List
Movies for Workers' Day
Collection
The first day of May has been celebrated as International Workers' Day since 1889 when labor activists were demonstrating and organizing for the eight-hour-day.
The following list is made up of dramatic features, documentaries, and educational series on the labor movement, unionizing, leftist political activism, economic inequality, and working conditions. Mostly focused on American culture and history, it nontheless includes films set around the globe, helping to illustrate the shared struggles of workers everywhere.
As the weather turns hot and semesters end, one can turn to this watchlist for movies to entertain and educate about the history and future of labor relations near and far.
10,000 Black Men Named George.
Published in 2003
The true story of the formation of the first black-controlled union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Based on the novel, 'A Long Hard Journey' by Frederick McKissack.
A. Philip Randolph
For Jobs and Freedom.
Published in 2016
Ask most people who led the 1963 March on Washington and they'll probably tell you Martin Luther King, Jr. But the real force behind the event was the man many call the pre-eminent black labor leader of the century and the father of the modern civil rights movement: A. Philip Randolph.. Randolph believed that economic rights was the key to advancing civil rights. A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom takes viewers on a tour of 20th-century civil rights and labor history as it chronicles Randolph's legendary efforts to build a more equitable society.. Randolph was born in 1889 in the deeply segregated South. When he was reduced to performing menial labor despite an outstanding academic record, he headed north - to Harlem. The film traces Randolph's early years amid the fervor of the Harlem Renaissance where he encountered the socialism of Eugene Debs, became a renowned soapbox orator and, with Chandler Owen, founded the radical magazine The Messenger.. In response to the race riots of 1919, Randolph and Owen formed the National Association for the Promotion of Labor Unionism Among Negroes. Soon a group of Pullman car workers asked Randolph to help them organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The film revisits the group's bitter 12-year battle with the notorious Pullman Company, which tried repeatedly to destroy the union using spies and firings. The 1934 Wagner Act finally created a level-playing field, enabling the Brotherhood to win an organized contract in 1937, the first ever between a company and a Black union.. The anti-Communist Brotherhood did not join the more radical CIO but the craft unions of the AFL. Randolph became the sole Black representative on the AFL's executive council, where he was often a lonely voice for civil rights.. When WWII began, the federal government was still segregated and African Americans excluded from all but menial defense industry jobs. Randolph leapt onto the national stage when he called for a march on Washington in protest. According to CORE founder James Farmer, "Roosevelt could not take the chance that 25,000 people would be protesting in Washington when he was calling the U.S. the arsenal of democracy." Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8002 banning such discrimination and the march was called off.. Later, as the Cold War heated up, President Truman announced the first peace-time draft. But he left the armed forces segregated. Randolph called on Black men to resist the draft until Truman relented, presaging the protests against the Vietnam War. Truman was furious, but in 1948 he issued an executive order integrating the military.. In 1963, Randolph called again for a march on Washington. He was the only civil rights leader who could unite other leaders in the movement. 250,000 came in response. When he introduced Dr. King, "symbolically, the torch was passed from one generation of fighters to another.".
The Act of Killing
Published in 2014
The filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love.
Alambrista!.
Published in 2012
A farmworker sneaks across the border from Mexico into California in an effort to make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that happens every day, told here in an uncompromising, groundbreaking work of realism from American independent filmmaker Robert M.Young. Vivid and spare where other films about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young's take on the subject is equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a political work.
American Dream
Published in 2000
In this Academy Award winner for best documentary in 1991, the true-life story of the 1985-1986 workers' strike against Geo. A. Hormel & Company in Austin, Minnesota is documented from beginning to end. When Geo. A. Hormel & Company made $2 million in profits, then cut its workers' salaries by $2.00 an hour each, the workers had only one option: Go out on strike.
American Factory
Published in 2019
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
American Socialist
The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs
Published in 2017
A biographical sketch of Eugene V. Debs, labor leader, industrial unionist, American Socialist, and the only U.S. presidential candidate imprisoned for his campaign platform.
Betrayal.
Published in 2021
BETRAYAL: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union documents the human cost of the government takeover of the Teamsters union.The film follows highly regarded Teamster leader Bill Hogan Jr. who fought against government control and found himself targeted by a government appointed watchdog with sweeping power to remove members for life even if they were never accused of a crime. Hogan finds himself barred for life on baseless charges from the union he helped build for criticizing government control which was supposed to last three years, but has lasted three decades. Thereafter, the government appointed watchdog known as the Independent Review Board or IRB barred for life four friends of Hogan who remained in the union for simply speaking to him. The government even charged Hogan with contempt of court for speaking to his lifelong friends which could have resulted in a jail sentence. After a long and expensive legal battle while his wife Ginni was dying of cancer, the case was settled with no admission of guilt. Yet Hogan is still banned from speaking to any Teamster other than his two sons.
Billy Elliot.
Eleven-year-old Billy does not like the brutal boxing lessons at school, so he falls for the girls' ballet lessons instead. His family doesn't approve, so he must train in secret.
Blue Collar
Published in 2019
When Detroit auto workers Zeke, Jerry, and Smokey find bills piling up and pressures bearing down, they decide to rob their corrupt union office. In a cruel twist, their small haul becomes a nightmare when the heist goes horribly wrong and their once-loyal friendship turns to fear, betrayal, and murder.
Capital in the 21st Century.
Published in 2020
Based on the international bestseller by rock-star economist Thomas Piketty (which sold over three million copies worldwide and landed Piketty on Time's list of most influential people), this captivating documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power, a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today’s growing inequalities. Traveling through time, the film assembles accessible pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world’s most influential experts delivering an insightful and empowering journey through the past and into our future.
Cesar Chavez.
Published in 2014
The story of the famed civil rights leader and labor organizer torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to securing a living wage for farm workers. Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle to bring dignity to people. He inspired millions of Americans who never worked on a farm to fight for social justice. His triumphant journey is a remarkable testament to the power of one individual|s ability to change the world.
Collision Course.
Published in 2015
Collision Course traces the dramatic rise and fall of workplace cooperation at Eastern Airlines. In so doing, the film uncovers the deep-seated assumptions which underlie our culture of industrial relations and prevent us from breaking out of our industrial impasse. Collision Course begins in 1983 with Eastern hurtling towards bankruptcy, beset by years of labor-management hostility, high wage cuts, and a poor service record. An informative history traces this adversarial relationship back to the dawn of the wage system and the rise of scientific management. When Eastern once again demanded wage cuts, the machinist union responded with a bold counter-proposal reconceiving the traditional "wage bargain" by giving workers both a 25% ownership stake and an unprecedented say in the company. It was the most profound change in labor-management relations in any major American Company. The results were stunning. Autonomous work teams took over the shopfloor. Wage increases were tied to productivity improvements. Encouraged to use their brains, newly motivated "cost teams" invented ways to save the airline {dollar}100 million. Yet when competitive pressures re-emerged, the innovative agreement was pulled apart by the very people who put it together. In 1986, Eastern was sold to Frank Lorenzo's notoriously anti-union Texas Air and soon thereafter went down in flames. Eastern's rise and fall provides a vital case study of the do's, don'ts, and maybe's of workplace cooperation. "Collision Course is an eloquent statement and sadly accurate portrayal of labor-management relations in America. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't profit enormously from seeing it - production workers, managers, citizens. If it were up to me, I'd project it on a mountainside and have the audio boom over valley and stream." - Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor "No American businessman or labor leader can afford to ignore the lessons of this important film. It demonstrates the tremendous potential of workplace cooperation for improving productivity and business performance - and the price paid for neglecting it. An hour of Collision Course is worth volumes of case studies." - Adam Smith "Superb! Clearly gets across the message that workers must have a voice in the management process because it's more democratic and because it unleashes worker initiative and creativity." - Douglas Fraser, former president, United Auto Workers (UAW) "This dramatic, eye-opening study of a crucial experiment in labor-management cooperation provides unions and management vital insights into why they work apart and how they can work together." - Robert McKersie, Sloan School of Management, M.I.T "The film presents vivid reminders of the importance of trust and communications in building teamwork and its correlative, productivity, far more effectively than lectures and articles. It clearly tells us we're playing for mortal stakes and we'd better understand the context and control of corporate cultures which are successful and those that are failures. There are lessons here that management, unions, legislators, and ordinary citizens have to take very seriously." - Warren Bennis, University of Southern California.
Cradle Will Rock
Published in 2018
A kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America, from high society to life on the streets in Depression-era New York City. Based on the events surrounding Marc Blitzstein's controversial musical about a steel strike, to be produced by the Federal Theater Program.
Daniel
Published in 2015
A fictionalized account of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. Daniel Isaacson, an anti-war activist whose parents, branded as spies, were put to death by the U.S. government. Believing that his parents were wrongly convicted and executed, Daniel sets out to clear their name.
Delano Manongs
Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers.
Published in 2016
The Delano Manongs tells the story of farm labor organizer Larry Itliong and a group of Filipino farm workers who instigated one of the American farm labor movement?s finest hours ? The Delano Grape Strike of 1965 that brought about the creation of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). While the movement is known for Cesar Chavez?s leadership and considered a Chicano movement, Filipinos played a pivotal role. Filipino labor organizer, Larry Itliong, a cigar-chomping union veteran, organized a group of 1500 Filipinos to strike against the grape growers of Delano, California, beginning a collaboration between Filipinos, Chicanos and other ethnic workers that would go on for years.
The Divide
What Happens when the Rich Get Richer?.
Published in 2017
The Divide takes a deeply personal look at wealth inequality, telling the story of seven individuals striving for a better life in the modern day U.S. and U.K. -- where the top 0.1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%. There's Wall Street psychologist Alden, who wants to make it to the top 1%; KFC worker Leah from Virginia, who just wants to make it through the day; and Jen in Sacramento, California, who doesn't talk to her neighbors in her upscale gated community because they've made it clear she isn't "their kind." Weaving these stories and others with stunning footage and commentary from experts like Noam Chomsky, The Divide shows how virtually every aspect of our lives is controlled by one factor: the size of the gap between rich and poor. The film is inspired by the critically acclaimed, best-selling book The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
Downeast.
Published in 2018
Set during an era of U.S. post-industrialization in which numerous factories have been exported, DOWNEAST focuses on Antonio Bussone's efforts to open a processing factory in rural Maine.. Official Selection: Hot Docs and Tribeca Film Festival. " All those daunting economic numbers that tabulate how many Americans are unemployed and how many factory jobs have been lost in the last 30 years can seem abstract until you run into a documentary like Downeast... It?s a tale of hope, frustration and disappointment that reminds us that behind all those big numbers are real human beings." - The New York Times
Episode 3
Don't Shout Too Soon (1917 - 1940.
Published in 2016
In the aftermath of World War I a new round of race riots and lynching broke out, yet this was also a time of increasing strength for Black resistance movements. Episode three chronicles the years between the wars as a time of massive Black migration out of the South and continuing conflict within it. By the 1930's many African-Americans found their sole support from Socialists and Communists, who helped organize tenant farmers and sharecroppers and defended the "Scottsboro Boys," nine Black youths falsely accused of rape. While NAACP counsel Charles Houston began a lengthy legal campaign designed to chip away at Jim Crow, Walter White waged war in the court of public opinion. As the world plunged toward World War II, Black labor leaders like A. Philip Randolph demanded an end to segregation in defense industries. Singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson declared that, "Change is in the air.".
Factory Complex.
Published in 2019
Winner of the Silver Lion at the **Venice Biennale**, this powerful documentary exposes the nature of exploitation and acts as a lyrical ode to poor working women around the world. The film provides a rare insight into the ongoing struggle for rights, as hard-won changes are swallowed up by a rapidly modernizing society. FACTORY COMPLEX paints the details of the grueling, dangerous, and often abusive and humiliating conditions under which some unskilled female laborers in South Korea worked in recent decades during the country's economic modernization, while invoking hierarchical and patriarchal social dynamics. Through the testimonies of these women, the film unravels deep conflicts from rigid class structures, a highly concentrated private sector, and examples of blatant sexism that have spanned across decades and reached beyond borders. *"The filmmaker relieves the visual monotony of the interviews by interspersing footage of numerous work environments, as well as poetic, sometimes surreal imagery including scenes set in nature and such provocative visuals as a young girl standing blindfolded on a garbage-strewn rooftop." - Frank Scheck, **The Hollywood Reporter***
Fighting for Our Lives.
Published in 2017
This two part video focuses on the history of the United Farm Workers and the 1973 grape strike and the pesticides sprayed on the fruit we eat.
Final Offer.
Published in 2015
Final Offer is the most comprehensive and candid look at collective bargaining on film. It takes viewers on an eye-opening journey behind the closed doors and into the smoke-filled rooms where labor and management negotiate. The filmmakers follow Bob White, president of the Canadian UAW, through the landmark auto strike at General Motors. We look on as White strategizes with his advisors, fields the angry demands of his members, and makes offers, threats and counter-offers during marathon bargaining sessions. We share the caffeine-frayed nerves, the mind-numbing exhaustion and the salty language which are the stuff of collective bargaining. The filmmakers also gained unrestricted access to GM's plants. They vividly capture the daily shopfloor skirmishes and tensions which comprise the subtext of labor negotiations. Remarkably, the filmmakers are even present when White and the chief GM negotiator strike a deal while riding the elevator. Final Offer gives those on both sides of the table an intimate understanding of the hidden pressures which shape any labor negotiation. "The best collective bargaining film ever made. Extremely informative and thorough. A captivating movie that points out the issues of the day." - Henry Katz, Cornell University. "Strap on your seatbelts. This backstage look at the GM contract talks has more intrigue, back-stabbing and double- crossing than Dallas or Dynasty. Don't miss it." - The Toronto Sun. "Vividly portrays the tension between company and union, and even within the union. Recommended for college and business management collections." - Choice. "Might as well have been titled A Star is Born. White's a working-class hero who combines Robert Redford's appeal with impeccable union credentials." - Business Week.
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.
Published in 2013
Angela Davis joins the Communist Party, protests with the Black Panthers, and becomes a principal spokesperson for the burgeoning prison reform movement. On August 7th, 1970, she is implicated in the politically motivated kidnapping and murder of a judge in a brazen daylight shootout at the Marin County, CA, courthouse. Angela flees California, convinced she will not be given a fair trial, and is placed on the FBI|s 10 Most Wanted list.
Frontline
Left Behind America.
Published in 2019
Intimate stories of one Rust Belt city?s struggle to recover in the post-recession economy. FRONTLINE reports on the economic and social forces shaping Dayton, Ohio, a once-booming city where nearly 35 percent of people now live in poverty.
The Gilded Age
Published in 2018
A compelling and complex story of one of the most convulsive and transformative eras in American history. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, the U.S. population doubled in the span of a single generation, national wealth expanded, and two classes rose simultaneously, separated by a gulf of experience and circumstance that was unprecedented in American life.
The Grapes of Wrath
Published in 2007
The migration of the Joad family to California from their dust-bowl farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression.
Guangzhou Dream Factory.
Published in 2017
Immigration, globalization, Chinese factories and African dreams?This documentary weaves stories of Africans chasing alluring, yet elusive, "Made in China"dreams into a compelling critique of 21st century global capitalism. ..Guangzhou, a.k.a. Canton, is southern China's centuries-old trading port. Today it?s a booming metropolis ? the Mecca of mass consumption ? attracting more than half a million African traders each year. Over time, some of these Africans have chosen to stay, and to them China looks like the new land of opportunity, a place where anything is possible. But is it?..GUANGZHOU DREAM FACTORY, following a filmmaker?s journey from Ghana to China and back to Africa, gives viewers a rare glimpse of African aspirations while also providing fresh, new perspectives on China and African economic development....."While the news is full of stories of boatloads of African migrants desperate to cross into Europe, Guangzhou Dream Factory gives us the stories of Africans who believe China is 'the new land of opportunity'. Visually rich, sympathetically told, this compelling film sensitively captures the hopes, disappointments, and creativity of Africans whose dreams are unfolding, for better or worse, in the Middle Kingdom"..-Deborah Brutigam, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies..."Guangzhou Dream Factory offers an accessible, yet nuanced and complex, view into the dynamic lives of entrepreneurial Africans living in China. The insightful narrative and the great selection of subjects make this film a uniquely engaging portrayal of ongoing global transformations. A must-see documentary dispelling outdated stereotypes of hopeless and helpless Africans.".-Roberto Castillo, The University of Hong Kong
Harlan County, USA
Published in 2006
In 1973, when the Brookside coal miners voted for the United Mine Workers union, the Duke Power Company refused it. Barbara Kopple documented the struggle between the miners and the company, causing a big uproar.
The Harvest.
Published in 2019
Gurwinder comes from Punjab, and has been working for years on a farm in a small town not far from Rome. Since he first came in Italy, he?s been living with the rest of the Sikh community in Latina province. Hardeep is also Indian but was born and raised in Italy where she works as a cultural mediator in Rome. Hardeep is trying to free herself from the memories of a family that emigrated in another age, while Gurwinder is forced, to take methamphetamines to handle his heavy workload, so he can send money back to India. THE HARVEST is a docu-musical that, for the first time, combines documentary and traditional Punjabi choreographies, to show the humiliation of the workers in the fields. Official Selection at the **Delhi International Film Festival** and at the **HumanDoc Warsaw Film Festival.**
Heaven's Gate.
Published in 2012
A Harvard graduate, turned federal Marshal in Wyoming, learns of a government sanctioned plot by cattle barons to kill the area's European settlers for their land. The resulting battle is based on the Johnson County War of 1892. Special features include an interview with the director; interviews with the actors; the trailer and tv spots; and more.
Hollywood on Trial
Published in 1976
Is our First Amendment right as protected as we think? Telling the story of the Hollywood 10, this classic documentary explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee was able to summon before it American citizens of the motion picture industry and interrogate them about their political affiliations and beliefs. Featuring interviews with Dalton Trumbo and other prominent screenwriters.
Home Economics.
Published in 2018
Amy Poehler ventures into the world of the invisible women who help keep the California economy afloat: domestic workers. What she finds is a human story far more complex than the simple exploitation of poor women by the super-rich. While domestic workers organize for a living wage, some of their employers are also struggling ? squeezed out of the middle class in an increasingly unequal economy in which everyone works harder than they used to.
How Green Was My Valley
Published in 2013
A compelling story of the trials and tribulations of a Welsh mining family. Spans 50 years, from the turn of the century fair-playing way of life and ends after unionization, strikes, deaths, and child abuse.
Howard Zinn
A People's History of the United States.
Published in 2018
With the tremendous success of his book, A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn radically changed the way Americans see themselves. His friend Noam Chomsky says that Zinn litteraly transformed a generation's conscience. Zinn talks about those who have no voice in the official History : Slaves, Indians, deserters, textile workers, union men.Between 1900 and 1920, more than 14 million immigrants arrived in the United States. They came fleeing poverty or war, racism or religious persecution. They dreamed of a promised land, of wealth, or simply of a better life. The New World opened its arms wide to the poor and huddled masses of the Old : its unwanted, its fugitives, and even a few utopians...After all, the rapidly expanding industries of the time required cheap labor, and immigrant workers - men, women and children - were easy to exploit. But the same period also saw the birth of organized labor, with its strikes and conflicts, and the appearance of great figures like Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, Eugene Debs and the Wobblies.
Howard Zinn
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
Published in 2010
Life and times of a historian, activist, and author. With archival materials and interviews with Zinn and colleagues such as Noam Chomsky, this captures the essence of an extraordinary man who has been a catalyst for progressive change for 60+ years.
Inequality for All
Published in 2014
Examines economics professor and Clinton Administration cabinet member Robert Reich's crusade to expose the problem of income inequality in the United States.
The Irishman.
Published in 2020
Left behind by the world, former hitman and union truck driver Frank Sheeran looks back from a nursing home on his life|s journey through the ranks of organized crime: from his involvement with Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino to his association with Teamsters union head Jimmy Hoffa to the rift that forced him to choose between the two.
Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin
Five Films 1968-1971.
Published in 2018
After finishing his film Weekend in 1967, Jean-Luc Godard shifted gears to embark on engaging more directly with the radical political movements of the era, and thus create a new kind of film, or, as he eventually put it: "new ideas distributed in a new way."
The Killing Floor.
Published in 1984
All frank Custer wanted was a better life for himself and his family. What he got was a job and a place in history. Set in the early 1900s, this powerful true story retells the often brutal and violent beginning of the U.S. Labor Movement through the eyes of a Southern black sharecropper who finds work in a Chicago slaughter-house. After witnessing the inhumane conditions in the plant, he is slowly transformed into an activist for the fledgling interracial union.
The Killing Floor
Published in 2019
Praised by The Village Voice as the most "clear-eyed account of union organizing on film," The Killing Floor tells the little-known true story of the struggle to build an interracial labor union in the Chicago Stockyards. The screenplay by Obie Award-winner Leslie Lee, based on an original story by producer Elsa Rassbach, traces the racial and class conflicts seething in the city's giant slaughterhouses, and the brutal efforts of management to divide the workforce along ethnic lines, which eventually boiled over in the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. The first feature film by director Bill Duke, The Killing Floor premiered on PBS' American Playhouse series in 1984 to rave reviews. In 1985, the film was invited to Cannes and won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award. It has been showcased at Lincoln Center and festivals around the world.
King
A Filmed Record
Published in 2017
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, King: a filmed record ... Montgomery to Memphis is a monumental documentary that follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement. Rare footage of King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of other high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause, punctuated by heartfelt testimonials by some of Hollywood's biggest stars. King was originally presented as a one-night-only special event on March 20, 1970, at an epic length of more than three hours (plus intermission). Since that time, the film has occasionally been circulated in a version shortened by more than an hour. Newly restored by the Library of Congress, in association with Richard Kaplan, and utilizing film elements provided by The Museum of Modern Art, the original version of King can again be seen in its entirety, mastered in HD from the 35mm preservation negative. Admitted to the National Film Registry in 1999, King is a cinematic national treasure that allows viewers to be first-hand witnesses to Dr. King's crusade, and thereby gain a fuller appreciation of both the personal challenges he endured and the vast cultural legacy he left behind.
King in the Wilderness
Published in 2018
From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader's character, showing him to be a man with an unshakeable commitment to peaceful protest in the face of an increasingly unstable country. Illuminating and poignant, the documentary - which is tied to the 50th anniversary of King's death - reveals a conflicted leader whose successes were punctuated in his final years by an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum, whether the Black Power movement, who saw his nonviolence as weakness, or President Lyndon B. Johnson, who viewed his anti-Vietnam War speeches as irresponsible. With compassion and clarity, King in the Wilderness unearths a stirring new perspective into Dr. King's character, his radical doctrine of nonviolence, and his internal philosophical struggles prior to his death, inviting a sense of penetrating intimacy and insight into one of the most profound thinkers of our time.
Labor Wars of the Northwest.
Published in 2020
LABOR WARS OF THE NORTHWEST chronicles the cauldron of discontent, radicalism and violence that permeated the region in the early decades of the twentieth century. Following the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s, tens of thousands of workers migrated to the Northwest for jobs in logging, mining and fishing. But instead of steady work, they found poverty-level wages, crushing hours and dreadful conditions. By examining this conflict in the context of a decades-long struggle, LABOR WARS OF THE NORTHWEST shines new light on tragedies like the Everett Massacre (1916), the Seattle General Strike (1919) and the Centralia Massacre (1919).
Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist.
Published in 2016
This one-hour film, narrated by Actor BURT LANCASTER, explores the lingering effects of The Hollywood Blacklist, which occurred in the late forties and early fifties as part of the Anti-Communist witch-hunts that terrorized the nation. This film is seen through the eyes of the wives and children of the now deceased Hollywood figures whose careers were destroyed when studio bosses, along with guild and union officials capitulated to the demands of the House Un-American Activities Committee..
Life and Debt
Published in 2003
This documentary examines the effects of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund loans on the infrastructure Jamaica established in the wake of independence from the UK in 1962. Seven billion in debt (circa 2000), Jamaica has seen its agricultural industries laid to waste by the impossibility of competing with subsidized, multi-national American based companies. The poverty of 'average' Jamaican in a shantytown near Kingston is in stark contrast to the luxurious tropical fantasy paradise experienced by tourists in posh Montego Bay. In a dog-eat-dog global economy, the US and its multinational corporate clients have all the advantages, while Jamaica has no agriculture, no industry, and no tax base--only ever-growing debt.
Machines.
Published in 2019
Marrying stunning visuals with social advocacy, Rahul Jain?s debut documentary takes audiences into the labyrinthine passages of an enormous textile factory in Gujarat, India. Jain?s camera wanders freely between pulsating machines and bubbling vats of dye to create a moving portrait of the human laborers who toil away there for 12 hours a day to eke out a meager living for their families back home. Interviews with these workers and the factory owners who employ them reveal the stark inequality and dangerous working conditions brought about by unregulated industrialization in the region. This political message is delivered amidst the unsettling beauty of the factory?s mechanical underworld and the colorful, billowing fabrics it produces. Nominated for the F:ACT Award at **CPH:DOX**. Winner of the Cinematography Award and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema - Documentary competition at the **Sundance Film Festival**. *"A bracingly physical documentary about the true cost of cheap labor." - David Ehrlich, **indieWire***
Made in Dagenham
Published in 2011
In 1968, the female workers at the Ford Dagenham car plant, walked out in protest against sexual discrimination. Their actions played a major role in the battle for equal pay, both nationally and internationally.
Made in L.A. (Made in LA).
Published in 2014
Made in L.A. is an Emmy award-winning feature documentary that follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate observational style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman's life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Compelling, humorous, deeply human, Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice. Lupe Hernandez, a five-foot tall dynamo who learned survival skills at an early age, has been working in Los Angeles garment factories for over 15 years since she left Mexico City at age 17. Maura Colorado left her three children in the care of relatives in El Salvador while she sought work in L.A. to support them. She found that the low-paid work came with a high price - wretched conditions in the factories and an "undocumented" status that deprived her of seeing her children for over eighteen years. Mar?a Pineda came to Southern California from Mexico in hopes of a better life at 18, with an equally young husband. Twenty three years later, substandard working conditions, a meager salary and domestic abuse have left her struggling for her children's future and for her own human dignity. These three women, along with other immigrant workers, come together at L.A.'s Garment Worker Center to take a stand for their rights. Against all odds, these seemingly defenseless workers launch a very public challenge (a lawsuit and a boycott) to one of the city's flagship clothiers, calling attention to the dark side of low-wage labor north of the U.S.-Mexico border and revealing the social fault lines of the new globalisation. As seen through the eyes of Mar?a, Maura, and Lupe, the workers' struggle for basic economic justice and personal dignity yields hope and growth, but it is also fraught with disappointments and dangers. As the campaign drags on through three long years, meetings at the Garment Worker Center become more contentious and the women undergo dramatic moments of conflict and discouragement. But then the story takes a surprising turn, and the three women find the strength and resources to continue their struggle. For Lupe, Maura and Mar?a, the long campaign is a turning point from victimisation to empowerment, and each makes life-changing decisions that they never could have envisioned. Overlooking the city of Hong Kong, where she has traveled after she's hired as an organizer, Lupe reflects on her journey: The more I learn, the lonelier I feel. Ignorance somehow protects you. But then I say, I've come this far, and nothing can take that away from me.
Manufacturing Consent.
Published in 2019
Funny, provocative and surprisingly accessible, MANUFACTURING CONSENT explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist. In a dynamic collage of new and original footage, biography, archival gems, imaginative graphics and outrageous illustrations, the film highlights Chomsky?s probing analysis of mass media. A mammoth two-part project, MANUFACTURING CONSENT is nonetheless light on its feet, favoring a style that encourages viewers to question its own workings, as Chomsky himself encourages his listeners to extricate themselves from the “web of deceit” by undertaking a course of “intellectual self-defense.” Winner of the Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature at 1992 **Toronto International Film Festival** and the gold Hugo for Best Social/Political Documentary at the **Chicago International Film Festival**.
Manufacturing Consent
Noam Chomsky and the Media
Published in 2002
Explores the political life and times of the controversial author, linguist, and radical philosopher Noam Chomsky. Focuses on Chomsky's analysis of the hidden use of ideological manipulation in democratic societies.
Matewan
Published in 2019
A wrenching historical drama that recounts the true story of a West Virginia coal town where the local miners₂ struggle to form a union rose to the pitch of all-out war in 1920. Written and directed by John Sayles, this film issues an impassioned cry for justice that still resounds today.
McCarthy
Power Feeds on Fear
Published in 2020
Chronicle the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who would test the limits of American decency and democracy.
Milagro Beanfield War.
Published in 2005
A land developer plans to build a resort in the small town of Milagro, which will displace local Hispanic farmers. When one of the farmers illegaly diverts water to his bean field, the governor sends in a troubleshooter before the land deal falls through.
Modern Times.
Published in 1936
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
Newsies
Published in 2012
July, 1899: When Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise the distribution price one-tenth of a cent per paper, ten cents per hundred, the newsboys, poor enough already, are outraged. Inspired by the strike put on by the trolley workers, Jack "Cowboy" Kelly organizes a newsboys' strike. With David Jacobs as the brains of the new union, and Jack as the voice, the weak and oppressed find the strength to band together and challenge the powerful.
Night Labor.
Published in 2018
Sherman Frank Merchant, a forty-six year old 6'6" Downeaster transitions from being an independent and rugged clam digger by day to manning a factory at night. With his white smock, arsenal of knives, and signature black beret, Sherman performs the tasks of preparing and arranging tools for the day laborers who arrive to their 6am shift.. NIGHT LABOR is an intimate experience of what the film critic J. Hoberman calls “situation documentary,” a blending of minimally structured narratives with documentary moments and long takes that elide conventional narrative and plot in favor of mood, lyrical entertainment, and banal mystery. A beautifully photographed story that fuses drama and tension in the mundane sensory experiences of work, ultimately relying on cinema?s most basic powerful elements: image and sound.. Special Jury Prize, Visions du Reel. "Though it chronicles a quotidian workday, every shot of David Redmon and Ashley Sabin?s Night Labor is an opportunity for revelation." - Film Comment. "Night Labor is a lingeringly powerful film ? the perfect capper to an enjoyably discombobulating day at RIDM." - Adam Nayman, POV Magazine
No Sweat.
Published in 2018
An all-American tale about an all-American garment: The T-shirt. NO SWEAT takes a wild ride into the bowels of Los Angeles garment industry. Mostly undocumented workers at American Apparel and SweatX are offered better wages, benefits, even a shot at worker-ownership. But what is really behind the label?. Dark, dingy factories. Workers hunched elbow-to-elbow over machines. Nike. Guess. Kathy Lee Gifford. We are all too familiar with sweatshops, operating both in the U.S. and overseas. But does what?s behind the label of what you wear always have to be linked to worker exploitation?. Enter SweatX and American Apparel, two hip T-shirt factories that operate in downtown Los Angeles , just blocks from each other. Both companies are committed to creating “sweat-free” clothing (i.e. their workers earn livable wages and get benefits, work in safe environments, etc). While Sweat X is backed by $2.5 million from ice cream-maker turned social activist Ben Cohen, (of Ben and Jerry?s Ice Cream), American Apparel was built from the ground up by controversial self-described Canadian “schmata” hustler, Dov Charney.. NO SWEAT is a fast-paced, behind-the scenes documentary that follows these two companies for one year, comparing their divergent business practices, interviewing workers, following a union drive, and zeroing in on the hopes and dreams of the garment workers themselves. While Dov gets slapped with sexual harassment allegations and openly resists unionization, Sweat X struggles to survive in the tight economic conditions that have sent so much of their competition overseas.
Norma Rae.
A woman teams up with a New York labor organizer to unionize the workers at a Southern textile mill.
North Country.
Published in 2006
A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S. - Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won a landmark 1984 lawsuit.
October Country.
Published in 2019
A beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. A collaboration between filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer and family member Donal Mosher, this vibrant and penetrating documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life. Nominated for Best Documentary at the **Film Independent Spirit Awards**. Nominated for the Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present at the **Locarno International Film Festival**. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the **Los Angeles Film Festival**. *"A powerful portrait of the American working poor and the dynamics that govern all families, regardless of economic class." - Michael O'Sullivan, **The Washington Post***
Oh Freedom After While.
Published in 2015
Oh Freedom After While
Published in 1999
"In January 1939, Missouri Bootheel sharecroppers--black and white--staged a dramatic roadside protest to protest unjust treatment by local plantation owners. Their demonstration spurred the U.S. government to develop new housing for displaced sharecroppers. Some demonstrators also established a remarkable farming community--and learned how to make lasting change in their lives"--Container.
On the Waterfront
Published in 2013
Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career as the tough prizefighter-turned-longshoreman Terry Malloy in this raggedly emotional tale of individual failure and institutional corruption. This film charts Terry's deepening moral crisis as he must choose whether to remain loyal to the mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly and Johnny's right-hand man, Terry's brother, Charley, as the authorities close in on them.
The Organizer
Published in 2012
In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin, an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it's not until they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor that they find a voice, unite, and stand up for themselves. This historical drama by Mario Monicelli is a beautiful and moving ode to the power of the people, brimming with humor and honesty.
The Pajama Game
Published in 2005
Sleepwear, a labor dispute, and singing come together for perhaps the first and only time in film history in The Pajama Game. In a small Iowa town, the main employer is the SleepTite Pajama Company, where the mostly female workforce is demanding a badly needed 7 1/2 cent-an-hour pay increase. Competing firms wages have already gone up, so why not theirs? Babe, the headstrong leader of the workers' Union stages a garment factory showdown with management, represented in person by the new factory superintendent Sid. When a work slowdown gets no results, Babe stops the machinery, and Sid has to fire her. They were falling in love, but since he's management and she's labor, can that ever work? Featuring members of the original Broadway cast (Doris Day was not in the original cast).
The Panic is on
The Great American Depression As Seen by the Common Man.
Published in 2009
This multifaceted set communicates both the painful hard times of the Great Depression and the grace and strong will of the common man in confronting it. Period newsreel and documentary film footage convey the feel of the times. Classic musical recordings reflect the popular mood of the day. The booklet includes photographs, letters, and first hand recollections.
Parasite.
Published in 2020
Kim Ki-teak's family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes. One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Parks' home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle.
Paul Robeson
20th Century Renaissance Man, Entertainer & Activist.
Published in 2016
20TH CENTURY RENAISSANCE MAN, ENTERTAINER and ACTIVIST. PAUL ROBESON was a celebrated African-American Actor, Athlete, Singer, Writer, and Civil Rights Activist. Robeson's many achievements are chronicled in this program, ranging from playing with the NFL to graduating from Columbia Law School, performing on Broadway and in Hollywood films to founding the American Crusade against Lynching as well as Council on African Affairs. Robeson was one of the most talented performers of his time and a dedicated humanitarian who ultimately sacrificed fame and fortune for what he believed in. His association with Leftist Politics during the era of the Cold War, and frequent denouncing of American political parties led to his eventual blacklisting with other prominent writers and artists during the McCarthy Era. His talents in all areas are remarkable, and his dedication to attaining a peaceful coexistence between all the people of the world is truly admirable. Bonus Material: Each program includes 24 minutes of Bonus material.
Paul Robeson
20th Century Renaissance Man, Entertainer and Activist
Published in 2009
Profiles the life and work of celebrated African American actor, singer, athlete, writer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976).
Paul Robeson
Citizen of the World.
Published in 2007
In Proud Valley an African American sailor comes to a Welsh coal mining town in 1938 and helps re-open the mine at the cost of his life. Native Land, a political semi-documentary formed from staged reenactments, leads viewers on an emotional tour of the pre-World War II U.S. and its freedom-based ideologies and looks at the the forces it sees as threatening to undermine America's strengths from within: greedy capitalists, professional strikebreakers, and the Ku Klux Kan.
Paul Robeson
Icon.
Published in 2007
In The Emperor Jones, Brutus Jones, a African American Pullman porter schemes, swindles, and powers his way to become ruler of a Caribbean island. Paul Robeson : tribute to an artist traces the singer-actor and political activist's career through his activism and his socially charged performances of his signature song, Ol' Man River.
Pencils Down! The 100 Days of the Writers Guild Strike.
Published in 2016
In 2007, the WGA and the studios hit an impasse in contract negotiations leading to a strike that brought Hollywood to a halt. Pencils Down! questions the new mode of entertainment accessibility: what is the business model for the Internet?
The People Speak
Published in 2010
A look at social change throughout history, as seen through the music, poetry, speeches, and manifestos of rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from our past - and present - including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, Chief Joseph, Muhammad Ali, along with unknown veterans, union workers, abolitionists, and many others never featured in high school textbooks. Celebrates the extraordinary possibilities for creating social change that ordinary people have realized throughout the course of our nation's rich but often ignored history of dissent and protest.
Pete Seeger
The Power of Song
Published in 2008
A look at the life of controversial musician, activist, and environmentalist Pete Seeger, and how he used his songs to promote social change. Includes archival footage and interviews with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, and more.
Prairie Trilogy.
Published in 2019
John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, co-directors of Cannes Camera d?Or winner Northern Lights and fellow members of San Francisco?s Cine Manifest film collective, collaborated on this remarkable series of documentaries underwritten by the North Dakota Humanities Council and the North Dakota AFL-CIO. In PRAIRIE FIRE, 97-year-old ex-organizer and poet Henry Martinson recounts the 1916 birth of the Socialist Nonpartisan League?also the subject of Northern Lights?his narrative accompanied by images shot by Nilsson?s own grandfather, Frithjof Holmboe. REBEL EARTH finds Martinson, accompanied by a younger farmer, revisiting the scenes of his life, seeking out the spot of his Divide County homestead. SURVIVOR, finished the year before Martinson?s death, focuses on the biography of its subject, found in a funny and expansive mood. A gorgeously-shot work of documentary-as-historical corrective, which finds hope for the future through excavating a radical past.
Pride
Published in 2014
U.K. gay activists work to assist miners during their extended strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.
Recorder
The Marion Stokes Project.
Published in 2020
Marion Stokes was secretly recording American television 24 hours a day for 30 years. It started in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the 24r-hour news cycle. It ended on December 14, 2012, while the Sandy Hook massacre played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorded on 70,000 VHS tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, and talk shows, showing how television shaped the world of today.
Red Hollywood.
Published in 2019
A revelatory documentary by Thom Andersen (*Los Angeles Plays Itself*) and film critic Noel Burch, RED HOLLYWOOD examines the films made by the victims of the Hollywood Blacklist and offers a radically different perspective on a key period in the history of American cinema. “*Socially committed filmmaking doesn't get any better than this.*”? Kenneth Turan, ***The Los Angeles Times*** *Makes a significant (and entertaining) contribution to the saga of the blacklist.* - J. Hoberman, **Village Voice**
Red Hollywood
Published in 2014
A compilation of clips from over 50 Hollywood films by blacklisted screenwriters & directors, with expert commentary and other period footage.
The Red Tail.
Published in 2017
On August 19, 2005 Roy Koch, along with 4,400 airline mechanics, custodians, and cleaners, went on strike against Northwest Airlines, the 4th largest airline in the world. Northwest, otherwise known as "The Red Tail" by its employees, wanted to lay off 53% of their union and outsource their jobs. What followed was a 444 day strike that would end with 4,000 union members out of work, including Roy. Instead of being left in the wake of this "losing battle", Roy and his daughter Melissa decide to follow Roy's outsourced job to China. ..The Red Tail interweaves Roy and Melissa's search for connection in China with the premeditated downfall of Northwest Airlines, a vibrant example of the dangers of our current economic system, which serves to make the rich richer even as the middle and working classes disappear. The Koch's journey is a search for dignity amidst the helplessness experienced by global workers; a quest to reclaim their power. The Red Tail looks at our broken economic system which encourages and rewards CEOs and upper management to line their own pockets instead of caring for the heart of a company: its long-term stability and life-long employees, offering a new perspective on globalization and the lives that hang in the balance.
Roger & Me
Published in 2014
Michael Moore's controversial but popular film is a highly personal, wryly humorous look at the closing of several General Motors plants in Flint, Michigan.
Roger & Me
The Story of a Rebel & His Mike.
Published in 1989
After General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Roger Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger Smith ... and along the way captures an offbeat, comic view of the seedy underside of corporate America.
Romero
Published in 2018
A dramatized presentation of the life and works of the El Salvadoran Catholic priest, Archbishop Oscar Romero.
Salt of the Earth.
Published in 2018
Banned at the time of its initial release and made by blacklisted filmmakers, this bold, radical film tells the story of Mexican-American workers who call a strike over the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages they receive in comparison to their white co-workers at a Zinc mine in New Mexico.Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacon) organizes the strike but is shown to be a hypocrite, treating his pregnant wife (Rosaura Revueltas) with similar unfairness. However, after an injunction keeps the men from their protest, the gender roles are reversed. As the women protest at the picket lines while the men stay at home, SALT OF THE EARTH makes glaringly clear the vital importance of women in the fight against inequality on intersecting fronts.
Salvador
Published in 2001
In 1980, Richard Boyle, a veteran war photographer whose career needs a boost, heads for El Salvador to cover the civil war there. He forms an uneasy alliance with both guerrillas in the countryside who want him to get pictures out to the US press, and the right-wing military, who want him to bring them photographs of the rebels. After the murder of Archbishop Romero, the rape and murder of an American nurse and three nuns, and the death of a fellow journalist, Boyle attempts to escape El Salvador with his Salvadorean girlfriend Maria and her family.
Sanlidong.
Published in 2019
In 1955 more than three hundred impassioned youths traveled from Shanghai to the Sanlidong coal mine in Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, with the hope of assisting with the building of China?s northwest territory. Fifty years later, most of them are gone. In fifteen segments, this film documents the workers still living in the region, those who have passed, and a lost era of China?s socialist industrialization. "*Lin Xin presents us with the historical destiny of a state-run coal mine across several decades, and with the memories of this abandoned mine?s history among the miners who were cast aside. With minimal language, he imbues these memories with a sense of poetry and expresses his simple emotions with great structural clarity.*" ?***Ai Weiwei***
The Shock Doctrine
Published in 2011
Using 'shock therapy' as a metaphor, the film investigates Naomi Klein's central idea of 'disaster capitalism.' When countries are jolted by catastrophic events such as war or natural disasters, they are often subjected to totally unregulated 'free market' remedies that benefit corporations at public expense.
Silkwood.
Published in 1983
The Oklahoma nuclear plant worker who blew the whistle on dangerous practices at the Kerr-McGee plant and who died under circumstances which are still under debate.
Sorry to Bother You
Published in 2018
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe.
Sorry We Missed You.
Published in 2020
The British working class is once again the empathetic subject of Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, a wrenching, intimate family drama that exposes the dark side of the so-called “gig economy”. Capturing the sacred moments that make a family as well as the acts of desperation they need to undertake to make it through each day, this universal story is skillfully and indelibly told with unforgettable performances and a searing script by Loach’s long-time collaborator Paul Laverty. Official Selection at the **Cannes Film Festival** and the **Toronto International Film Festival**.
Sorry We Missed You
Published in 2020
Ricky and his wife Abby, who lost their home in the 2008 financial crash, are desperate to get out of their economic distress. When Ricky gets the opportunity to be his own boss as a delivery driver, they trade in their only asset, Abby's car, for a new white van and the dream that Ricky can work his way up to owning his own franchise. But the couple find their lives are quickly pushed further to the edge by an unrelenting work schedule, a ruthless supervisor, and the needs of their children.
Spartacus
Published in 2015
The legendary tale of a bold gladiator who led a triumphant Roman slave revolt.
Strike
Published in 2011
Triggered by the suicide of a worker unjustly accused of theft, a strike is called by the laborers of a Moscow factory. The managers, owner, and Czarist government dispatch infiltrators in an attempt to break the workers' unity. Unsuccessful, they hire the police and, in the film's most harrowing and powerful sequences, the unarmed strikers are slaughtered in a brutal confrontation.
Strike (Stachka.
Published in 2015
Sergei Eisenstein's first full-length feature film. Unrest starts at a factory. The last straw was the suicide of a worker accused of stealing a micrometer. An inevitable fine and a many-month payment of the debt for the lost instrument would have ended in his death from hunger anyway. The dead man's comrades go on strike. The resentful crowd's actions are directed by the strike committee. They make a decision not to work until the strikers' demands are met: raising wages, improving labor conditions. The working-class settlement is threatened with hunger. The strike committee calls for patience and fortitude. To provoke the crisis, the management uses local hooligans. Brought to the point of despair, the crowd goes out in the street, where they're confronted with the Cossacks. Awards Silver Medal at the Paris Fair
Struggles in Steel.
Published in 2015
The current angry debates around affirmative action too often ignore their historical roots: how prior to government intervention African Americans were confined to the most back-breaking, dangerous and low paid work. Struggles in Steel documents the shameful history of discrimination against black workers and one heroic campaign where they won equality on the job. The film is the result of a unique collaboration. Black steelworker Ray Henderson was angered by the lack of coverage of African American workers on the news so he contacted his old high school buddy, noted independent filmmaker Tony Buba, and suggested they collaborate to set the record straight. Together they interviewed more than 70 retired black steelworkers who tell heart-rending tales of struggles with the company, the union and white co-workers to break out of the black job ghetto. With Henderson as guide, they retrace a century of black industrial history - the use of blacks as strikebreakers against the all-white union during the 1892 Homestead Strike, the Great Migration of fieldworkers to the North in World War I, the racial divisions between workers during the Great Steel Strike of 1919 and the ultimate success of the CIO organizing drives of the 1930s. When black vets returned to the mills after WWII, they found they were still locked into the worst jobs with no rights to bid on better-paying, higher-skilled work such as supervisor, millwright or even painter. The steelworkers recount how, after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they secretly documented instances of discrimination and in 1974 finally won an agreement (or Consent Decree) compelling the company and the union to set hiring and promotion goals for women and minorities. But their hard-won prosperity would be brief. In a few short years the mills began shutting down and hope swung to despair. The film ends with black industrial workers again standing on the outside of the economy, waiting for new remedies to decades of discrimination. "An outstanding job!...Provides a vitally important historical foundation for the current debates about race and affirmative action." - Bruce Nelson, Dartmouth College "Heartbreaking and enlightening...A shameful story full of sound and fury." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Intelligent and informative...The filmmakers cull revealing and often deeply moving commentaries from interviews with more than 70 steelworkers...An effective teaching tool." - Variety.
The Take.
Published in 2006
In the wake of Argentina's spectacular economics collapse, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment.
Tout Va Bien
Published in 2005
"The story of a wildcat strike at a [French] sausage factory, as witnessed by an American reporter and her has-been New Wave film director husband"--Container.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Published in 2016
A painterly and sensual immersion in late nineteenth-century Italian farm life that lovingly focuses on four families working for one landowner on an isolated estate in the province of Bergamo.
Triangle Fire
Published in 2011
The fire that tore through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the gruesome culmination of years of unrest in America's most profitable manufacturing industry. Two years earlier, led by a spontaneous walkout in the same factory, twenty thousand garment workers, in the largest women's strike in American history, took to the streets of New York to protest working conditions. They gained the support of both progressives and leading women in New York's society.
Triangle Fire.
Published in 2017
It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City?s history. A dropped match on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sparked a fire that killed over a hundred innocent people trapped inside. The private industry of the American factory would never be the same.
Trumbo.
Published in 2020
Legendary Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo’s extraordinary story is brought to life through emotionally stirring and downright hilarious performances of his letters by an all-star cast, including Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson and Donald Sutherland. Through spirited performances of his quirky, heartfelt and thoroughly engaging letters by some of the greatest actors working today, Dalton Trumbo’s legend and his legacy are lavishly presented to new audience. Combining footage of the man himself and interviews with those who knew him, TRUMBO is a politically and morally profound documentary, which is both deeply engaging and thoroughly entertaining throughout, providing a powerful reminder of the importance of free-speech. Official Selection at the **Toronto International Film Festival**.
Two American Families
Published in 2013
Chronicles the struggles of the Neumanns and the Stanleys as they try to hold onto their homes, their jobs, their health insurance, and a future for their children. A remarkable portrait of perseverance, the 90-minute film raises unsettling questions about the changing nature of the U.S. economy and the fate of a declining middle class.
Two Days, One Night.
Published in 2015
Sandra has just been released from the hospital to find that she no longer has a job. According to management, the only way Sandra can regain her position at the factory is to convince her co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed yearly bonuses. So, over the course of one weekend, Sandra must confront each co-worker individually in order to win a majority of their votes, before time runs out.
UberLand.
Published in 2019
Pulling back the curtain on the labor issues surrounding Uber and the gig economy, UBER LAND tells the story of a scandal-ridden company that upended transportation, defied regulators, decimated the taxi industry, and ended up cannibalizing its own drivers. From the ashes of the Great Recession came the gig economy, which promised independence and flexibility for workers. Now, more than ten years later, the veneer of the gig economy has faded as the harsh reality of this particular Silicon Valley experiment has set in. UBER LAND is the David and Goliath story of the drivers who took on Uber. The film follows four different San Francisco based drivers -- Eric, Robin, Antonio, and Xavier -- as these independent contractors navigate the exploitative waters of the gig economy where many workers earn meager wages and have few labor protections.
Union Time
Fighting for Workers' Rights.
Published in 2019
"It's Union Time, people!" — the rallying cry of workers at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Since its opening in 1993, employees of the plant have endured various abuses such as intimidation tactics, low pay, and dangerous working conditions which resulted in bodily injury and, on one occasion, death. Often treated as expendable, the workers came together and engaged in a 16-year-long struggle for the right to unionize and receive safe, fair working conditions — and won. UNION TIME shows how unions can still be a potent force for economic and social justice, and the role they play in a just society. The Tar Heel victory demonstrates that, even in an anti-union climate, forming a union is possible and even essential. Above all, it celebrates the courage of meatpacking workers who refused to quit and gives voice to how they broke a cycle of poverty and injustice. Now the 5,000 workers at the Tar Heel plant have fair working conditions, better wages and, above all, respect. Union Time lays out a compelling blueprint for unionizing when all the odds have been stacked against workers.
Unnatural Causes. Not Just a Paycheck.
Published in 2014
In the winter of 2006, the Electrolux Corporation closed the largest refrigerator factory in the U.S. and moved it to Juarez, Mexico, for cheaper labor. The move turned the lives of nearly 3,000 workers in Greenville, Michigan, upside down. Before the plant closed, Electrolux workers led a middle class life, owning homes, buying new cars and taking vacations. Now most are scraping by on severance pay, unemployment benefits and a health plan that will end in a year. As personal finances spiral downward, health follows. In the year after the plant closure, the local hospital's caseload tripled because of depression, alcoholism and domestic abuse. Experts say that heart disease and mortality are also predicted to rise, totaling 134 excess deaths in this area alone over the next 10 years. And the lay-offs not only affect workers but their families and the entire community as well. Psychologist Rick Price, who has studied the effects of job loss on health, explains, these external life events do get under the skin. They create changes in the way our physiological system operates. They create elevated stressors, stress responses that ultimately lead to both acute and chronic health problems. High levels of the stress hormone cortisol, for example, can trigger increases in blood pressure, blood sugar, and even inflammation, all risk factors for disease. When stresses just won't stop, as bills keep coming and there's no hope for good paid work, the high level of stress hormones puts strain on the body's organs, eventually wearing them out. Stress also increases the risk of health problems such as alcohol abuse, suicide, homicide, and accidents. As middle-class Americans find their health and way of life increasingly threatened by globalization and corporate profit-seeking, those in the top income brackets are reaping the spoils of our winner-take-all society. The typical CEO now earns more than 250 times the salary of the average worker. Today, the top 1% of the population has more wealth than the bottom 90% combined. Economic inequality is greater now than at any time since the 1920s. In other countries, the situation is vastly different. When Electrolux shut down one of its plants in Vastervick, Sweden, it caused hardly a ripple. Laid-off workers received 80% of their salary in unemployment benefits as well as education and training for new jobs. Electrolux also paid $3 million to stimulate the creation of start-up businesses in Vastervick after pressure from the union and government. The town of Greenville, Michigan, received nothing. Sweden also guarantees its citizens a college education, health care, five weeks of paid vacation, 16 months of paid leave for new parents, and much more. Swedish social policies assume an ethos of shared responsibility and provide a safety net for citizens. Swedes pay more in taxes to support these programs, but they live, on average, three years longer than we do. In America, at least for the time being, workers are left to fend for themselves, and we all pay the price in both health and wealth.
Waging a Living
Published in 2006
"Over three years, the film follows four hard-working individuals as they strive for their piece of the American Dream but find only low wages, dead end jobs, and a tattered safety net in their way."--Container.
We Are Wisconsin.
Published in 2018
When a Republican Governor?s bill threatens to wipe away worker rights and lock out public debate, six ordinary citizens force their way into the Wisconsin State Capitol, and spend the next twenty-six days with hundreds of other citizens, building a movement that not only challenges the bill, but the soul of a nation.. Official Selection at Hot Docs and the Traverse City Film Festival.
Where Do You Stand?
Stories from an American Mill
Published in 2004
On June 23, 1999, after a quarter century of struggle, textile workers in Kannapolis, North Carolina won the single largest industrial union victory in the history of the South, a region long known as a bastion of anti-union sentiment. This film traces the story of that epic and often bitter struggle, and examines the efforts of workers to cope with a rapidly changing social and economic climate. Told primarily through the voices of those active in the numerous attempts to organize the union, the film offers an intimate and compelling portrait of American workers as they face the myriad challenges of the post-industrial age.
Z
Published in 2009
A Greek pacifist leader is murdered at a rally. Despite the official police report of accidental death, a journalist's persistent questioning leads to a full-scale investigation, revealing corruption in high places.