26m; U.S.
Director: Video Labor Project
Synopsis: In 1997, in support of striking Liverpool dock workers, San Francisco longshore workers refused to handle cargo in the Neptune Jade ship.
Contact: lvpsf@labornet.org
Tag Archives: Boating and Shipping
Stolt Australia (2007)
11m; Australia
Synopsis: Fight by MUA ship crew of the MT Stolt to keep jobs
Redes (The Wave) [1936]
65m; Mexico
Director: Emilio Gómez Muriel
Cast: Silvio Hernández, David Valle González and Rafael Hinojosa
Synopsis (Wikipedia): Redes was made with a mainly non-professional cast and has been seen as anticipating Italian neorealism. It concerns the struggle of poor fishermen to overcome exploitation.
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Directed by John Ford
Features John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson,John Qualen, Mildred Natwick, Ward Bond
The film tells the story of the crew aboard an English cargo ship named the SS Glencairn,during World War II, on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The ship carries a cargo of high-explosives.
Never Steal Anything Small (1959)
94m; U.S.
Director: Charles Lederer
Cast: James Cagney, Shirley Jones and Roger Smith
Synopsis (IMDB): Jake MacIllaney will do just about anything to win the presidential election of longshoreman union Local 26. When he encounters young upright attorney Dan Cabot and Cabot’s attractive wife, Linda, MacIllaney breaks up their marriage, pursues Linda, and pins a grand larceny rap on Dan. And all set to music!
New River: Older than Time (1989)
29m; U.S.
Synopsis: Wayne Sourbear, an employee of WSWP-TV, travels down the New River, explores the people, history and great beauty of this waterway in his 1989 short.
Contact: Access: WVPBS TV. Debbie Oleksa, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Morgantown, 1- 888-596-9729 or her cell 304-284-1455
Not This Time – The Story Of The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign (
24m; U.K.
Available on Vimeo
Film about the death of Simon Jones and the campaign that grew out if it. The film looks at the events surrounding Simon’s death, the formation of the memorial campaign, the campaign’s actions, including the occupation of the Department of Trade and Industry during George Galloway’s parliamentary debate on Simon’s death and the closure of Southwark Bridge outside the Health and Safety Executive and interviews with Simon’s family, friends and supporters.
The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign was set up after casual dock worker Simon Jones was decapitated in an industrial accident on April 24, 1998. He was working for Euromin on the south coast of England. The campaign argued that failure to train Simon for a dangerous job was tantamount to murder and that the pursuit of profit was put ahead of life. Simon died on his first day at work and was known to have no experience.
The campaign, supported by anti-casualisation campaigners from the trade unions, initially took its fight to Euromin and the employment agency who offered him the work, Personnel Selection. It has been characterised by direct action: six months after Simon’s death there was an occupation of his workplace and frequent pickets of the employment agency have taken place. When theHealth and Safety Executive refused to take up the issue, protestors blockaded the road for three hours. The incident was taken up by Members of Parliament and a minister acknowledged that the government plans for protecting workers were “not enough”.
The Crown Prosecution Service decision to not prosecute Euromin was overturned on March 23, 2000 by a judicial review, the first time a judicial review has ever insisted on prosecuting corporate manslaughter. Euromin were ultimately fined £50,000 for breach of safety regulations. The manager was acquitted of manslaughter by a majority decision of the jury.
The anti-casualisation element of the campaign persists with the slogan “casualisation kills”, the purple stickers can be seen around various casual employers or agencies. The campaigners do workshops on their methods and support others who have been affected by deaths in the workplace.
On a Clear Day (2005)
98m; U.K.
Director: Gaby Dellal
Cast: Peter Mullan, Brenda Blethyn and Billy Boyd
Synopsis (IMDB): After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he’s too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates – rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie – are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible – swimming the English Channel. As Frank plunges headlong into his new daily life, his astonished friends are swept along with him. Prodded by stalwart fish-and-chips shop owner Chan, the men support Frank, train him – and keep their goal secret from his wife and son.
On the Waterfront (1954)
108m; U.S.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
Synopsis (IMDB): Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny’s thugs, and later meets the dead man’s sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.
Titanic with Len Goodman (2012)
50m
Director: Edward Hart
Network: BBC1
Broadcast Date: March 30, 2012
Synopsis (BBC): In a new three-part series, Titanic With Len Goodman, the Strictly Come Dancing judge discovers how the impact of the Titanic disaster is still felt a century after the ship sank.
Len has his own connection to the Titanic. Before he was a dancer he was a welder for Harland and Woolf, the company that built Titanic between 1909 and 1912 in Belfast. Len worked for them 50 years later at their yard in East London.
To mark the centenary of the Titanic tragedy Len explores the ship’s 100 year legacy and learns how for the victims’ families – and for the survivors themselves – the sinking of the ship was just the beginning of the story.
Generations later, those stories linked to the Titanic are still unfolding. Len meets the modern-day descendants to learn how, a century on, Titanic’s legacy lives on.
In the first programme of the series, Len discovers how Titanic claimed the lives of eight men in Belfast before she even touched the water. He tries his hand at riveting, experiencing first-hand the blood and sweat that went into building a ship a century ago. He visits Southampton, to find out why it was the city hit hardest by Titanic’s death toll. He also meets descendants of Titanic’s crew, who describe how just traumatised the disaster left their relatives.
Len also explores the story of the Titanic band. It’s one of the best known stories from the ship, but few will have heard how the death of one of the musicians tore his family apart for one hundred years. Len meets a descendant who tells him how and why this happened.
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