81m; Germany
Director: Holger Wayman
Synopsis: In May 2005, the Bosch-Siemens workers in Berlin who produce Siemens household appliances were threatened with the closure of their factory and the loss of 600 jobs.
Contact: http://www.videowerkstatt.de/ autofocus@videowerkstatt.de Holger Wayman: howeg@hotmail.de
65m; U.S.
Director: Gary Gasgarth
Synopsis: This timely and informative documentary chronicles the history of America’s mortgage finance system, from its origins in the 1930s, when the federal government first made available long-term, fixed-rate loans to new American homeowners, to its current state of crisis, after an excess of risky mortgage financing led to the system’s collapse, which in turn triggered a wider economic recession.
Contact: http://icarusfilms.com/new2009/fall.html lori@icarusfilms.com Sending screener
30m; U.S.
Director: George Lindblade
Synopsis: Shot on film in 1978, this project was commissioned by the Zenith Corporation and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It chronicles the effect of the Sioux City Zenith plant closing on the lives of nine people from seven families. The film crew then traveled to Taiwan and Mexico, where the Sioux City jobs relocated. This was the first wave of US manufacturing jobs moving to offshore facilities. 1500 people, mostly women, lost their jobs. The film was intended to encourage Congress to pass antidumping laws that would protect American workers. We Didn’t Want it to Happen This Way was the winner of the 1979 American Film Festival Award. – https://siouxcitygifts.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/48?osCsid=7kdbncntn103lnet2704fo4086
58m; U.S.
Director: Thomas C. Goodwin, Dorothy McGhee, Gerardine Wurzburg
Synopsis: On October 2, 1979, Marilyn McCusker was killed working inside a deep coal mine in central Pennsylvania. It had taken her two years and a sex discrimination suit in federal court to get her job as a coal miner. This award-winning film has been called “the best documentary ever made on women in non-traditional occupations.”
96m; U.S.
Director: Erwin Wagenhofer
Synopsis: Every day in Vienna the amount of unsold bread sent back to be disposed of is enough to supply Austria’s second-largest city, Graz. Around 350,000 hectares of agricultural land, above all in Latin America, are dedicated to the cultivation of soybeans to feed Austria’s livestock while one quarter of the local population starves. Every European eats ten kilograms a year of artificially irrigated greenhouse vegetables from southern Spain, with water shortages the result. This documentary about food and globalization traces the origins of the food we eat, depicting fishermen and farmers, long-distance truckers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash – contrasting scarcity amid plenty. An insight into the production of our food, the film answers the question of what world hunger has to do with us. Interviewed are not only fishermen, farmers, agronomists, biologists and the UN’s Jean Ziegler, but also the director of production at Pioneer, the world’s largest seed company, as well as Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé International, the largest food company in the world. Erwin Wagenhofer received the 2006 Fipresci Award for We Feed the World at the Motovun Film Festival (Croatia). Other films include Agnes (short, 2002) and his latest documentary, Let’s Make Money (2008).
20m; Japan
Director: Doro-Chiba
Synopsis: Fight against privatization on Japanese rail lines.
25m; U.S.
Director: Gordon Simmons
Synopsis: Host Gordon Simmons interviews Shawn Bennett, the director of the new WV labor documentary, “The Battle of Local 5668.” Bennett talks about his father and family in Parkersburg. His father worked for years at the Ravenswood Aluminum plant including during the lock-out shown in his film. He also talks about spending several years making the film, commuting from his Hollywood job where he is currently trying to organize members of his profession.
Contact: http://librarycommission.lib.wv.us/html/ltn/index_ltn.html
30m; U.S.
Synopsis: A short film documenting West Virginian companies importing employees from out of the state, paying cash to employees to avoid taxes, and using other underhanded tactics . Also seventeen TV commercials about the WV Jobs Act, 40-hour workweek, outsourcing, clean water, business development and other themes.
Contact: Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation- A Division of the West Virginia State Building and Construction Trades Council – AFL-CIO tttp://www.actwv.org/commercials.mx. Commercials about unfair practices are at Access: http://actwvvideo.merlix.com/
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