60m; U.S.
Director: Deborah Kaufman/Alan Snitow
Synopsis: Temp workers/high tech workers
Category Archives: Documentary
Seeds of Peace (2008)
50m; Holland/Palestine
Director: André Kloer
Synopsis: Seeds of Peace: workers’ rights in a legal no-mans’ land tells the story of Palestinians who work in the Israeli settlements on the West Bank. One of these settlements is Nizzane Ha Shalom (Seeds of Peace). Because of the questionable juridical status of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, it is unclear which laws apply to Palestinians who work there. There is also a weak enforcements of the few laws that do exist. The consequence of this juridical no-man’s land is that Palestinians work in the settlements without minimum wage and legal protection. Despite of this, more and more Palestinians are turning for work to these settlements, because the Palestinian economy is unable to create enough jobs. Jawdat Talousy was one of these workers and defended his rights for all he was worth. He tried to unite the workers in order to demand better labour conditions and was fired by the boss.
Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (2002)
60m
Director: Katerina Cizek, Peter Wintonick
Synopsis: The impact of consumer video equipment on international political activism efforts.
The Shaft (Dixia de tiankong) [2008]
98m; China
Director: Chi Zhang
Cast: Deyuan Luo, Xuan Huang and Luoqian Zheng
Synopsis (IMDB): A film about the lives of Chinese miners is not likely to attract mainstream viewers, but I suspect that this is the closest glimpse into contemporary China we are likely to get. And touchingly universal. Visually, it is a series of marvelously-framed photographs and brief snatches of dialog, to which the viewer must gradually develop a narrative line. In the background — the effects of the one-child policy, which puts a premium on marriageable females, who must sell themselves to the highest bidder; then the lure and inaccessibility of the big city (Beijing); the incapability of small-town gossip as well as the town’s only employer — the coal mines
Shots on the Docks (2003)
28m; U.S.
Synopsis: The stepped up repression of anti-war demonstrators and trade unionists took a new turn in the U.S. on April 7, 2003, when Oakland, California police attacked a peaceful picket on the docks. The Labor Video Project was there when Oakland police fired over a hundred shots of rubber bullets and wooden projectiles as well as concussion grenades to attack the anti-war protest. This video interviews the workers on the picket line as well as ILWU longshoremen who were standing by and were also targeted by the police and the company. It goes behind the pictures to expose the reasons that trade unionists joined the line and the reaction of ILWU Local 10 members to the attacks and arrests of their business agent. There is also an international campaign to defend ILWU BA Jack Heyman and the Oakland 25 who face criminal charges for the April 7 incident. – http://www.reelwork.org/archive/2004/films2004.htm
Contact: “Shots on the Docks” is also being streamed at: http://www.brightpathvideo.com/Labor_Video.htm purchase info: lvpsf@igc.org Photo credit: Labor Video Project Photo caption: worker holds wood bullet fired by police http://www.laborbeat.org phone: 312-226-3330 mail@laborbeat.org
Shout Youngstown
Synopsis: Documentary on closings of steel plants in Youngstown, OH and the effects on the community.
Contact: View here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jk4ARquynE
Shutdown (1980)
26m; U.S.
Director: Laura Sky
Synopsis: This film documents the closing down of an American-owned branch plant, with all the personal trauma that such a decision causes the workers. The employees discuss the dilemma of working in an economy dominated by foreign ownership and the lack of government action to protect jobs in American-owned branch plants.
Contact: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=13252
Sicko (2007)
123m; U.S.
Director: Michael Moore
Cast: Michael Moore, Tucker Albrizzi and Tony Benn
Synopsis (IMDB): Documentary look at health care in the United States as provided by profit-oriented health maintenance organizations (HMOs) compared to free, universal care in Canada, the U.K., and France. Moore contrasts U.S. media reports on Canadian care with the experiences of Canadians in hospitals and clinics there. He interviews patients and doctors in the U.K. about cost, quality, and salaries. He examines why Nixon promoted HMOs in 1971, and why the Clintons’ reform effort failed in the 1990s. He talks to U.S. ex-pats in Paris about French services, and he takes three 9/11 clean-up volunteers, who developed respiratory problems, to Cuba for care. He asks of Americans, “Who are we?”
THE LABOR FILM DATABASE 