfor.com

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 24, 2012 in Documentary, Public Sector, Safety & Health, Women

Men at Lunch (2012)

17 Oct

80m; Ireland

Director: Seán Ó Cualáin

Synopsis: New York City, 1932. The country is in the throes of the Great Depression, the previous decade’s boom of Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants has led to unprecedented urban expansion, and in the midst of an unseasonably warm autumn, steelworkers risk life and limb building skyscrapers high above the streets of Manhattan. In Men at Lunch, director Seán Ó Cualáin tells the story of Lunch atop a Skyscraper, the iconic photograph taken during the construction of the GE Building that depicts eleven workmen taking their lunch break while casually perched along a steel girder, 850 feet above the ground. For decades, this image has captivated imaginations the world over. But who are these men? And where did they come from?

Contact: http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/menatlunch
Distributor contact: John Bione JBione@firstrunfeatures.com
“Men on a Skyscraper” portable sculpture: Sergio Furnari: info@sergiofurnari.com or call 917-687-5593; http://www.sergiofurnari.com/store.htm

Trailer

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Posted by iwwggrandson on October 17, 2012 in Construction Trades, Documentary, Immigrants/Immigration, Working Class

Stitched Together: Students, and the Movement for Alta Gracia (2012)

13 Oct

28:43; U.S.

Director: Will Delphia

Synopsis: A documentary film examining the Alta Gracia factory in the Dominican Republic, a new college apparel company attempting to challenge the sweatshop model of production by creating a factory with living wages, good working conditions, and an independent trade union.

Full Film

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 13, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Organizing, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Textile Industry, Working Class

Hombre Maquila (2011) (Machine Man)

09 Oct

Director: Alfonso Moral & Roser Corella
Spain, 2011, 14min
Format: HDCam (screening) – DigiBeta, BetaSP (shooting)
Festival Year: 2012
Category: Documentary
Crew: Editor, Cinematographer: Alfonso Moral
Email: roser.corellagmail.com

synopsis
A reflection on modernity and global development, documenting the use of human physical force to perform work in the 21st century. The film takes place in the capital of Bangladesh, where the ‘machine men’ execute different physical works, a mass of millions of people who become the driving force behind the city.

director
Alfonso Moral and Roser Corella have collaborated on a number of documentaries, shooting in Lebanon, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Kenya and Senegal. They combine this joint work with individual work, making photo and video reports for different media, television and press, including Catalan TV, La Vanguardia or Le Monde. “Machine Man” is their first auteur documentary.

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Posted by Labor Film Database on October 9, 2012 in Automation, Construction Trades, Documentary, Working Class

600,000 Miners Strike Led by John L. Lewis (1919)

30 Aug

1:54; U.S.

Synopsis: “In November, 1919, Acting President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers led 600,000 miners in a five week strike that crippled the bituminous coal industry and the nation as well. The strike was in direct defiance of a court injunction against such action and Woodrow Wilson denounced Lewis as a dictator. This was John L. Lewis’ first clash with a United States president; he missed battle with no other president from then on up to Eisenhower.

On December 11, President Wilson and Attorney General Palmer presented Lewis with a proposal that would send the miners back to work: a 14% wage increase (they were getting $2.00 per day) and a commission to work out other questions in the dispute such as hours, health and safety standards. Lewis accepted immediately and the men returned to work, proving their loyalty to their country, he said. Attorney General Palmer commended Mr. Lewis for his wise and patriotic action.

The coal operators, however, charged Palmer with surrender and said that he feared a terrible situation if the government had been forced to jail the miners. A Congressional Committee decided to investigate the strike.”