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Category Archives: Documentary

The Motherhood Manifesto

Looks at the obstacles facing working mothers and families and the employer and motherimagepublic policy changes needed to restore work-life balance.

58 minutes

Directed by Laura Pacheco
Produced by John de Graaf and Laura Pacheco
Writer – John de Graaf
Executive Producer – Joan Blades
Photographer/Editor – Diana Wilmar
Music – Claudia Schmidt
Narrator – Mary Steenburgen

Did you know that…Only four countries in the world – Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States – fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers? Canada now guarantees a full year of paid parental leave and California recently became the first state in the U.S. to provide such paid leave? Businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced and their bottom line is improved?

Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and their families in America. See how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic living wages a reality for American families.

The film is based on the book The Motherhood Manifesto by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.

available from Bullfrog Films

 
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Posted by on April 20, 2012 in Documentary

 

Movin’ On (1968)

60m; U.S.

Director: Harold Meyer

Synopsis: This roaring railroad film (1968) reveals the incredible history of railroading from the 1830s until today. The Hell on Wheels towns, the Chinese and Irish immigrants building a railroad with their sweat and brawn but battling each other along the way, the robber barons and their union busting, Mr. Pullman and his Pullman car, the glitter of the “golden age”, Eugene V. Debs, the glory days of the passenger trains of the 1930s and 40s.

 

Moving Mountains (2006)

30m; U.S.

Director: Virginia Bendl Moore

Cast: Earl Ray Tomlin (Himself); Senator Jay Rockefeller (Himself); Gov. Manchin (Himself); Bill Raney (Himself- President of the WV Coal Association); Warren Hylton (Himself- President of Patents Coal); Larry Gibson (Himself); Ed Wiley (Himself); Maria Gunnoe (Himself); Lenny Kohn (Himself- reporter from Appalachian Voices); Sam Cook (Himself- Appalachian Studies Professor at Virginia Tech)

Synopsis: A student made documentary about the effects of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. West Virginia; Coal Mining; Mountaintop Removal Mining; Strip Mining

Contact: E-mail filmmaker at movingmountains@virginia.edu

 
 

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My Land / Mi Chacra (2009)

99m; Peru

Director: Jason Burlage

Synopsis: Chronicles one year in a Peruvian farmer’s life and through a season of work on the Inca Trail. The film paints a vivid picture of this man’s world, of the conflict between his love of the land and the work he has learned from his father, and the desire to see his son living what he sees as a better life in the city.

Contact: Jason Burlage jason@michacrafilm.com http://www.michacrafilm.com/index.htm

 

Nalini By Day, Nancy By Night (2005)

27m; India-U.S.

Director: Sonali Gulati

Synopsis (IMDB): A personal narrative documentary film told from the perspective of an Indian living in the U.S., the film journeys into India’s call centers where telemarketer’s acquire American names and accents to service the telephone support industry of the U.S. Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night incorporates animation, live action, and archival footage to explore the complexities of globalization, capitalism, and identity.

 

Native Land (1942)

80m; U.S.

Director: Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand

Cast:  Paul Robeson, Fred Johnson and Mary George

Synopsis (IMDB): Paul Robeson narrates a mix of dramatizations and archival footage about the bill of rights being under attack during the 1930s by union busting corporations, their spies and contractors. In dramatizations, we see a farmer beaten for speaking up at a meeting, a union man murdered in a boarding house, two sharecroppers near Fort Smith Arkansas shot by men deputized by the local sheriff, a spy stealing the names of union members, and a dead Chicago union man eulogized. In archival footage we witness police and goons beating lawfully assembled union organizers, and we see men at work and union families at play. The narration celebrates patriotism and democracy.

 

Neoliberalism as Water Balloon (2009)

12m; Canada

Director: Tim McCaskell

Synopsis: A DIY experiment illustrating the impact of neoliberal economics on class, race and gender equality.

 
 

Net Worth (1995)

120m; U.S.

Director: Jerry Ciccoritti

Cast: Aidan Devine, Kevin Conway and Robin Gammell

Synopsis (IMDB): The story of the NHL’s early years, focusing on the battle between the players, led by Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, and the owners, over issues of benefits, pensions and the like

 

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Never Turning Back: The World of Peggy Lipschutz (2007)

30m; U.S.

Director: Jerri Zbiral

Synopsis: Celebrates the life and work of 90 year old artist and activist Peggy Lipschutz, who pioneered the “chalk-talk”— a performance art form combining drawing and music before a live audience. This film explores Peggy’s unwavering commitment to art, peace, justice and social change.

Contact: http://www.neverturningback.net/index.html jerri@thecollectedimage.com jerrizbiral@yahoo.com

 

The New Americans

Director: Gordon Quinn
USA, Kartemquin/PBS Independent Lens, 2004 (411 minutes)
Synopsis: Interweaves stories of immigrants & refugees
https://www.kartemquin.com/films/the-new-americans/about 

Contact: Gordon cel: cel 773-339-7692 773-235-0816, and Kartemquin, 773-472-4366.

The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America. We follow an Indian couple to Silicon Valley through the dot-com boom and bust. A Mexican meatpacker struggles to reunite his family in rural Kansas. Two families of Nigerian refugees (including the sister of slain Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa) escape government persecution. Two Los Angeles Dodgers prospects follow their big dreams of escaping the barrios of the Dominican Republic. A Palestinian woman who marries into a new life in Chicago only to discover in the wake of September 11, she cannot leave behind the pain of her homeland’s conflict.

Kartemquin assembled a team of talented directors including the creators of Hoop Dreams, Who Killed Vincent Chin, and Vietnam, Long Time Coming. The detailed portraits that resulted were woven into a seven-hour miniseries that presents a kaleidoscopic picture of immigrant life and a first impression of the U.S. that few born in America can imagine.