Filmografia abierta: La Huelga Obrera

[alegre]

Hola a todos, creo que existe un numero importante de buenas películas sobe este tema.

De momento aporto

La sal de la tierra de Biberman y Matewan de Sayles

[Jacob]

Billy Elliot
The Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley

Paso el hilo a Comunidad.

[acg110080]

La huelga, de Serguei M. Eisenstein

[alegre]

I compagni
Mario Monicelli

[Diluvio]

Cradle Will Rock (Abajo el Telón)
Tim Robbins (1999)

En 1936, una comedia musical sobre una huelga de obreros metalúrgicos que Orson Welles y John Houseman quieren llevar a escena sufre la censura oficial en su camino al estreno, mientras Rockefeller encarga a Diego Rivera un mural para su fundación y Margherita Sarfatti, amante de Mussolini, vende obras renacentistas para financiar al fascismo. Los conflictos entre el arte, los negocios y la política, ambientado en la convulsionada sociedad estadounidense de 1930, atravesada por la pobreza, la lucha de clases y el surgimiento de los grandes espectáculos populares.

[batallans]

On the waterfront, Elia Kazan.

[jm1983]

Normar Rae supongo que también vale.

[Cirlot]

Pregúntome si valen las huelgas de hambre.

[Dardo]

Hay una figura muy conocida como es la de Jimmy Hoffa que ha dado lugar a recrear su vida en la gran pantalla y que se ajusta perfectamente a la temática planteada, con películas como:

# La película de 1978 F.I.S.T., protagonizada por Sylvester Stallone como el trabajador Johnny Kovak ascendiendo al liderazgo de un sindicato llamado "Federación Interestatal de Camioneros", (similar a los "Teamsters" de la vida real) está libremente basada en la vida de Hoffa.

# En 1992, fue estrenada la película Hoffa protagonizada por Jack Nicholson y Danny DeVito (también director de la cinta) como el ficticio lugarteniente de Hoffa.

Lo cierto es que ambas películas me entretuvieron, sin entrar en detalles de su fiel reflejo de la realidad del personaje.

[alegre]

Pregúntome si valen las huelgas de hambre.

Modifico el título.

Un saludo

[alegre]

Esta no la he visto pero...

Con uñas y dientes (1978)

... la primera película española explicitamente de lucha de clases.


Cartel original de Iván Zulueta.

Enlace, gracias a ronalrigan: Con uñas y dientes 1978 Paulino Viota VHSrip.avi

Productora: Piquío Films/Góndola Producciones Cinematográficas. Director de producción: Ángel Huete. Adjunto de producción: Francisco Llinás. Guión: Javier Vega. Fotografía: Raúl Artigot (color, pantalla panorámica). Segundo operador: Antonio Cuevas. Montaje: Julio Peña. Música: Julián Llinás basada en la "Sonata en la menor, Op. 1, nº 4" de G. F. Haendel. Canción "Con uñas y dientes", letra de Javier Vega y música de Julián Llinás cantada por Alicia Sánchez. Director de doblaje: Rafael de Penagos. Decorados: Antonio Belinzón. Maquillaje: Ángel Luis de Diego. Ayudante de dirección: Pedro Rosado

Estudios: Arganda S. A.. Laboratorios: Fotofilm Madrid S. A. Sonorización: Tecnisón. Lugares de rodaje: Madrid, Coslada, Paracuellos del Jarama. Estreno: Cines California, Extremadura, Infante y Los Ángeles, Madrid, 28 de Mayo de 1979. Espectadores: 79.488. Recaudación: 52.189,64 euros


Intérpretes: Alicia Sánchez (Aurora); Santiago Ramos (Marcos); Alfredo Mayo (Rodolfo Ortiz); Víctor Petit (Juan); Francisco Vidal (policía); Guadalupe G. Güemes (Lucía) ; Fidel Almansa (Salvador); Eduardo Bea (Lucas); José Manuel Cervino (Eduardo); Francisco Casares (Matón 1º); Jesús Sastre (ejecutivo); Ramón Repáraz, Luis Politti (asesino), Ángel Terrón (Presidente Consejo de Administración); Antonio Malonda; Fernando Chinarro.

—Hasta el 77 no logras hacer tu segundo largometraje.

—En ese tiempo hice sobre todo un guión, con Javier Vega, para una película que hubiera sido una especie de continuación de Contactos, otra película clandestina, con una militancia más directa. Pero resultaba imposible sacarla adelante. Tú acabas de decir que se podría haber seguido haciendo películas como Contactos, pero entonces nosotros queríamos hacer algo más, no una película tan miserable, tan pobre, tan limitada técnicamente como Contactos. Ya no me valía el dinero que pudiera dejarme mi madre y ¿cómo conseguir dinero para hacer una película clandestina? … Estuvimos casi cuatro años. Era un guión didáctico, prácticamente sin argumento, basado en el estilo de Brecht, que lo que pretendía era mostrar lo que se llamaba entonces “una toma de conciencia”. También la forma era brechtiana: escribíamos los diálogos en verso libre, para darle valor a la comprensión del diálogo, y matar todo naturalismo. Un poco a la manera de Peter Weiss. Así que de nuevo pasó lo de siempre en mi vida: un entrenamiento para algo que luego no se hizo. Y seguíamos en ello, dando vueltas al guión, cuando murió Franco. Entonces ya me di cuenta de que todo era un poco inútil, iba a venir la democracia y obstinarse no tenía sentido (ahí quizá me equivoqué: no tenía sentido hacer cine clandestino, pero podría haber seguido haciendo cine por mi cuenta). En cambio, consideré que la muerte de Franco era la ocasión de que alguien como yo pudiera hacer cine profesional. Antes, como estaba muy comprometido con la lucha contra el régimen (de una manera no partidaria, porque nunca he sido miembro de ningún partido) sentía que no podía hacer cine profesional. Y entonces, cuando murió Franco –o más exactamente cuando cayó Arias–, me entró la obsesión un poco de deportista de hacer la primera película española explícitamente de lucha de clases. Le propuse a Javier Vega escribir un guión comercial, para hacer una película muy deprisa dentro de la industria.

Cercano, demasiado cercano / Santiago Montiel. - Poco después de la desastrosa exhibición de Con uñas y dientes, Paulino Viota declaraba en 'Contracampo': “yo fui un cineasta”, amarga conjugación del verbo en pasado de “quien se sabía ya sin sitio en un cinema cada vez más convencional”. Con uñas y dientes fue una de las películas peor vistas (por poco vista y por mal vista) y mejor analizadas de cine español de la Transición, gracias a que Julio Pérez Perucha le consagró, en las páginas de la antedicha revista, un extenso y sagaz estudio que acertaba a discriminar… el nudo gordiano de lo que en el film, con sus parciales fracasos y sus insólitas imágenes, se estaba dilucidando. A saber, la enmarañada dificultad de tramar en el cine español un nuevo verosímil fílmico en una película que exhibía, en siete días, el enfrentamiento entre la patronal y el movimiento obrero, abrochando a semejante tema una historia amorosa entre un líder sindical, Marcos (Santiago Ramos), y una profesora de instituto (Alicia Sánchez). Pérez Perucha lo susurró a pie de página: “Mucho nos tememos que el intento de Viota quede reducido a ser una exótica rara avis en el panorama del cine europeo”.

Pese a cumplirse el inexorable vaticinio, Con uñas y dientes pervive aún como un documento insustituible a la hora de reformular la intrincada cuestión treinta años después: ¿por qué no existían ni existen modelos culturales para narrar la figura del obrero combativo en el cine español? Viota lo explicaba así en 1979: "Un actor trabaja en el terreno de los afectos, en base a sus experiencia personal. Pero en el terreno sociológico del personaje, lo hace en base a los modelos culturales. No es que no exista el modelo cultural del obrero. Simplemente ocurre que en el cine está poco codificado aún". Y sigue estándolo, apostillo yo ahora, porque, en efecto -recordaba también Julio Pérez Perucha- la impresión de realidad no garantiza por sí sola la verosimilitud…

... Viota también lo vio inmediatamente: "Con uñas y dientes es un film demasiado claro". Y demasiado cercano, añadiría yo. El espectador de los films de Viota, al que se le impelía a habitar espacios vacíos... en Contactos (1970), y se le interpelará y hostilizará años después en su fuera de campo durante el primer segmento de Cuerpo a cuerpo (1982), comienza en Con uñas y dientes por recibir –identificado con el punto de vista del sindicalista- brutales puñetazos en el rostro propinados por tres matones de la patronal (primer día), es sañudamente violado tres veces, al identificarse luego con el cuerpo familiar de Aurora (quinto día) hasta ser muy expeditivamente evacuado del relato por un asesino profesional (sexto día). Al final (séptimo día), sólo se escuchaba la voz de una patronal, y a nadie se le escapaba que el film no era, en palabras del propio Viota, una reconstrucción naturalista del gesto o vocabulario de los obreros, sino de las formas de dominación de clase del capitalismo.

Todo ello fue expuesto didácticamente (brechtianamente) y diáfanamente en el film, pero por muchas esperanzas que la izquierda de entonces depositara en que tales ideas pudieran seguir siendo expresadas en el futuro aún con mayor hondura y sutileza (habida cuenta de que estaban recién abolidas las formas mas burdas de la censura), lo cierto es que este trabajo de hacer historia del presente, asumiendo meditados riesgos, sencillamente se abandonó. A la ola gigante de conservadurismo que ahogará pronto cualquier pujo revolucionario, debió añadirse que a muchos les desalentó también las intrínsecas dificultades estilísticas de un proyecto de esta índole. Tal empeño estaba reservado –entonces y luego- sólo a cineastas intrépidos como Viota... minucioso escrutador de una miríada de imágenes y sonidos que atraviesan la Historia del cine y autor de muy pocas películas... Un cineasta que, como Renoir, teje sus films con la piel de las cosas; un cineasta cercano, demasiado cercano.

Con uñas y dientes (1978) / Santos Zunzunegui. - Tras una notable experiencia en el campo de los formatos no profesionales, dos importantes películas realizadas al margen del sistema y emparentadas, en buena medida, con los aspectos más rupturistas de la vanguardia formal y política…, Paulino Viota se enfrenta, en la primavera de 1977, al desafío de dar el paso a la realización de una película industrial de largometraje capaz de interpelar a un público que, como el español de aquellos días, está viviendo el proceso que luego se conocerá como Reforma política y que viene marcado por las fechas de Diciembre de 1976 (aprobación de la Ley de Reforma Política) y Junio de 1977 (elecciones generales). Proceso que, conviene recordarlo, tenía como objetivo primordial el asentamiento de las instituciones democrático-burguesas en nuestro país, exorcizando cualquier tentación de hegemonía de las ideas de izquierda y permitiendo que el paso del franquismo a la monarquía constitucional se hiciese sin menoscabo de los intereses económicos qua habían usufructuado sin rubor la larga noche de la dictadura.

El origen de Con uñas y dientes, se encuentra en un guión nunca realizado (también escrito por Viota y Javier Vega en las postrimerías del franquismo), titulado No es sordo el mar o Los explotados hablan de la explotación en el que, siguiendo el modelo facilitado por el Bertolt Brecht de las piezas didácticas, se llevaba a cabo una exploración del mundo de las luchas obreras en la que se intentaba combinar el análisis exhaustivo tanto de los problemas concretos de la lucha de clases con la puesta en escena de la teoría misma de esa lucha. La imposibilidad de interesar en el proyecto a actores de renombre (sólo Lola Gaos y Héctor Alterio se mostraron receptivos a colaborar en el filme) y los cambios vertiginosos en la situación política obligaron a sus autores a reconducir el proyecto en la dirección de una película que dejara el didactismo en segundo plano para acentuar más la dimensión conflictiva del enfrentamiento entre la clase obrera y la patronal, amén de hacer explícito el hecho de que esta última no era un bloque homogéneo y que, en buena medida, lo que se jugaba por aquellos días era una situación similar a la ejemplificada por la máxima gatopardesca que dice que todo debe cambiar para que todo permanezca igual.

El proceso de producción de la película fue complejo. Si bien la empresa familiar constituida por Viota al efecto (Piquío Films) se hizo cargo del 70 % de la producción y el resto corrió a cargo de la empresa de Eligio Herrero, Góndola Producciones, incorporada al proyecto en tanto que potencial distribuidora de la película, esta asociación se reveló incapaz de resolver la contradicción que, por aquellos días, el cineasta definía como existente entre industria nacional e industria multinacional, lo que condenó al filme a una exhibición poco acorde con su voluntad de inserción popular… A estas dificultades venía a añadírsele otra nada despreciable: se trata de una obra que afrontaba un verosímil fílmico ausente de manera casi radical del cine español de aquellos (y de éstos) días: obreros, fábricas, asambleas, luchas sindicales.

… El cineasta buscaba combinar una película ideológicamente correcta (visto, no hace falta decirlo, desde posiciones de izquierda radical), con un lenguaje asequible, rigurosa en su planteamiento formal. Lo que suponía... tratar las escenas conceptuales y de acción, al mismo nivel, aunque en realidad pertenezcan a realidades diferentes. Precisamente de la tensión entre una dimensión física puesta en valor en varios momentos (la escena inicial, la brutal violación de Aurora) y las secuencias de debate saca buena parte de sus fuerzas un filme que no sólo afronta de una manera claramente desinhibida el campo de las relaciones sexuales tanto en el terreno de su visualización como en el más conflictivo (como puso de manifiesto su recepción crítica entre los públicos obreros supuestamente objetivo privilegiados del discurso de la obra) de la inserción social de las mismas, sino que es capaz de construir una escenas didácticas (en el sentido brechtiano de la expresión) de altos vuelos y como no ha vuelto a haber otras en el cine español. Valga como ejemplo esa discusión entre los miembros del comité en la que a través de la comparación entre una silla y una fábrica (escena, por cierto, proveniente con las pertinentes modificaciones, del guión antes citado, No es sordo el mar) se ejemplifica el rol de los distintos tipos de objetos y su propiedad y uso en los procesos productivos. Escena que cerrará el más radical de los líderes del comité de huelga (el mismo que en la última escena del filme se sentará a la derecha del nuevo gestor de la empresa) con la siguiente afirmación: materiales y herramientas nos son imprescindibles pero el capitalista no hace falta para nada.

Porque esta sería otra característica impar de Con uñas y dientes, su decidida voluntad de no trazar maniqueas líneas de demarcación entre patronal y clase obrera… Que el filme enunciase con tanta claridad esta idea y lo hiciese en el momento que lo hacía nos da una idea de su radicalidad, bien ejemplificada en la canción de talante brechtiano, de nuevo, que acompaña los títulos de crédito iniciales y finales y en la que podemos escuchar versos como estos: Se dice que han sido derrotados/al fin cuarenta años de muerte/pero en silencio llenan las calles/gentes que malviven como siempre (…) Ellos sin duda son los más fuertes/preciso es no hacerse ya ilusiones/ni tener razón basta, ni tenacidad/ni tus propios recursos, ni saber pensar/la lucha sigue en cada momento/con uñas y dientes, cuerpo a cuerpo. Verso este último que… refleja de manera contundente dónde se sitúa el alcance erótico y político del filme. Filme que se organiza como una tenaza conceptual entre dos imágenes que se remiten entre sí. La inicial: ese puño que golpea directamente a la cámara cinematográfica y que coloca al espectador, de entrada, en la piel del líder obrero machacado por los matones al servicio de la patronal… La final: ese ominoso movimiento de cámara que nos acerca progresivamente hacia la presidencia de la asamblea (en la que se sientan juntos los nuevos ejecutivos de la empresa y los miembros del antiguo comité de huelga) y que nos hace receptores de la interpelación decisiva que la película dirige hacia los espectadores: "Y nada más, señores, ahora son ustedes los que tienen la palabra".

"He pretendido hacer una película popular" : entrevista con Paulino Viota, director de "Con uñas y dientes" / Fernando Samaniego. - Diario "El País" 29/05/1979

Una película española, Con uñas y dientes, de Paulino Viota, se estrenó ayer en cuatro salas de Madrid. Terminada en el verano del año pasado, se presentó en la sección de «nuevos creadores» del Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián y en el de Benalmádena. Con guión de Javier Vega, está interpretada por Alicia Sánchez, Santiago Ramos, Alfredo Mayo, Jesús Sastre, Guadalupe G. Güemes y Víctor Petit. El director, Paulino Viota, declaró a EL PAÍS que han intentado hacer «una película sobre la lucha de clases y, a través de una huelga laboral, una metáfora sobre la reforma política».

Otras intenciones del equipo son «la voluntad de hacer una película popular, evitar el cine de autor y abrir una brecha en la industria cinematográfica con gentes que provienen en su mayoría del teatro independiente». Uno de los resultados obtenidos es el hundimiento de la productora creada para la película, que invirtió dieciséis millones de pesetas, y la imposibilidad de continuar en el cine su director, Paulino Viota, santanderino, de 31 años, creador de «la fábrica de cine de Santander» y autor de Contactos (1970), un largometraje de cine independiente.«En estos años de silencio he intentado organizar una infraestructura de exhibición de cine independiente, que no fue posible por las condiciones políticas. También intenté hacer películas en cooperativa y meternos en la industria con la creación de una productora. Ya es imposible continuar. O se cambia la reglamentación vigente o se acabó la producción nacional. Una película no se puede amortizar sólo con el público, ya que no podemos contar ni con subvenciones ni mucho menos con la exportación. No se trata de hacer un reproche a la exhibición, sino de hacer ver al Estado que si quiere cine español tiene que tomar unas medidas urgentes.»

La película que ahora se estrena, dentro de la fiebre por cubrir la cuota de pantalla, modifica el proyecto inicial de una historia de tipo didáctico sobre el tema general de la lucha de clases para mantener la propuesta en un tono más espectacular y comercial. «Intentamos hacer una película popular, pero con pretensiones, que reflejara a través de una huelga en una fábrica la sustitución de un poder por otro, como una metáfora sobre la reforma. Aunque se puede calificar de cine político, en el film no se habla de política; es más bien una película laboral, donde se plantean cuestiones de salarios, la actuación de un líder y la capacidad de los sindicatos. Queríamos mostrar una realidad española que no se suele reflejar en el cine y hacerlo de una forma crítica. No se trataba de llenar de moral a la clase trabajadora, sino mostrar las dificultades del sindicalismo. Este análisis de la derrota de los trabajadores me parece muy actual.»

En algunos coloquios públicos sobre la película, el erotismo ha sido tema de debate. «En el origen de la película se centran la historia amorosa entre el líder sindical y la profesora. Quizá lo colectivo, la lucha sindical, ha pasado a primer plano. El erotismo no es una concesión comercial. La sexualidad se muestra desde un punto de vista de la moral no burguesa. Queríamos crear ese conflicto y ver cómo reaccionaban los protagonistas, meter un nivel afectivo, de relación personal, en el contexto amplio de una huelga laboral. En la película, la relación amorosa está determinada hasta en los más pequeños detalles, mostrando cómo incide la vida cotidiana.»

«Con uñas y dientes tiene un lenguaje sencillo y a la vez riguroso, no en la dirección de una ruptura formal, sino para contribuir al sentido de la narración, que el espectador reciba el sentido de la historia con facilidad.»

Fuentes informativas:

Sitio web de Paulino Viota
Carpeta sobre el director en "El viejo topo": 'El cine está por ver'
Web de 'El País'.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075873/

[Billy Fisher]

Recursos humanos de Laurent Cantet.
Germinal de Claude Berri.

[faradio]

Ora sí ¡ tenemos que ganar! (http://www.imdb.es/title/tt0134872/)
http://www.nodo50.org/rebeldemule/foro/ ... php?t=1739

Cananea

The Molly Maguires (Martin Ritt, 1970)

Joe Hill

Los tejedores (Die Weber | Alemania, 1927)

La Classe Operaia va in Paradiso

Golpe por golpe (Marin Karmitz, 1972)

Adalen 31 / Las Huelgas de Adalen (Bo Widerberg, 1969)

En el nombre del hijo (Terry George 1996)

Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008)

Czlowiek z zelaza (El hombre de hierro) (Andrzej Wajda, 1981)

Dezertir (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1933 )

Aftenlandet (Peter Watkins, 1977)

El corazón de la tierra (Antonio Cuadri) http://www.imdb.es/title/tt0763839/

La Patagonia Rebelde (Héctor Olivera, 1974)

La noche de los lápices http://www.imdb.es/title/tt0193355/

Baara - El trabajo (Souleymane Cissé, 1978)

Tout va bien (J-L. Godard y J-P. G, 1972)

... y seguro que nos dejamos más en el camino. Aunque es bien sabido que la temática laboral está muy ninguneada en el cine.
¿Documentales no, verdad?


Salut

[alegre]

Hombre , los documentales pueden ser si cabe mas "autenticos", aunque con los tiempos quue corren, vaya usted a saber.

De todas formas no recuerdo que en la noche de los lapices se toque el tema, pero me has recordado "Los traidores" de Glayzer y esa amigo si que es importante: traicion de los lideres sindicales... etc etc

viewtopic.php?f=1002&t=23771&p=184632&h ... er#p184632

De palpitante actualidad, creo que el ministro de trabajo actual la recomendaría posiblemente como reflejo de una realidad que está ahí mismo

[V]

Me he cruzado con esto en el foro de KaraGarga:

Strike!
150 movies about workers and unions
https://forum.karagarga.net/index.php?showtopic=15622

Spoiler: mostrar

Stachka AKA Strike (1924), Sergei Eisenstein, 94 min.
Eisenstein's debut, and a silent classic. Stirring look at a 1912 clash between striking factory workers and Czarist troops.

The Passaic Textile Strike (1926), Samuel Russak, 70 min.
Feature produced to tell labor's side of the story in the bitter 1926 strike against wool mills in Passaic, New Jersey, The two-reel "Prologue", featuring real strikers in dramatic roles, serves as an introduction to actuality footage of union meetings, picket lines and rails.

Mat AKA Mother (1926), Vsevolod Pudovkin. 87 min.
The son of a worthless alcoholic father and a hardworking mother leads an illegal strike during the failed 1905 uprising. In an attempt to save her son, the mother inadvertently gives him away to the police, but
gradually turns to communism after experiencing injustice and suffering. Pudovkin's first feature turns Maxim Gorky's rambling novel into a tightly constructed narrative. The film's emotional and visual impact has not diminished with time, nor has Baranovskaya's performance.

Metropolis (1927), Fritz Lang, 118 min.
In the future, the society of Metropolis is divided in two social classes: the workers, who live in the underground below the machines level, and the dominant classes that lives in the surface. The workers are controlled by their leader Maria (Brigitte Helm), who wants to find a mediator between the upper class lords and the workers, since she believes that a heart would be necessary between brains and muscles. Maria meets Freder Fredersen (Gustav Fröhlich), the son of the Lord of Metropolis Johhan Fredersen (Alfred Abel), in a meeting of the workers, and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, Johhan decides that the workers are no longer necessary for Metropolis, and uses a robot pretending to be Maria to promote a revolution of the working class and eliminate them.

Konets Sankt-Peterburga AKA The End of St. Petersburg (1927), Vsevolod Pudovkin, 75 min.
A Russian peasant becomes a scab during a workers' strike in 1914. He is then forced to enlist in the army prior to the 1917 October Revolution. Fascinating, although propagandistic film commissioned by the then-new Soviet government. Silent.

Arsenal (1928), Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 73 min.
The film concerns an episode in the Russian Civil War in 1918 in which the Kiev Arsenal January Uprising of workers aided the besieging Bolshevik army against the Ukrainian nationalist Central Rada who held power within Kiev at the time. Regarded by film scholar Vance Kepley, Jr. as "one of the few Soviet political films which seems even to cast doubt on the morality of violent retribution", Dovzhenko's eye for wartime absurdities (for example, an attack on an empty trench) anticipates later pacifist sentiments in films by Jean Renoir and Stanley Kubrick.

Dynamite Denny (1932), Frank R. Strayer, 52 min.
When a railroad engineer refuses to participate in a strike, the union drops him and he loses his job.

Misère au Borinage AKA Borinage (1933), Joris Ivens, 34 min.
In 1933 Henri Storck, who was one of the leading figures of the Belgium film avant-garde, asked Joris Ivens to help him to make a film about the social consequences of the miners strike in the Borinage the year before. Arriving at this mine region Storck and Ivens forgot about aesthetics. In a sober style the film confronts the spectator with the misery of the miners; unemployed or exploited by the mine companies they were, with their families, expelled from their homes if they couldn't afford the rent. Ivens used the method of re-enactment to incorporate the miners strike of 1932 in the film.

Our Daily Bread (1934), King Vidor, 75 min.
John and Mary sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society based upon the teachings of Edward Gallafent. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.

Mills of the Gods (1934), Roy William Neill, 66 min. IMDb

Sons of Steel (1935), Charles Lamont, 65 min.
Two brothers, owners of a steel mill, lead vastly different lives. They raise their sons in their own images, causing problems.

Black Fury (1935), Michael Curtiz, 95 min.
A coal miner's efforts to protest working conditions earn him a beating by the company goons who also kill his friend. He draws national attention to this brutal plight of the workers when he barricades himself inside the mine. Muni's carefully detailed performance adds authenticity to this powerful drama, but it proved too depressing to command a big boxoffice.

The Proud Valley (1940), Pen Tennyson, 77 min.
Parry (Simon Lack) is in charge of the local miner's choir, and he hopes to win the national singing meet on the strength of David's vocal chordswhich, after an unexpected accident the pit is closed, throwing the whole village on to the dole. The miners march on London to urge the owners to reopen the colliery, but war is declared as they get there, and they agree to resume work in the national interest. There is a further underground disaster, and the newcomer to the community dies saving the lives of others. The prosperity that returns to the valley comes about as a consequence of war.

The Devil & Miss Jones (1941), Sam Wood, 90 min.
Engaging romantic comedy finds a big business boss posing as an ordinary salesclerk to weed out union organizers. He doesn't expect to encounter the wicked management or his beautiful co-worker, however.

The Valley of Decision (1945), Tay Garnett, 119 min.
The film, set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tells the story of a young house maid who falls in love with the son of the local steel mill owner. Their romance is endangered when her family, all steel mill workers, go on strike against his father.

Deadline For Action (1946) 40 min.
Influential union film arguing for political action through the ballot box. The film traces the story of an ex-serviceman who joins the picket line against his antilabor employer but also learns the importanc of fighting big business through democratic election.

Fame Is the Spur (1947), Roy Boulting, 116 min.
A lengthy but interesting look at the way power corrupts, plus an insight into the Conservative versus Labor dynamics of British government. Redgrave is a poor, idealistic worker who decides to help his fellow workers by running for Parliament. There, he falls prey to the trappings of office with surprising consequences. Look hard for Tomlinson, who went on to star in "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" for Disney.

Captain Boycott (1947), Frank Launder, 89 min.
Set in 1880s County Mayo, Ireland, Captain Boycott (Cecil Parker) is the tyrannical landowner who incurs the wrath of the local farmers when he begins to evict tenants unable to pay their inflated rent. Rather than retaliate with violence, Charles Parnell (Robert Donat), president of the Land League, suggests that everyone in the area ostracise Boycott and those willing to take over the property of recently evicted farmers. Boycott and his bailiff (Mervyn Johns) defy the proclamation by installing Mark Killian (Niall MacGinnis) and his daughter Anne (Kathleen Ryan) in a recently evicted farm. Farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) is in love with Anne and the locals question his desire for their cause given such a conflict of interest.

Chance of a Lifetime (1950), Bernard Miles, 89 min.
Story centers around the difficulties and conflicts between labor and management on a farm-implement factory in post-WWII England. Dickens, after being bombarded again by, Baxter, the leading grouser in the worker ranks, blurts out the wish that some of them had his job in order to realize how hard it is. Taking the remark as a challenge, the workers elect Stevens and Morris to assume the management role. For a short while, everything runs smoothly but the mistakes made by the new "management" team leads to the workers once again becoming disgruntled with management.

On the Waterfront (1954), Elia Kazan, 108 min.
A trend-setting, gritty portrait of New York dock workers embroiled in union violence. Cobb is the gangster union boss, Steiger his crooked lawyer, and Brando, Steiger's ex-fighter brother who "could've been a contender!"

Salt of the Earth (1954), Herbert Biberman, 94 min.
This controversial film was made by a group of blacklisted filmmakers during the McCarthy era. It was deemed anti-American, communist propaganda. The story deals with the anti-Hispanic racial strife that occurs in a New Mexico zinc mine when union workers organize a strike.

The Pajama Game (1957), Stanely Donen, George Abbott, 101 min.
A spritely musical about the striking workers of the Sleeptite Pajama Ffactory and their plucky negotiator, Katie (Day), who falls in love with the new foreman, Sid (Raitt). Based on the hit Broadway musical, which was based on Richard Bissell's book "Seven and a Half Cents" and adapted for the screen by Bisell and Abbott. Bob Fosse choreographed the dance numbers.

The Garment Jungle (1957), Vincent Sherman, 88 min.
Lee J. Cobb runs a dress manufacturing company. As the story begins, Cobb's pro-union partner "accidentally" falls to his death. A gangster (played by Richard Boone) is brought on board to try and prevent workers from organizing a union. Cobb's son (Kerwin Mathews) sees the deplorable "sweat shop" conditions of his father's business and befriends a union boss (Robert Loggia). When this man is brutally murdered, Cobb tries to distance himself from hired thug Boone, which leads to severe consequences.

Never Steal Anything Small (1959), Charles Lederer, 94 min.
A tough union boss pushes everyone as he battles the mob for control of the waterfront. A strange musical-drama combination that will be of interest only to the most ardent Cagney and Jones fans. Based on the Maxwell Anderson/Rouben Mamoulian play "The Devil's Hornpipe."

I'm All Right Jack (1959), John Boulting, 101 min.
Sellers plays a pompous communist union leader in this hilarious satire of worker-management relations. Based on Alan Hackney's novel "Private Life."

Harvest of Shame: Edward R. Murrow Collection (1960), Fred W. Friendly, 60 min.
CBS documentary report exposing the appalling living conditions of migrant workers in America.

The Angry Silence (1960), Guy Green, 95 min.
The story tells of a man's dilemma when he refused to participate in an unofficial strike, where he works. While vicious, calculated violence brings the other dissenters into line, he goes it alone and is sent to Coventry (given the silent treatment) by his fellow workers. A stirring, thought-provoking film that portrays the human problems and high emotions generated when a man dares to act on the courage of his convictions and dares fight to keep his individual freedom.

And Women Must Weep (1962) 26 min.
Antiunion film dramatizing a strike staged by the International Association of Machinists in Princeton, Indiana, in 1956-57. The film was based on a fictionalized pamphlet by Rev. Edward Greenfield, an anti-strike movement leader who worked as a propagandist for a right-to-work organization in California. And Women Must Weep was used to counter union organizing campaigns; in 1963, the National Labor Relations Board nullified a union representation election because the film was shown beforehand. The IAM answered with Anatomy of a Lie.

Anatomy of a Lie (1962) 19 min.
Refutation of the National Right to Work Committee's And Women Must Weep.

Arashi O Yobu Junachi Nin AKA 18 roughs (1963), Yoshishige Yoshia, 104 min.
A melodrama focusing on the marginal daylaborers hired to supplement unionized workers (a major scheme employed during Japan's postwar "economic miracle"), the narrative unfolds in the midst of periodic strikes by the unionized workers at a shipyard. A group of non-unionized young men (the "18 Roughs" of the awkward English international title) are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation, from without as well as from within their own ranks, during these cyclical strikes and shop closures. The film's messages about labor organization are complex and subtle. (Synopsis by depositio)

I Compagni AKA The Organizer (1964), Mario Monicelli, 127 min.
In 19th-century Turin, impoverished aristocratic professor Mastroianni unites a group of textile workers striking against unsafe working conditions. Italian with subtitles.

Adalen 31AKA ADalen Riots (1969), Bo Wideberg, 110 min.
Story of teenaged love juxtaposed with social upheaval in Adalen 31. The title refers to the 1931 worker's strike against the Adalen paper mill in Northern Sweden. As the strikers debate whether or not to use violence in pressing their complaint, the daughter of the factory owner (Marie De Geer) is impregnated by the son of a worker (Peter Schildt). The strike is "resolved" in a bloody confrontation between the laborers and government troops, resulting in the death of the boy--and, on a greater scale, the collapse of Sweden's Conservative Government.

Finally Got the News (1970), Stewart Bird, 55 min.
A look inside the automobile factories in Detroit through the eyes of black workers. Examines the Black Revolutionary Workers efforts to create a new union.

Brother John (1970), James Goldstons, 94 min.
An early look at racial tensions and labor problems. An angel goes back to his hometown in Alabama to see how things are going.

Molly Maguires (1970), Martin Ritt, 123 min.
Dramatization based on a true story, concerns a group of miners called the Molly Maguires who resort to using terrorist tactics in their fight for better working conditions during the Pennsylvania Irish coal mining rebellion in the 1870s. During their reign of terror, the Mollies are infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective who they mistakenly believe is a new recruit. It has its moments but never fully succeeds. Returned less than 15% of its initial $11 million investment.

I Am Somebody (1970), Icarus Films, 28 min.
Tells the story of 400 poorly paid black women-hospital workers in South Carolina, who went on strike in 1969 for 113 days to demand union recognition and increase in their hourly wage.

La Classe Operaia va in Paradiso AKA The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), Eilo Petri, 125 min.
Lulù is a real hard worker. For this reason he is loved by the masters and hated by his own colleagues. The unions decide agitations against the masters. Lulù doesn't agree till he cuts, by accident, one of his own fingers. Now, after he understood the worker's conditions, he agrees the unions and participates to the strike. He immediately is fired and, not only is abandoned by his lover, but also by the other workers. But the fights of the unions allow him under a new legislation to be hired again.

UMWA: 1970, a House Divided (1971) 14 min.
documentary about the United Mine Workers union (Produced by Appalshop Archives).

Boxcar Bertha (1972), Martin Scorsese, 90 min.
Scorsese's vivid portrayal of the South during the 1930s' Depression casts Hershey as a woman who winds up in cahoots with an anti-establishment train robber. Based on the book "Sister of the Road" by Boxcar Bertha Thomson.

Tout Va Bien (1972), Jean-Luc Godard, 95 min.
In the immediate aftermath of May ’68, Godard joined forces with young Gorin and other radicals to form the Dziga-Vertov Group, pursuing an extreme, sometimes dogmatic (and barely distributed) approach to political cinema. Everything Is Alright is a return to narrative, which is simultaneously a bitter and exuberant analysis of post-May ’68 France.

Moi y'en a vouloir des sous (1973), 107 min.
In this French comedy/satire, director Jean Yanne plays Benoit, an economist who sets out to prove that, with money, one can get away with doing almost anything. Fired from the company he works for, he persuades a relative who is an important union organizer to invest union funds in helping him take over a bicycle factory. When he makes a big success of that, he begins taking over other failing businesses and making successes of them. Then he starts to play with the power of money. One of his stunts is to set up a church with very unusual doctrines in order to please a friend

Ziemia Obicana AKA Land of Promise (1974), Andrzej Wajda, 178 min.
At the turn of the century three men build a textile factory in Lodz, Poland. They each represent a particular ethnic group: a Pole (Olbrychski), a German (Seweryn), and a Jew (Pszoniak). Class conflicts threaten to overwhelm as their overworked and underpaid workers plan a revolt. Based on the novel by Wladyslav Reymont.

La Patagonia Rebelde AKA Rebellion in Patagonia (1974), Hector Olivera, 107 min.
Latin American classic based on actual historical events involving the brutal military suppression of the 1920s strikes by rural workers in the southernmost province of Argentina.

Winstanley (1975), Kevin Brownlow, 119 min.
The film follows the life story of the 17th Century social reformer and writer Gerrard Winstanley, who, along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers tried to establish a self-sufficient farming community on common land at St. George's Hill near Cobham, Surrey. This was one of the world's first socialistic living experiments which was copied elsewhere in England during the time of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, but was quickly suppressed and in the end left only a legacy of ideas to inspire later generations of socialist theorists.

The Nightcleaners (1975), Marc Karlin, James Scott, 90 min.
"Night Cleaners" is set in the context of the campaign (1970-1972) to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner's Action Group and the Unions - and the complex nature of the campaign itself.

On est au coton AKA Cotton Mill, Treadmill (1976), Denys Arcand
a documentary about the abuses in the Quebec textile industry, which was officially banned for 6 years because of its allegedly biased point of view.

Union Maids (1976), Julia Reicher, James Klein 48 min.
Sitdowns, scabs, goon squads, hunger marches, red baiting, and the birth of the C.I.O. are chronicled in this look at union organizing in the 1930s.

The Displaced Person (1976), Glenn Jordan, 58 min.
In this television adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's story, the inhabitants of a 1940s Georgia farm find their lives disrupted by a Polish refugee family. The strong work ethic practiced by the foreigners makes their less-productive, if not lazy, neighbors regard them with caution and contempt. Well-crafted depiction of the prejudice faced by many immigrants aspiring to realize the American dream.

Harlan County U.S.A (1976), Barbara Kopple, 103 min.
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA

Czlowiek z Marmuru AKA Man of Marble (1976), Andrjez Weajda, 160 min.
A satire on life in post-WWII Poland. A young filmmaker sets out to tell the story of a bricklayer who, because of his exceptional skill, once gained popularity with other workers. He became a champion for worker rights, only to then find himself being persecuted by the government. The conclusion was censored by the Polish government. Highly acclaimed and followed by "Man of Iron" in 1981. In Polish with English subtitles.

Joyride (1977), Joseph Ruben, 91 min.
Mistreated by a union official, three friends steal a car for a joy ride and plummet into a life of crime.

Which Way Is Up? (1977), Michael A. Schultz, 94 min.
Pryor plays three roles in this story of an orange picker who accidentally becomes a union hero. He leaves his wife and family at home while he seeks work in Los Angeles. There he finds himself a new woman, starts a new family, and sells out to the capitalists. American version of the Italian comedy "The Seduction of Mimi" tries with mixed success for laughs. Pryor as a dirty old man is the high point.

Eugene Debs and the American Movement (1977), Margaret Lazaru, Renner Wunderlich, 43 min.
A biographical documentary on the 50-year career of the founder of the Socialist Party of America and one of the organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The Libertarians (1978), Lauro Escorel fiho, 29 min.
Examines Brazil's urban working class from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s.

La Voix de son maitre AKA His Master's Voice (1978), Gerard Mordillat & Nicolas Philibert
Really intriguing interview documentary about power, strikes, self-management, hierarchies, unions from Gerard Mordillat and Nicolas Philibert from 1978. Without any commentary the CEOs of large companies talk about these topics and you really get the change of management ideologies which is around at that time, the shift from fordism to postfordism gets very lucid through this. The starting point for Mordillat and Philibert is according to their own assertions inspired by foucouldian thought...


F.I.S.T (1978), Norman Jewison, 145 min.
A young truck driver turns union organizer for idealistic reasons, but finds himself teaming with gangsters to boost his cause. His rise to the top of the union comes at the cost of his integrity, as Stallone does a character resembling Jimmy Hoffa.

With Babies and Banners (1978) Lorraine Gray, Anne Bohlen, Lyn Goldfarb, 45 min.
A look at the Women's Emergency Brigade of 1937, the backbone of the General Motors sitdown stike which was the key to the success of the C.I.O's national drive for industrial unionism.

Our Health Is Not for Sale (1978), David Newman, Boyce Richardson, 26 min.
The struggle of Canadian workers to gain a voice in decisions which affect their health and safety on the job.

Blue Collar (1978), Paul Schrader, 114 min.
Funnyman Pryor (in one of his best film roles) offers most of the laughs in this very serious drama of how three Detroit auto assembly workers (Pryor, Kotto, and Keitel), feeling the strain of family life and inflation, hatch a plan to rob their corrupt union office only to stumble into a bigger crime that later costs them dearly. Schrader makes his directorial debut in this searing study of the working class and the robbing of the human spirit, which is made memorable by the strong performances of its three leads. Filmed entirely in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

North Dallas Forty (1979), Ted Kotcheff, 119 min.
Based on the novel by former Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, the film focuses on the labor abuses in pro-football. One of the best football movies ever made, it contains searing commentary and very good acting, although the plot is sometimes dropped behind the line of scrimmage.

Reflections: George Meany (1979), 52 min.
The story of the man who became the leader of the American labor movement, helping to bring about the formation of the AFL-CIO.

The Wobblies, (1979), Stewart Bird, 89 min.
Commemorates the Industrial Workers of the World (nicknamed The Wobblies), who travelled coast to coast from 1905 to WWI with the goal of organizing unskilled workers into "One Big Union."

Norma Rae (1979), Martin Ritt, 114 min.
A poor, uneducated textile worker joins forces with a New York labor organizer to unionize the reluctant workers at a Southern mill. Field was a surprise with her fully developed character's strength, beauty, and humor; her Oscar was well-deserved. Ritt's direction is top-notch. Jennifer Warnes sings the theme song, "It Goes Like It Goes," which also won an Oscar.

The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979), Mel Stuart, 100 min.
Based on the true-life Triangle factory fire at the turn of the century. The fire killed 145 garment workers and drastically changed industrial fire and safety codes.

Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists (1980), Steven Fischler, Joel Sucher, 60 min.
The film documents the contributions of Jewish anarchists to the fledgling U.S. labor movement and the developing Yiddish culture.

The $5.20 an Hour Dream (1980), Russ Mayberry, 96 min.
Lavin is a divorced mother and factory worker burdened with debt and determined to get and keep a job on the higher-paying, traditionally all-male assembly line. Lesser feminist drama on the heels of "Norma Rae."

Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Labor Struggle in the Post Office (1980), Tami Gold, Dan Gordon, Erike Lewis, 45 min.
On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers across the country walked off their jobs when their contract expired, saying "No" to mandatory overtime, forced speedups and hazardous working conditions. As a result of this wildcat strike, six hundred thousand postal workers won a better contract. But two hundred workers were arbitrarily fired by management to teach all postal workers a lesson.

Molders of Troy (1980), Barbara Brash, 59 min.
Set in the early days of the American Industrial Revolution, this docu-drama centers on Brian Duffy, an Irish immigrant who overcame ethnic pressures to organize Troy's Iron Molders Union into one of the strongest unions in the country.

Bread and Roses Too (1980), Ken Loach, 106 min.
Typical Loach political polemic--this time about union organizing of janitors (many of them illegals) in Los Angeles. Maya (Padilla) is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who's working for an office cleaning company. She meets union organizer Sam (Brody) who convinces Maya to join with him, even though she not only risks her job but deportation. Things go from bad to worse for Maya but Loach never takes the easy road and his characters are flawed human beings rather than mere symbols. English and Spanish with subtitles.

Czlowiek z Zelaza AKA Man of Iron (1981), Andrzej Wajda, 116 min.
Director Wajda's follow-up to "Man of Marble" deals with a reporter (Odania) who is expected to tow the government line when writing about the Gdansk shipyard strike of 1980. He meets the harassed laborer son (Radziwilowicz) of worker-hero Birkut, against whom Odania is expected to conduct a smear campaign, and finds his loyalties tested. In Polish with English subtitles.

Eles Nao Usam Blak Tie AKA They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981), Leon Hirszman, 122 min.
A large factory in Brazil is having problems with its workers and their union, just as the workers are having their problems with the factory bosses. In order to make their grievances heard, the workers decide to go out on strike against the plant. This action divides a family -- the son opts for working within the system and not joining the strikers, the father was the union organizer who got the strike together in the first place. His ideals are so strong that he had been jailed for them earlier. The strike is broken in the end, and the young man is vilified by his wife -- who leaves him, and by his father -- who disowns him, and by the other workers. As the father goes off to participate in a funeral of one of the strikers killed by the police, the son is left to ponder the consequences of his actions, and to reconsider whether he was completely justified in his stance.

Keeping On (1981), Barbara Kopple, 75 min.
A preacher, who is also a millworker, teams up with an organizer to try to unionize the mill. Originally produced for the PBS "American Playhouse" series.

Take This Job & Shove It (1981), Gus Trikonis, 100 min.
The Johnny Paycheck song inspired this story of a hot-shot efficiency expert who returns to his hometown to streamline the local brewery. Encounters with old pals inspire self-questioning. Alternately inspired and hackneyed. Cameos by Paycheck and other country stars.

Moonlighting (1982), Jerzy Skolimowski, 97 min.
Compelling drama about Polish laborers illegally hired to renovate London flat. When their country falls under martial law, the foreman conceals the event and pushes workers to complete project. Unlikely casting of Irons as foreman is utterly successful.

Linha de Montagem (1982), Renato Tapajos, 90 min.
Documentary about the strikes taking place in São Bernardo do Campo, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, circa 1979/1980. That moment was of utmost importance, since it revealed a Union leader, Luís Inácio "Lula" da Silva, who later was to become the President of Brazil. It was also the moment when PT, the Party of Workers became a relevant political force in Brazil.

Who Wants Unions (1982), Laura Alper, Laszlo Barna, 26 min.
Examines new management techniques which have led to a steady decline in unionization and an increase in the number of union-free work environments.

Labor in the Promised Land (1982), Tom Spain, 52 min.
Looks at the Houston Carpenters local 213 and their fight for acceptance in the Sunbelt states.

Une chambre en ville AKA A Room in Town (1982), Jacques Demy
http://karagarga.net...ls.php?id=62011
This melodramatic story is set in Nantes in 1955 and centers around the tragic life of a young steel worker who is out on strike and has rented a room from an upper-class widow, a woman in sympathy with the strikers, whose daughter is married to a wealthy merchant and is a part-time hooker.

Silkwood (1983), Mike Nichols, 131 min.
The story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a 1974 car crash under suspicious circumstances. She was a nuclear plant worker and activist who was investigating shoddy practices at the plant.

Questions of Leadership (1983), Ken Loach, 50 min.
Problems of democracy in trade unions.

John L. Lewis (1983), 24 min.
The career of coal mine union leader John L. Lewis is examined in this program.

Waterfront (1983), Chtis Thomson, 294 min.
Effective romantic drama set in Melbourne, Australia. Australian workers strike after taking forced pay cuts. As a result, Italian immigrants are hired as scabs to keep the docks going. Despite the tension, an Italian woman and an Australian man fall deeply in love, only to find that they must struggle to keep that love alive.

Shout Youngstown (1984), Carol Greenwald, 45 min.
The traumatic effects of plant closings on workers, families, and communities is examined in this documentary filmed in Youngstown, Ohio, where three major steel plants closed between 1976 and 1980.

Singleton's Pluck (1984), Richard Eyre, 89 min.
Touching British comedy about a determined farmer who must walk his 500 geese 100 miles to market because of a strike. He becomes a celebrity when the TV stations start covering his odyssey.

The Real Thing (1984), Peter Schnall, 36 min
When the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Guatemala City abruptly closed, supposedly because of bankruptcy, the plant's workers refused to leave. The worker's union occupied the plant for a year, bringing attention to the neglect of responsibilities by U.S. based multinationals.

The Last Pullman Car (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, Greg LeRoy, 56 min.
A historical analysis of the workers' struggle to save the last Pullman factory from closing, pitting union against industrial monopoly.

Killing Floor (1985), Bill Duke, 118 min.
During WWI, black sharecropper Frank Custer (Leake) travels to Chicago to get work in the stockyards and becomes a voice in the growing labor movement. The tensions in the factories lead to to bloody race riots of 1919.

You Got to Move (1985), Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver, 87 min.
A documentary about the people of Tennesee's legendary Highlander Folk School who have worked for union, civil, environmental and women's rights in the south.

Taylor Chain 1: A Story in a Union Local (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn, 33 min.
The true story of a full-scale workers' strike at an Indiana chain factory that lasted for seven weeks, with footage of union meetings, picket lines and worker interviews.

Taylor Chain 2: A Story of Collective Bargaining (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, 30 min.
A look at the still-tense contractual negoiation issue, after ten years, as the plant itself threatens to close.

Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985), Donald Brittain, 115 min.
True story of Banks, hired by the Canadian government to break up a strike among the communist-led seaman's union which had put a stranglehold on Canadian commerce, and who was eventually convicted of strong-arm tactics.

Act of Vengeance (1986), John MacKenzie, 97 min.
Drama about Jock Yablonski, a United Mine Workers official who challenged the president, Tony Boyle. Based on fact, showing the events that led up to the murder of Yablonski and his family. Intriguing story lacking cinematic drive.

Far from Poland (1986), Jill Godmilow, 106 min.
A self-inspective documentary by famed filmmaker Jill Godmilow about the Polish Solidarity movement and its effect on current Polish politics.

Friends and Enemies (1987), Tom Zubrycki, 88 min.
One thousand power workers went on strike against the South East Queensland Electrical Board (SEQEB)in February 1985 in protest against the introduction of contract worker hire. This documentary details the industrial relations dispute between the ensuing Joh Bjelke Peterson coalition government and the Electrical Trades Union in Queensland, Australia during 1985

How the West Wast Lost (1987), David Noakes, 72 min.
On 1 May 1946, 800 Aboriginal station workers walked off sheep stations in the north-west of Western Australia, marking the beginning of a carefully organised strike that was to last for at least three years, but never officially ended. Aboriginal people employed on sheep stations were governed by the Native Administration Act. The Act denied them freedom of movement in their original lands and made it illegal for them to leave station employment, employment which was determined by the local ‘native protector’ who was often the local policeman. Housing conditions were dreadful and food had to be bought out of meagre wages. Their status was that of slaves.

Matewan (1987), John Sayles, 130 min.
An acclaimed dramatization of the famous Matewan massacre in the 1920s, in which coal miners in West Virginia, reluctantly influenced by union organizer Joe Kenehan (Cooper), rebelled against terrible working conditions. Complex and imbued with myth, the film is a gritty, moving, and powerful drama with typically superb Sayles dialogue and Haskell Wexler's beautiful and poetic cinematography. Jones delivers an economical yet intense portrayal of the black leader of the miners. Sayles makes his usual onscreen appearance, this time as an establishment-backed reactionary minister. Partially based on the Sayles novel "Union Dues."

Radium City (1987), Carole Langer, 89 min.
A disturbing documentary about Ottawa, Illinois, where large chunks of the population have died of radiation-produced cancer, due to the large employment of a clock-making factory that required its mostly female staff to use, with no protection, radium-based paint. The film also emphasizes the bureaucratic snares confronted by the populace when it looked for retribution.

Fifth, Park & Madison (1987), Dragan Ilic, 45 min.
An informative report chronicling the dispute between NYC mayor Ed Koch and bike messengers across the city. See for yourself what happened when Koch decided to keep bicycles off the downtown streets.

Collision Course (1987), Alex Gibney, 45 min.
A documentary tracing the dramatic involvement of the employees of Eastern Airlines in the managerial structure of their company. The film examines the initial success of the program that allowed workers to trade wages for 25% stock ownership and four seats on the board of directors. The initial success and ultimate failure of the program provide a case study of do's and don'ts for those interested in labor-management relations.

Manufacturing Miracles (1987), David Halberstam, 35 min.
Documentary highlighting Mazda Motor Company's commitment to its workforce as a value-added resource, and how the strategy has paid off in the world market. An excellent picture of Japan's highly competitive system at work.

Final Offer (1987), Sturla Gunnnarsson, 79 min.
The historic 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation are documented in this film.

Love, Women and Flowers (Amor, Mujeres y Flores) (1988), Marta Rodriguez, 58 min.
The hazardous labor conditions for 60,000 women who work in the Columbian flower industry are shown.

Deadly Stranger (1988), Max Kleven, 93 min.
Fluegel's talents could have been put to much better use than as the selfish mistress of a plantation owner who is taking advantage of the migrant workers toiling on his land. Moore is a drifter and hired hand who rallies the workers to stand up to the owner.

End of the Line (1988), Jay Russell, 103 min.
Two old-time railroad workers steal a locomotive for a cross-country jaunt to protest the closing of the local railroad company. Produced by Steenburgen.

American Dream (1989), Barbara Kopple, 100 min.
Kopple's account of the Hormel labor strike, which devastated the small company town of Austin, Minnesota in the 1980s, makes a compelling documentary of big business versus worker demands. A mixture of interviews with major participants and location footage of the strikers and their families focuses also on the dispute between the local meatpackers and their parent union's lack of support and on the ultimately futile efforts of the union organizers.

In Her Chosen Field (1989), Barbara Evans, 28 min.
Examines the impact of women laborers to the Canadian agricultural economy and its survival. Includes comments from some of these women on today's agricultural and the challenges the face both economically and socially.

Mat AKA The Mother (1989). Gleb Panfilov, 189 min.
An adaptation of Gorky's novel Mother.

Roger & Me (1989), Michael Moore, 91 min.
A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.
Perestroika from Below (1990), Daniel J. Walkowitz, Barbara Abrash
Provides interviews with coal miners from Donetsk in the Ukraine who, in 1989, had just concluded the first mass labor strike in the USSR since the 1920s.

H-2 Worker (1990), Stephanie Black, 68 min.
Jamaican laborers obtain H-2 guestworker visas in order to work in Florida's sugar cane industry, where they are paid less than minimum wage and must survive under inadequate living and working conditions.

ABC da Greve (1990), Leon Hirszman, 85 min.
The movie demonstrates the metallurgics union strike of 1979, in the ABC of Sao Paulo, the first strike in which the workers took to the streets: a movement of 150 thousand metallurgics fighting for better salaries and life conditions. Without succeeding in their reclamations, they opt for the strike, in direct affront with the military government of the period. The government decides to respond by intervening directly in the metallurgic union. With a large police contingent, the government starts a major repressive operation. Without space as to perform their assemblies, the workers are sheltered by the church.

Chandler's Mill (1990), Joan Henson, 29 min.
Dramatization of the filth and degradation child and other laborers sometimes suffered at the hands of greedy capitalists a century ago in Canada. Appalling working conditions helped spawn the birth of the movement for organized labor. Previews available. Comes with teacher's guide.

The Return of Joe Hill (1990), Eric Scholl, 57 min.
Biography of early 1900s labor and union organizer, Joe Hill. Hill, a Swedish immigrant, contributed much to the early labor movement through such unlikely channels as songwriting and political cartoons. In 1915, he was executed in Utah, for a crime he may not have committed. Includes rare photgraphs, several of Hill's songs and political cartoons.

Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990), Uli Edel, 102 min.
Hubert Selby Jr.'s shocking book comes to the screen in a vivid film. Leigh gives a stunning performance as a young Brooklyn girl caught between the Mafia, union men, and friends struggling for something better. Set in the 1950s. Fine supporting cast; excellent pacing.

Roving Pickets (1991), Anne Johnson, 28 min.
Looks at coal miners in eastern Kentucky and the problems they faced during the 1950s and early '60s when their union contracts were cut to face rising costs.

Long Road Home (1991), John Korty, 88 min.
Migrant family must decide between working under inhumane conditions or risk losing everything by joining the labor movement during the depression.

On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike: 1919 (1991), Clare Johnstone Gilsig, Joseph MacDonald, 36 min.
Discusses the historical significance of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 in Canada. Contains contemporary photographs, stock film footage, and original footage.

Newsies (1992), Kenny Ortega, 121 min.
An unfortunate attempt at an old-fashioned musical with a lot of cute kids and cardboard characters and settings. The plot, such as it is, concerns the 1899 New York newsboys strike against penny-pinching publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Bale plays the newsboy's leader and at least shows some charisma in a strictly cartoon setting. The songs are mediocre but the dancing is lively. However, none of it moves the story along. Add a bone for viewers under 12. Choreographer Ortega's feature-film directorial debut.

Riff Raff (1992), Ken Loach, 96 min.
Unsparing black comedy about the British working class by director Loach. Ex-con Stevie comes to London from Scotland to look for work and escape his thieving past. He finds a nonunion job on a construction site, takes up squatter's rights in an abandoned apartment, and finds a girlfriend in equally struggling singer Susie, who turns out to be a junkie. Loach's characters deal with their unenviable lot in life through rough humor and honest sentiment.

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992), Alastair Reid, 111 min.
Presser followed Jimmy Hoffa as president of the Teamsters and was equally caught between the mob and the government as he tried to do what he considered best for the union.

Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union (1992), Berry Minnott, 58 min.
Sympathetic treatment of the first president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Covers his 40 year career and socialist ties. Includes archival footage and interviews. An informative slice of the rise of organized labor.

Hoffa (1992), Danny deVito, 140 min.
The story of union organizer James R. Hoffa, who oversaw the rise of the Teamsters, a labor union composed mostly of truck drivers, from its fledgling infancy during the Great Depression to a membership of two million by the 1970s. Powerful performances by Nicholson in the title role and DeVito, who plays a union aide, a fictitious composite of several men who actually served Hoffa. This almost affectionate biographical treatment stands out in contrast from a career bristling with tension and violence. Proceeds through a series of flashbacks from the day Hoffa disappeared, July 30, 1975.

Coal Wars: The Battle in Rum Creek (1992), Kathleen foster, 30 min.
This West Virginia coal mine was the site of a violent strike by the miners in 1990, who were protesting pension fund abuse by the management. Includes clips from the 1921 "coal wars." Program presents workers view of the conflict.

Daens (1992), Stijn Coninx, 134 min.
Looks at the disparity between rich and poor at the turn of the century. Daens, a priest, returns home to Flanders to find desperate poverty among the Flemish-speaking workers of the local textile mill. The French-speaking mill owners are supported by the local Catholic church while Daens believes in the rights of the workers. Decleir makes his priest a complex and troubled man, who must choose between his conscience and social reform and the dictates of his church. Marred by somewhat cardboard villains and a complex political/social situation that isn't adequately explained. Based on the novel by Louis Paul Boon. Flemish and French with English subtitles.

Mac (1993), John Turturro, 118 min.
It's a family affair. Immigrant carpenter's funeral is the starting point for the story of his three sons, construction workers who live in Queens, New York in the 1950s. The passionate bros battle, bitch, and build, with Turturro as the eldest summing up the prevailing philosophy: "It's the doing, that's the thing." Turturro's directorial debut is a labor of love and a tribute to his own dad. Filmed on location in New York City. Fine performances from newcomers Badalucco and Capotorto are complemented by smaller roles from Amos, Barkin, and Turturro's real-life wife Borowitz and brother Nick.

Germinal (1993), Claude Berri, 152 min.
In France of the 1870s, an unemployed machine-worker, Étienne Lantier, arrives at a coal mine desperate for work. He is given a job in the mine and is befriended by a miner named Maheu, who has a wife, Maheude, and seven children. When the mine’s owners decide to reduce the miners’ pay, the miners, prompted by Lantier, go on strike. Although the strike begins peacefully, passions are aroused when workers at a nearby pit go back to work and when the mine’s owners draft in Belgian workers. The strikers decide to vent their anger in an orgy of violence...

Down on the Waterfront (1993), Stacy Title, 27 min.
A mob-involved union boss demands that a couple of industrial filmmakers re-write a screenplay that negatively portrays the union.

The Burning Season (1994), John Frankenheimer, 123 min.
Chico Mendes is a a socialist union leader who fought to protect the homes and land of Brazilian peasants in the western Amazon rain forest. With Mendes' help the peasants form a union and struggle to prevent the building of a road that will provide easy access to forest land for speculators and cattlemen. Naturally, they are violently opposed by corruption-ridden capitalist powers in the government. Julia provides a haunting portrayal of the heroic figure who was assassinated in 1990. Based in part on the book by Andrew Revkin. Filmed on location in Mexico.

Justice in the Coalfields (1995), Anne Lewis, 57 min.
This documentary follows the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) strike against the Pittston Coal Company and explores the strike's social, cultural, and economic impact on coalfield communities.

Luisa Capetillo: Passion for Justice (1995), Sonia Fritz, 42 min.
Outlines the life and work of early 20th century feminist and labor organizer Luisa Capetillo. Focuses on the labor movement in Puerto Rico and Capetillo's involvement in this movement. Uses sepia toned photographs, old film footage, and live action re-creations.

A. Phillip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom (1996), Dante James, 86 min.
Chronicles the life of labor leader and civil rights activist A. Phillip Randolph.

Struggles in Steel: The Fight for Equal Opportunity (1996), Tony Buba, Raymond Henderson, 58 min.
This documentary tells the forgotten story of the African-American struggle for equality in the U.S. steel industry (based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). In a series of interviews intermixed with archival footage and stills, we learn how these workers faced and overcame discrimination that came from white workers, the big steel companies, and even from their own unions.

The Cradle Will Rock (1999), Tim Robbins, 132 min.
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 drama film which chronicles the process and events that surrounded the production of the original 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein. Tim Robbins, in his third film as director, adapts history to create this fictionalized account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce this commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the 1930s labor movement and the corresponding appeal of socialism and communism among many intellectuals and working class people of that time.

Oh Freedom After While (1999), Steven John Ross, 56 min.
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.

Dockers (1999), Bill Anderson
A film about the fall of the Liverpool dockers. Sold out by their employer and not backed up by their Trade Union.

Ressources humaines (1999), Laurent Cantet, 100 min.
With a diploma in business studies under his belt, 22-year old Franck returns to his home village, looking forward to a successful business career. He has been offered a placement job in the Human Resources department at the factory where his father has worked for the past 30 years. Franck’s new status as a trainee manager is at odds with his working class background and the strain soon begins to show. He is discouraged from fraternising with workers on the factory floor – even though they include his father and former school friends. Then he finds his job requires him to place the needs of the company above the needs of individual workers. Franck is encouraged when the management agrees to his idea to organise a questionnaire, to get the workers’ input into changes needed to implement the 35 hour week. However, he soon discovers that he is being used as a political tool by a management who see redundancies as the only solution. Shocked that his father is one of the workers to be dismissed, Franck takes matters into his own hands and precipitates industrial action. Far from being pleased with his son’s stand, Franck’s father is sickened by what he sees as a cruel betrayal of his aspirations.

Awaken (2000), George Ballis, 32 min.
Adventures of 5 union plumbers during the historic events to stop the WTO in Seattle.

Harlan County War (2000), Tony Bill, 104 min.
Ruby Kincaid (Hunter) is the wife of striking Kentucky coal miner Silas (Levine). After a court order severely restricts the union members' protests, Ruby leads the wives into action, even allowing her arrest to be used as propaganda by union rep Warren Jakopovich (Skarsgard) to her husband's dismay. Good lead performances, although the dramatic power of the story is subdued. Inspired by Barbara Kopple's 1976 documentary, "Harlan County, U.S.A."

Bread and Roses (2000), Ken Loach, 106 min.
Typical Loach political polemic--this time about union organizing of janitors (many of them illegals) in Los Angeles. Maya (Padilla) is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who's working for an office cleaning company. She meets union organizer Sam (Brody) who convinces Maya to join with him, even though she not only risks her job but deportation. Things go from bad to worse for Maya but Loach never takes the easy road and his characters are flawed human beings rather than mere symbols.

Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000), Vicky Funari, 70 min.
This documentary looks at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, customers' surreptitious video cameras, and no paid sick days or holidays, the dancers get help from the Service Employees International local and enter protracted bargaining with the union-busting law firm that management hires. We see the women work, sort out their demands, and go through the difficulties of bargaining. The narrator is Julia Query, a dancer and stand-up comedian who is reluctant to tell her mother, a physician who works with prostitutes, that she strips.

The Battle of Orgreave (2001), Mike Figgis & Jeremy Deller
In 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for over a year and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926, marking a turning point in the struggle between the government and the trade union movement. On the 18 June 1984 there occurred at the Orgreave coking plant one of the strike's most violent confrontations, begun in a field near to the plant and culminating in a cavalry charge through the village of Orgreave. Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave was a spectacular re-enactment of what happened on that day, orchestrated by Howard Giles, historical re-enactment expert and former director of English Heritage's event programme.

American Standoff (2002), Kristi Jacobson, 95 min.
The Teamster's Union goes on strike against Overnite Transportation, a nationwide freight company that has resisted unionization. The Union, however, faces its own internecine battles as factions inside the organization, one led by James P. Hoffa (son of the infamous Jimmy Hoffa), vie for power.

10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), Robert Townsend, 95 min. IMDb
synopsis: A dramatization of the true story of the formation of the first black-controlled union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Asa Philip Randolph, a black journalist establishes a voice for the forgotten workers of the Pullman Rail Company, where all black porters were simply named “George”, after George Pullman, the first person to employ emancipated slaves

The Take (2004), Avi Lewis & Naomi Klein, 87 min.
In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

Strajk - Die Heldin von Danzig AKA Strike (2006), Volker Schlondorff, 104 min.
The film follows the life of Agnieszka Kowalska (Katharina Thalbach) in about three segments covering first her life as a dedicated worker in communist Poland of the early Sixties (DVD chapters 1-4), then following events leading to the Polish 1970 protests (chapters 5-10), and finally the early Eighties including the dedication of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the Gdańsk Agreement, and Martial law in Poland.

Maquilapolis (2006), Vicky Funari & Sergio de la Torre, 68 min.
Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive factories often owned by the world's largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, where each day they confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos. In this lyrical documentary, the women reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change, taking on both the Mexican and U.S. governments and a major television manufacturer.

An American Tragedy (2007), Doug Meyer, 17 min.
In 1922 a nationwide coal mining strike occurs. David's family and the rest of Herrin, Illinois try to suffer through. But David's father is sick and he must find a way to help pay to take care of him. He does the unthinkable and crosses the picket line to take work as a scab at the local mine. But David soon discovers that his choice may have not been the safest one as the union and the rest of the town will stop at nothing to keep the mine from operating under scabs and breaking the strike. David has to decide what is stronger, loyalty or poverty? Based on actual events.

Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009) RenÈe Bergan & Mark Schuller, 52 min
The compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers give the global economy a human face. Each woman’s personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti: inhumane working/living conditions, violence, poverty, lack of education, and poor health care. While the film offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women’s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance demonstrates these are global struggles. Finally, through their collective activism, these women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.

La Huelga: The struggle of the UFW (2009), Alex Ivany, 18 min
The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the union movement he inspired.

Workers’ Republic (2009), Andrew Freund, 50 min
Three weeks before Christmas 2008, in the depths of the economic crisis, Chicago company Republic Windows and Doors told their workforce that the factory was closing shop. Republic executives complained about dwindling sales due to the crash of the housing market. Three days later, when the Republic employees came in to pick up their final paychecks, they were informed that they would not be paid for their final week or receive their accrued vacation pay. Their insurance benefits were cut immediately, and they were denied the 60-day severance guaranteed under the federal WARN Act. What those workers did next reverberated across the country, reminding the working class it possesses a power long forgotten. They occupied the doomed factory 24-hours a day for six days, declaring they would not leave until they were given what their employer owed them. For six days in December, the workers and their allies won over the public to their cause. Bank of America, who accepted over $25 billion in federal bailout money, was one of the culprits in the closing of the factory, and the details that eventually leaked out of their involvement shocked even the most ardently anti-corporate activists. This factored heavily into the outpouring of solidarity from all over the country.

[alegre]

Vaya. Ya se que puedo decir cuando me pregunten que me han traido los reyes.

(los de toda la vida , no los borbones xD)

Empiezo con Black Fury viewtopic.php?f=1002&t=67228&hilit=Black+Fury

[alegre]

Esta de hoy me impacto especialmente. ¿qué aspecto hubieran tenido los soviets en la america profunda de la gran depresion? King Vidor lo retrató magistralmente.

viewtopic.php?f=1002&t=68827&hilit=Our+Daily+Bread

Por cierto existe una version doblada en youtube.

[faradio]

Me he cruzado con esto en el foro de KaraGarga:

Strike!
150 movies about workers and unions
https://forum.karagarga.net/index.php?showtopic=15622

Spoiler: mostrar

Stachka AKA Strike (1924), Sergei Eisenstein, 94 min.
Eisenstein's debut, and a silent classic. Stirring look at a 1912 clash between striking factory workers and Czarist troops.

The Passaic Textile Strike (1926), Samuel Russak, 70 min.
Feature produced to tell labor's side of the story in the bitter 1926 strike against wool mills in Passaic, New Jersey, The two-reel "Prologue", featuring real strikers in dramatic roles, serves as an introduction to actuality footage of union meetings, picket lines and rails.

Mat AKA Mother (1926), Vsevolod Pudovkin. 87 min.
The son of a worthless alcoholic father and a hardworking mother leads an illegal strike during the failed 1905 uprising. In an attempt to save her son, the mother inadvertently gives him away to the police, but
gradually turns to communism after experiencing injustice and suffering. Pudovkin's first feature turns Maxim Gorky's rambling novel into a tightly constructed narrative. The film's emotional and visual impact has not diminished with time, nor has Baranovskaya's performance.

Metropolis (1927), Fritz Lang, 118 min.
In the future, the society of Metropolis is divided in two social classes: the workers, who live in the underground below the machines level, and the dominant classes that lives in the surface. The workers are controlled by their leader Maria (Brigitte Helm), who wants to find a mediator between the upper class lords and the workers, since she believes that a heart would be necessary between brains and muscles. Maria meets Freder Fredersen (Gustav Fröhlich), the son of the Lord of Metropolis Johhan Fredersen (Alfred Abel), in a meeting of the workers, and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, Johhan decides that the workers are no longer necessary for Metropolis, and uses a robot pretending to be Maria to promote a revolution of the working class and eliminate them.

Konets Sankt-Peterburga AKA The End of St. Petersburg (1927), Vsevolod Pudovkin, 75 min.
A Russian peasant becomes a scab during a workers' strike in 1914. He is then forced to enlist in the army prior to the 1917 October Revolution. Fascinating, although propagandistic film commissioned by the then-new Soviet government. Silent.

Arsenal (1928), Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 73 min.
The film concerns an episode in the Russian Civil War in 1918 in which the Kiev Arsenal January Uprising of workers aided the besieging Bolshevik army against the Ukrainian nationalist Central Rada who held power within Kiev at the time. Regarded by film scholar Vance Kepley, Jr. as "one of the few Soviet political films which seems even to cast doubt on the morality of violent retribution", Dovzhenko's eye for wartime absurdities (for example, an attack on an empty trench) anticipates later pacifist sentiments in films by Jean Renoir and Stanley Kubrick.

Dynamite Denny (1932), Frank R. Strayer, 52 min.
When a railroad engineer refuses to participate in a strike, the union drops him and he loses his job.

Misère au Borinage AKA Borinage (1933), Joris Ivens, 34 min.
In 1933 Henri Storck, who was one of the leading figures of the Belgium film avant-garde, asked Joris Ivens to help him to make a film about the social consequences of the miners strike in the Borinage the year before. Arriving at this mine region Storck and Ivens forgot about aesthetics. In a sober style the film confronts the spectator with the misery of the miners; unemployed or exploited by the mine companies they were, with their families, expelled from their homes if they couldn't afford the rent. Ivens used the method of re-enactment to incorporate the miners strike of 1932 in the film.

Our Daily Bread (1934), King Vidor, 75 min.
John and Mary sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society based upon the teachings of Edward Gallafent. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.

Mills of the Gods (1934), Roy William Neill, 66 min. IMDb

Sons of Steel (1935), Charles Lamont, 65 min.
Two brothers, owners of a steel mill, lead vastly different lives. They raise their sons in their own images, causing problems.

Black Fury (1935), Michael Curtiz, 95 min.
A coal miner's efforts to protest working conditions earn him a beating by the company goons who also kill his friend. He draws national attention to this brutal plight of the workers when he barricades himself inside the mine. Muni's carefully detailed performance adds authenticity to this powerful drama, but it proved too depressing to command a big boxoffice.

The Proud Valley (1940), Pen Tennyson, 77 min.
Parry (Simon Lack) is in charge of the local miner's choir, and he hopes to win the national singing meet on the strength of David's vocal chordswhich, after an unexpected accident the pit is closed, throwing the whole village on to the dole. The miners march on London to urge the owners to reopen the colliery, but war is declared as they get there, and they agree to resume work in the national interest. There is a further underground disaster, and the newcomer to the community dies saving the lives of others. The prosperity that returns to the valley comes about as a consequence of war.

The Devil & Miss Jones (1941), Sam Wood, 90 min.
Engaging romantic comedy finds a big business boss posing as an ordinary salesclerk to weed out union organizers. He doesn't expect to encounter the wicked management or his beautiful co-worker, however.

The Valley of Decision (1945), Tay Garnett, 119 min.
The film, set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tells the story of a young house maid who falls in love with the son of the local steel mill owner. Their romance is endangered when her family, all steel mill workers, go on strike against his father.

Deadline For Action (1946) 40 min.
Influential union film arguing for political action through the ballot box. The film traces the story of an ex-serviceman who joins the picket line against his antilabor employer but also learns the importanc of fighting big business through democratic election.

Fame Is the Spur (1947), Roy Boulting, 116 min.
A lengthy but interesting look at the way power corrupts, plus an insight into the Conservative versus Labor dynamics of British government. Redgrave is a poor, idealistic worker who decides to help his fellow workers by running for Parliament. There, he falls prey to the trappings of office with surprising consequences. Look hard for Tomlinson, who went on to star in "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" for Disney.

Captain Boycott (1947), Frank Launder, 89 min.
Set in 1880s County Mayo, Ireland, Captain Boycott (Cecil Parker) is the tyrannical landowner who incurs the wrath of the local farmers when he begins to evict tenants unable to pay their inflated rent. Rather than retaliate with violence, Charles Parnell (Robert Donat), president of the Land League, suggests that everyone in the area ostracise Boycott and those willing to take over the property of recently evicted farmers. Boycott and his bailiff (Mervyn Johns) defy the proclamation by installing Mark Killian (Niall MacGinnis) and his daughter Anne (Kathleen Ryan) in a recently evicted farm. Farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) is in love with Anne and the locals question his desire for their cause given such a conflict of interest.

Chance of a Lifetime (1950), Bernard Miles, 89 min.
Story centers around the difficulties and conflicts between labor and management on a farm-implement factory in post-WWII England. Dickens, after being bombarded again by, Baxter, the leading grouser in the worker ranks, blurts out the wish that some of them had his job in order to realize how hard it is. Taking the remark as a challenge, the workers elect Stevens and Morris to assume the management role. For a short while, everything runs smoothly but the mistakes made by the new "management" team leads to the workers once again becoming disgruntled with management.

On the Waterfront (1954), Elia Kazan, 108 min.
A trend-setting, gritty portrait of New York dock workers embroiled in union violence. Cobb is the gangster union boss, Steiger his crooked lawyer, and Brando, Steiger's ex-fighter brother who "could've been a contender!"

Salt of the Earth (1954), Herbert Biberman, 94 min.
This controversial film was made by a group of blacklisted filmmakers during the McCarthy era. It was deemed anti-American, communist propaganda. The story deals with the anti-Hispanic racial strife that occurs in a New Mexico zinc mine when union workers organize a strike.

The Pajama Game (1957), Stanely Donen, George Abbott, 101 min.
A spritely musical about the striking workers of the Sleeptite Pajama Ffactory and their plucky negotiator, Katie (Day), who falls in love with the new foreman, Sid (Raitt). Based on the hit Broadway musical, which was based on Richard Bissell's book "Seven and a Half Cents" and adapted for the screen by Bisell and Abbott. Bob Fosse choreographed the dance numbers.

The Garment Jungle (1957), Vincent Sherman, 88 min.
Lee J. Cobb runs a dress manufacturing company. As the story begins, Cobb's pro-union partner "accidentally" falls to his death. A gangster (played by Richard Boone) is brought on board to try and prevent workers from organizing a union. Cobb's son (Kerwin Mathews) sees the deplorable "sweat shop" conditions of his father's business and befriends a union boss (Robert Loggia). When this man is brutally murdered, Cobb tries to distance himself from hired thug Boone, which leads to severe consequences.

Never Steal Anything Small (1959), Charles Lederer, 94 min.
A tough union boss pushes everyone as he battles the mob for control of the waterfront. A strange musical-drama combination that will be of interest only to the most ardent Cagney and Jones fans. Based on the Maxwell Anderson/Rouben Mamoulian play "The Devil's Hornpipe."

I'm All Right Jack (1959), John Boulting, 101 min.
Sellers plays a pompous communist union leader in this hilarious satire of worker-management relations. Based on Alan Hackney's novel "Private Life."

Harvest of Shame: Edward R. Murrow Collection (1960), Fred W. Friendly, 60 min.
CBS documentary report exposing the appalling living conditions of migrant workers in America.

The Angry Silence (1960), Guy Green, 95 min.
The story tells of a man's dilemma when he refused to participate in an unofficial strike, where he works. While vicious, calculated violence brings the other dissenters into line, he goes it alone and is sent to Coventry (given the silent treatment) by his fellow workers. A stirring, thought-provoking film that portrays the human problems and high emotions generated when a man dares to act on the courage of his convictions and dares fight to keep his individual freedom.

And Women Must Weep (1962) 26 min.
Antiunion film dramatizing a strike staged by the International Association of Machinists in Princeton, Indiana, in 1956-57. The film was based on a fictionalized pamphlet by Rev. Edward Greenfield, an anti-strike movement leader who worked as a propagandist for a right-to-work organization in California. And Women Must Weep was used to counter union organizing campaigns; in 1963, the National Labor Relations Board nullified a union representation election because the film was shown beforehand. The IAM answered with Anatomy of a Lie.

Anatomy of a Lie (1962) 19 min.
Refutation of the National Right to Work Committee's And Women Must Weep.

Arashi O Yobu Junachi Nin AKA 18 roughs (1963), Yoshishige Yoshia, 104 min.
A melodrama focusing on the marginal daylaborers hired to supplement unionized workers (a major scheme employed during Japan's postwar "economic miracle"), the narrative unfolds in the midst of periodic strikes by the unionized workers at a shipyard. A group of non-unionized young men (the "18 Roughs" of the awkward English international title) are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation, from without as well as from within their own ranks, during these cyclical strikes and shop closures. The film's messages about labor organization are complex and subtle. (Synopsis by depositio)

I Compagni AKA The Organizer (1964), Mario Monicelli, 127 min.
In 19th-century Turin, impoverished aristocratic professor Mastroianni unites a group of textile workers striking against unsafe working conditions. Italian with subtitles.

Adalen 31AKA ADalen Riots (1969), Bo Wideberg, 110 min.
Story of teenaged love juxtaposed with social upheaval in Adalen 31. The title refers to the 1931 worker's strike against the Adalen paper mill in Northern Sweden. As the strikers debate whether or not to use violence in pressing their complaint, the daughter of the factory owner (Marie De Geer) is impregnated by the son of a worker (Peter Schildt). The strike is "resolved" in a bloody confrontation between the laborers and government troops, resulting in the death of the boy--and, on a greater scale, the collapse of Sweden's Conservative Government.

Finally Got the News (1970), Stewart Bird, 55 min.
A look inside the automobile factories in Detroit through the eyes of black workers. Examines the Black Revolutionary Workers efforts to create a new union.

Brother John (1970), James Goldstons, 94 min.
An early look at racial tensions and labor problems. An angel goes back to his hometown in Alabama to see how things are going.

Molly Maguires (1970), Martin Ritt, 123 min.
Dramatization based on a true story, concerns a group of miners called the Molly Maguires who resort to using terrorist tactics in their fight for better working conditions during the Pennsylvania Irish coal mining rebellion in the 1870s. During their reign of terror, the Mollies are infiltrated by a Pinkerton detective who they mistakenly believe is a new recruit. It has its moments but never fully succeeds. Returned less than 15% of its initial $11 million investment.

I Am Somebody (1970), Icarus Films, 28 min.
Tells the story of 400 poorly paid black women-hospital workers in South Carolina, who went on strike in 1969 for 113 days to demand union recognition and increase in their hourly wage.

La Classe Operaia va in Paradiso AKA The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), Eilo Petri, 125 min.
Lulù is a real hard worker. For this reason he is loved by the masters and hated by his own colleagues. The unions decide agitations against the masters. Lulù doesn't agree till he cuts, by accident, one of his own fingers. Now, after he understood the worker's conditions, he agrees the unions and participates to the strike. He immediately is fired and, not only is abandoned by his lover, but also by the other workers. But the fights of the unions allow him under a new legislation to be hired again.

UMWA: 1970, a House Divided (1971) 14 min.
documentary about the United Mine Workers union (Produced by Appalshop Archives).

Boxcar Bertha (1972), Martin Scorsese, 90 min.
Scorsese's vivid portrayal of the South during the 1930s' Depression casts Hershey as a woman who winds up in cahoots with an anti-establishment train robber. Based on the book "Sister of the Road" by Boxcar Bertha Thomson.

Tout Va Bien (1972), Jean-Luc Godard, 95 min.
In the immediate aftermath of May ’68, Godard joined forces with young Gorin and other radicals to form the Dziga-Vertov Group, pursuing an extreme, sometimes dogmatic (and barely distributed) approach to political cinema. Everything Is Alright is a return to narrative, which is simultaneously a bitter and exuberant analysis of post-May ’68 France.

Moi y'en a vouloir des sous (1973), 107 min.
In this French comedy/satire, director Jean Yanne plays Benoit, an economist who sets out to prove that, with money, one can get away with doing almost anything. Fired from the company he works for, he persuades a relative who is an important union organizer to invest union funds in helping him take over a bicycle factory. When he makes a big success of that, he begins taking over other failing businesses and making successes of them. Then he starts to play with the power of money. One of his stunts is to set up a church with very unusual doctrines in order to please a friend

Ziemia Obicana AKA Land of Promise (1974), Andrzej Wajda, 178 min.
At the turn of the century three men build a textile factory in Lodz, Poland. They each represent a particular ethnic group: a Pole (Olbrychski), a German (Seweryn), and a Jew (Pszoniak). Class conflicts threaten to overwhelm as their overworked and underpaid workers plan a revolt. Based on the novel by Wladyslav Reymont.

La Patagonia Rebelde AKA Rebellion in Patagonia (1974), Hector Olivera, 107 min.
Latin American classic based on actual historical events involving the brutal military suppression of the 1920s strikes by rural workers in the southernmost province of Argentina.

Winstanley (1975), Kevin Brownlow, 119 min.
The film follows the life story of the 17th Century social reformer and writer Gerrard Winstanley, who, along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers tried to establish a self-sufficient farming community on common land at St. George's Hill near Cobham, Surrey. This was one of the world's first socialistic living experiments which was copied elsewhere in England during the time of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, but was quickly suppressed and in the end left only a legacy of ideas to inspire later generations of socialist theorists.

The Nightcleaners (1975), Marc Karlin, James Scott, 90 min.
"Night Cleaners" is set in the context of the campaign (1970-1972) to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner's Action Group and the Unions - and the complex nature of the campaign itself.

On est au coton AKA Cotton Mill, Treadmill (1976), Denys Arcand
a documentary about the abuses in the Quebec textile industry, which was officially banned for 6 years because of its allegedly biased point of view.

Union Maids (1976), Julia Reicher, James Klein 48 min.
Sitdowns, scabs, goon squads, hunger marches, red baiting, and the birth of the C.I.O. are chronicled in this look at union organizing in the 1930s.

The Displaced Person (1976), Glenn Jordan, 58 min.
In this television adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's story, the inhabitants of a 1940s Georgia farm find their lives disrupted by a Polish refugee family. The strong work ethic practiced by the foreigners makes their less-productive, if not lazy, neighbors regard them with caution and contempt. Well-crafted depiction of the prejudice faced by many immigrants aspiring to realize the American dream.

Harlan County U.S.A (1976), Barbara Kopple, 103 min.
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA

Czlowiek z Marmuru AKA Man of Marble (1976), Andrjez Weajda, 160 min.
A satire on life in post-WWII Poland. A young filmmaker sets out to tell the story of a bricklayer who, because of his exceptional skill, once gained popularity with other workers. He became a champion for worker rights, only to then find himself being persecuted by the government. The conclusion was censored by the Polish government. Highly acclaimed and followed by "Man of Iron" in 1981. In Polish with English subtitles.

Joyride (1977), Joseph Ruben, 91 min.
Mistreated by a union official, three friends steal a car for a joy ride and plummet into a life of crime.

Which Way Is Up? (1977), Michael A. Schultz, 94 min.
Pryor plays three roles in this story of an orange picker who accidentally becomes a union hero. He leaves his wife and family at home while he seeks work in Los Angeles. There he finds himself a new woman, starts a new family, and sells out to the capitalists. American version of the Italian comedy "The Seduction of Mimi" tries with mixed success for laughs. Pryor as a dirty old man is the high point.

Eugene Debs and the American Movement (1977), Margaret Lazaru, Renner Wunderlich, 43 min.
A biographical documentary on the 50-year career of the founder of the Socialist Party of America and one of the organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The Libertarians (1978), Lauro Escorel fiho, 29 min.
Examines Brazil's urban working class from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s.

La Voix de son maitre AKA His Master's Voice (1978), Gerard Mordillat & Nicolas Philibert
Really intriguing interview documentary about power, strikes, self-management, hierarchies, unions from Gerard Mordillat and Nicolas Philibert from 1978. Without any commentary the CEOs of large companies talk about these topics and you really get the change of management ideologies which is around at that time, the shift from fordism to postfordism gets very lucid through this. The starting point for Mordillat and Philibert is according to their own assertions inspired by foucouldian thought...


F.I.S.T (1978), Norman Jewison, 145 min.
A young truck driver turns union organizer for idealistic reasons, but finds himself teaming with gangsters to boost his cause. His rise to the top of the union comes at the cost of his integrity, as Stallone does a character resembling Jimmy Hoffa.

With Babies and Banners (1978) Lorraine Gray, Anne Bohlen, Lyn Goldfarb, 45 min.
A look at the Women's Emergency Brigade of 1937, the backbone of the General Motors sitdown stike which was the key to the success of the C.I.O's national drive for industrial unionism.

Our Health Is Not for Sale (1978), David Newman, Boyce Richardson, 26 min.
The struggle of Canadian workers to gain a voice in decisions which affect their health and safety on the job.

Blue Collar (1978), Paul Schrader, 114 min.
Funnyman Pryor (in one of his best film roles) offers most of the laughs in this very serious drama of how three Detroit auto assembly workers (Pryor, Kotto, and Keitel), feeling the strain of family life and inflation, hatch a plan to rob their corrupt union office only to stumble into a bigger crime that later costs them dearly. Schrader makes his directorial debut in this searing study of the working class and the robbing of the human spirit, which is made memorable by the strong performances of its three leads. Filmed entirely in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

North Dallas Forty (1979), Ted Kotcheff, 119 min.
Based on the novel by former Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, the film focuses on the labor abuses in pro-football. One of the best football movies ever made, it contains searing commentary and very good acting, although the plot is sometimes dropped behind the line of scrimmage.

Reflections: George Meany (1979), 52 min.
The story of the man who became the leader of the American labor movement, helping to bring about the formation of the AFL-CIO.

The Wobblies, (1979), Stewart Bird, 89 min.
Commemorates the Industrial Workers of the World (nicknamed The Wobblies), who travelled coast to coast from 1905 to WWI with the goal of organizing unskilled workers into "One Big Union."

Norma Rae (1979), Martin Ritt, 114 min.
A poor, uneducated textile worker joins forces with a New York labor organizer to unionize the reluctant workers at a Southern mill. Field was a surprise with her fully developed character's strength, beauty, and humor; her Oscar was well-deserved. Ritt's direction is top-notch. Jennifer Warnes sings the theme song, "It Goes Like It Goes," which also won an Oscar.

The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979), Mel Stuart, 100 min.
Based on the true-life Triangle factory fire at the turn of the century. The fire killed 145 garment workers and drastically changed industrial fire and safety codes.

Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists (1980), Steven Fischler, Joel Sucher, 60 min.
The film documents the contributions of Jewish anarchists to the fledgling U.S. labor movement and the developing Yiddish culture.

The $5.20 an Hour Dream (1980), Russ Mayberry, 96 min.
Lavin is a divorced mother and factory worker burdened with debt and determined to get and keep a job on the higher-paying, traditionally all-male assembly line. Lesser feminist drama on the heels of "Norma Rae."

Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Labor Struggle in the Post Office (1980), Tami Gold, Dan Gordon, Erike Lewis, 45 min.
On July 21, 1978 thousands of postal workers across the country walked off their jobs when their contract expired, saying "No" to mandatory overtime, forced speedups and hazardous working conditions. As a result of this wildcat strike, six hundred thousand postal workers won a better contract. But two hundred workers were arbitrarily fired by management to teach all postal workers a lesson.

Molders of Troy (1980), Barbara Brash, 59 min.
Set in the early days of the American Industrial Revolution, this docu-drama centers on Brian Duffy, an Irish immigrant who overcame ethnic pressures to organize Troy's Iron Molders Union into one of the strongest unions in the country.

Bread and Roses Too (1980), Ken Loach, 106 min.
Typical Loach political polemic--this time about union organizing of janitors (many of them illegals) in Los Angeles. Maya (Padilla) is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who's working for an office cleaning company. She meets union organizer Sam (Brody) who convinces Maya to join with him, even though she not only risks her job but deportation. Things go from bad to worse for Maya but Loach never takes the easy road and his characters are flawed human beings rather than mere symbols. English and Spanish with subtitles.

Czlowiek z Zelaza AKA Man of Iron (1981), Andrzej Wajda, 116 min.
Director Wajda's follow-up to "Man of Marble" deals with a reporter (Odania) who is expected to tow the government line when writing about the Gdansk shipyard strike of 1980. He meets the harassed laborer son (Radziwilowicz) of worker-hero Birkut, against whom Odania is expected to conduct a smear campaign, and finds his loyalties tested. In Polish with English subtitles.

Eles Nao Usam Blak Tie AKA They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981), Leon Hirszman, 122 min.
A large factory in Brazil is having problems with its workers and their union, just as the workers are having their problems with the factory bosses. In order to make their grievances heard, the workers decide to go out on strike against the plant. This action divides a family -- the son opts for working within the system and not joining the strikers, the father was the union organizer who got the strike together in the first place. His ideals are so strong that he had been jailed for them earlier. The strike is broken in the end, and the young man is vilified by his wife -- who leaves him, and by his father -- who disowns him, and by the other workers. As the father goes off to participate in a funeral of one of the strikers killed by the police, the son is left to ponder the consequences of his actions, and to reconsider whether he was completely justified in his stance.

Keeping On (1981), Barbara Kopple, 75 min.
A preacher, who is also a millworker, teams up with an organizer to try to unionize the mill. Originally produced for the PBS "American Playhouse" series.

Take This Job & Shove It (1981), Gus Trikonis, 100 min.
The Johnny Paycheck song inspired this story of a hot-shot efficiency expert who returns to his hometown to streamline the local brewery. Encounters with old pals inspire self-questioning. Alternately inspired and hackneyed. Cameos by Paycheck and other country stars.

Moonlighting (1982), Jerzy Skolimowski, 97 min.
Compelling drama about Polish laborers illegally hired to renovate London flat. When their country falls under martial law, the foreman conceals the event and pushes workers to complete project. Unlikely casting of Irons as foreman is utterly successful.

Linha de Montagem (1982), Renato Tapajos, 90 min.
Documentary about the strikes taking place in São Bernardo do Campo, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, circa 1979/1980. That moment was of utmost importance, since it revealed a Union leader, Luís Inácio "Lula" da Silva, who later was to become the President of Brazil. It was also the moment when PT, the Party of Workers became a relevant political force in Brazil.

Who Wants Unions (1982), Laura Alper, Laszlo Barna, 26 min.
Examines new management techniques which have led to a steady decline in unionization and an increase in the number of union-free work environments.

Labor in the Promised Land (1982), Tom Spain, 52 min.
Looks at the Houston Carpenters local 213 and their fight for acceptance in the Sunbelt states.

Une chambre en ville AKA A Room in Town (1982), Jacques Demy
http://karagarga.net...ls.php?id=62011
This melodramatic story is set in Nantes in 1955 and centers around the tragic life of a young steel worker who is out on strike and has rented a room from an upper-class widow, a woman in sympathy with the strikers, whose daughter is married to a wealthy merchant and is a part-time hooker.

Silkwood (1983), Mike Nichols, 131 min.
The story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a 1974 car crash under suspicious circumstances. She was a nuclear plant worker and activist who was investigating shoddy practices at the plant.

Questions of Leadership (1983), Ken Loach, 50 min.
Problems of democracy in trade unions.

John L. Lewis (1983), 24 min.
The career of coal mine union leader John L. Lewis is examined in this program.

Waterfront (1983), Chtis Thomson, 294 min.
Effective romantic drama set in Melbourne, Australia. Australian workers strike after taking forced pay cuts. As a result, Italian immigrants are hired as scabs to keep the docks going. Despite the tension, an Italian woman and an Australian man fall deeply in love, only to find that they must struggle to keep that love alive.

Shout Youngstown (1984), Carol Greenwald, 45 min.
The traumatic effects of plant closings on workers, families, and communities is examined in this documentary filmed in Youngstown, Ohio, where three major steel plants closed between 1976 and 1980.

Singleton's Pluck (1984), Richard Eyre, 89 min.
Touching British comedy about a determined farmer who must walk his 500 geese 100 miles to market because of a strike. He becomes a celebrity when the TV stations start covering his odyssey.

The Real Thing (1984), Peter Schnall, 36 min
When the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Guatemala City abruptly closed, supposedly because of bankruptcy, the plant's workers refused to leave. The worker's union occupied the plant for a year, bringing attention to the neglect of responsibilities by U.S. based multinationals.

The Last Pullman Car (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, Greg LeRoy, 56 min.
A historical analysis of the workers' struggle to save the last Pullman factory from closing, pitting union against industrial monopoly.

Killing Floor (1985), Bill Duke, 118 min.
During WWI, black sharecropper Frank Custer (Leake) travels to Chicago to get work in the stockyards and becomes a voice in the growing labor movement. The tensions in the factories lead to to bloody race riots of 1919.

You Got to Move (1985), Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver, 87 min.
A documentary about the people of Tennesee's legendary Highlander Folk School who have worked for union, civil, environmental and women's rights in the south.

Taylor Chain 1: A Story in a Union Local (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn, 33 min.
The true story of a full-scale workers' strike at an Indiana chain factory that lasted for seven weeks, with footage of union meetings, picket lines and worker interviews.

Taylor Chain 2: A Story of Collective Bargaining (1985), Jerry Blumenthal, 30 min.
A look at the still-tense contractual negoiation issue, after ten years, as the plant itself threatens to close.

Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985), Donald Brittain, 115 min.
True story of Banks, hired by the Canadian government to break up a strike among the communist-led seaman's union which had put a stranglehold on Canadian commerce, and who was eventually convicted of strong-arm tactics.

Act of Vengeance (1986), John MacKenzie, 97 min.
Drama about Jock Yablonski, a United Mine Workers official who challenged the president, Tony Boyle. Based on fact, showing the events that led up to the murder of Yablonski and his family. Intriguing story lacking cinematic drive.

Far from Poland (1986), Jill Godmilow, 106 min.
A self-inspective documentary by famed filmmaker Jill Godmilow about the Polish Solidarity movement and its effect on current Polish politics.

Friends and Enemies (1987), Tom Zubrycki, 88 min.
One thousand power workers went on strike against the South East Queensland Electrical Board (SEQEB)in February 1985 in protest against the introduction of contract worker hire. This documentary details the industrial relations dispute between the ensuing Joh Bjelke Peterson coalition government and the Electrical Trades Union in Queensland, Australia during 1985

How the West Wast Lost (1987), David Noakes, 72 min.
On 1 May 1946, 800 Aboriginal station workers walked off sheep stations in the north-west of Western Australia, marking the beginning of a carefully organised strike that was to last for at least three years, but never officially ended. Aboriginal people employed on sheep stations were governed by the Native Administration Act. The Act denied them freedom of movement in their original lands and made it illegal for them to leave station employment, employment which was determined by the local ‘native protector’ who was often the local policeman. Housing conditions were dreadful and food had to be bought out of meagre wages. Their status was that of slaves.

Matewan (1987), John Sayles, 130 min.
An acclaimed dramatization of the famous Matewan massacre in the 1920s, in which coal miners in West Virginia, reluctantly influenced by union organizer Joe Kenehan (Cooper), rebelled against terrible working conditions. Complex and imbued with myth, the film is a gritty, moving, and powerful drama with typically superb Sayles dialogue and Haskell Wexler's beautiful and poetic cinematography. Jones delivers an economical yet intense portrayal of the black leader of the miners. Sayles makes his usual onscreen appearance, this time as an establishment-backed reactionary minister. Partially based on the Sayles novel "Union Dues."

Radium City (1987), Carole Langer, 89 min.
A disturbing documentary about Ottawa, Illinois, where large chunks of the population have died of radiation-produced cancer, due to the large employment of a clock-making factory that required its mostly female staff to use, with no protection, radium-based paint. The film also emphasizes the bureaucratic snares confronted by the populace when it looked for retribution.

Fifth, Park & Madison (1987), Dragan Ilic, 45 min.
An informative report chronicling the dispute between NYC mayor Ed Koch and bike messengers across the city. See for yourself what happened when Koch decided to keep bicycles off the downtown streets.

Collision Course (1987), Alex Gibney, 45 min.
A documentary tracing the dramatic involvement of the employees of Eastern Airlines in the managerial structure of their company. The film examines the initial success of the program that allowed workers to trade wages for 25% stock ownership and four seats on the board of directors. The initial success and ultimate failure of the program provide a case study of do's and don'ts for those interested in labor-management relations.

Manufacturing Miracles (1987), David Halberstam, 35 min.
Documentary highlighting Mazda Motor Company's commitment to its workforce as a value-added resource, and how the strategy has paid off in the world market. An excellent picture of Japan's highly competitive system at work.

Final Offer (1987), Sturla Gunnnarsson, 79 min.
The historic 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation are documented in this film.

Love, Women and Flowers (Amor, Mujeres y Flores) (1988), Marta Rodriguez, 58 min.
The hazardous labor conditions for 60,000 women who work in the Columbian flower industry are shown.

Deadly Stranger (1988), Max Kleven, 93 min.
Fluegel's talents could have been put to much better use than as the selfish mistress of a plantation owner who is taking advantage of the migrant workers toiling on his land. Moore is a drifter and hired hand who rallies the workers to stand up to the owner.

End of the Line (1988), Jay Russell, 103 min.
Two old-time railroad workers steal a locomotive for a cross-country jaunt to protest the closing of the local railroad company. Produced by Steenburgen.

American Dream (1989), Barbara Kopple, 100 min.
Kopple's account of the Hormel labor strike, which devastated the small company town of Austin, Minnesota in the 1980s, makes a compelling documentary of big business versus worker demands. A mixture of interviews with major participants and location footage of the strikers and their families focuses also on the dispute between the local meatpackers and their parent union's lack of support and on the ultimately futile efforts of the union organizers.

In Her Chosen Field (1989), Barbara Evans, 28 min.
Examines the impact of women laborers to the Canadian agricultural economy and its survival. Includes comments from some of these women on today's agricultural and the challenges the face both economically and socially.

Mat AKA The Mother (1989). Gleb Panfilov, 189 min.
An adaptation of Gorky's novel Mother.

Roger & Me (1989), Michael Moore, 91 min.
A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.
Perestroika from Below (1990), Daniel J. Walkowitz, Barbara Abrash
Provides interviews with coal miners from Donetsk in the Ukraine who, in 1989, had just concluded the first mass labor strike in the USSR since the 1920s.

H-2 Worker (1990), Stephanie Black, 68 min.
Jamaican laborers obtain H-2 guestworker visas in order to work in Florida's sugar cane industry, where they are paid less than minimum wage and must survive under inadequate living and working conditions.

ABC da Greve (1990), Leon Hirszman, 85 min.
The movie demonstrates the metallurgics union strike of 1979, in the ABC of Sao Paulo, the first strike in which the workers took to the streets: a movement of 150 thousand metallurgics fighting for better salaries and life conditions. Without succeeding in their reclamations, they opt for the strike, in direct affront with the military government of the period. The government decides to respond by intervening directly in the metallurgic union. With a large police contingent, the government starts a major repressive operation. Without space as to perform their assemblies, the workers are sheltered by the church.

Chandler's Mill (1990), Joan Henson, 29 min.
Dramatization of the filth and degradation child and other laborers sometimes suffered at the hands of greedy capitalists a century ago in Canada. Appalling working conditions helped spawn the birth of the movement for organized labor. Previews available. Comes with teacher's guide.

The Return of Joe Hill (1990), Eric Scholl, 57 min.
Biography of early 1900s labor and union organizer, Joe Hill. Hill, a Swedish immigrant, contributed much to the early labor movement through such unlikely channels as songwriting and political cartoons. In 1915, he was executed in Utah, for a crime he may not have committed. Includes rare photgraphs, several of Hill's songs and political cartoons.

Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990), Uli Edel, 102 min.
Hubert Selby Jr.'s shocking book comes to the screen in a vivid film. Leigh gives a stunning performance as a young Brooklyn girl caught between the Mafia, union men, and friends struggling for something better. Set in the 1950s. Fine supporting cast; excellent pacing.

Roving Pickets (1991), Anne Johnson, 28 min.
Looks at coal miners in eastern Kentucky and the problems they faced during the 1950s and early '60s when their union contracts were cut to face rising costs.

Long Road Home (1991), John Korty, 88 min.
Migrant family must decide between working under inhumane conditions or risk losing everything by joining the labor movement during the depression.

On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike: 1919 (1991), Clare Johnstone Gilsig, Joseph MacDonald, 36 min.
Discusses the historical significance of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 in Canada. Contains contemporary photographs, stock film footage, and original footage.

Newsies (1992), Kenny Ortega, 121 min.
An unfortunate attempt at an old-fashioned musical with a lot of cute kids and cardboard characters and settings. The plot, such as it is, concerns the 1899 New York newsboys strike against penny-pinching publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Bale plays the newsboy's leader and at least shows some charisma in a strictly cartoon setting. The songs are mediocre but the dancing is lively. However, none of it moves the story along. Add a bone for viewers under 12. Choreographer Ortega's feature-film directorial debut.

Riff Raff (1992), Ken Loach, 96 min.
Unsparing black comedy about the British working class by director Loach. Ex-con Stevie comes to London from Scotland to look for work and escape his thieving past. He finds a nonunion job on a construction site, takes up squatter's rights in an abandoned apartment, and finds a girlfriend in equally struggling singer Susie, who turns out to be a junkie. Loach's characters deal with their unenviable lot in life through rough humor and honest sentiment.

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992), Alastair Reid, 111 min.
Presser followed Jimmy Hoffa as president of the Teamsters and was equally caught between the mob and the government as he tried to do what he considered best for the union.

Harry Bridges: A Man and His Union (1992), Berry Minnott, 58 min.
Sympathetic treatment of the first president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Covers his 40 year career and socialist ties. Includes archival footage and interviews. An informative slice of the rise of organized labor.

Hoffa (1992), Danny deVito, 140 min.
The story of union organizer James R. Hoffa, who oversaw the rise of the Teamsters, a labor union composed mostly of truck drivers, from its fledgling infancy during the Great Depression to a membership of two million by the 1970s. Powerful performances by Nicholson in the title role and DeVito, who plays a union aide, a fictitious composite of several men who actually served Hoffa. This almost affectionate biographical treatment stands out in contrast from a career bristling with tension and violence. Proceeds through a series of flashbacks from the day Hoffa disappeared, July 30, 1975.

Coal Wars: The Battle in Rum Creek (1992), Kathleen foster, 30 min.
This West Virginia coal mine was the site of a violent strike by the miners in 1990, who were protesting pension fund abuse by the management. Includes clips from the 1921 "coal wars." Program presents workers view of the conflict.

Daens (1992), Stijn Coninx, 134 min.
Looks at the disparity between rich and poor at the turn of the century. Daens, a priest, returns home to Flanders to find desperate poverty among the Flemish-speaking workers of the local textile mill. The French-speaking mill owners are supported by the local Catholic church while Daens believes in the rights of the workers. Decleir makes his priest a complex and troubled man, who must choose between his conscience and social reform and the dictates of his church. Marred by somewhat cardboard villains and a complex political/social situation that isn't adequately explained. Based on the novel by Louis Paul Boon. Flemish and French with English subtitles.

Mac (1993), John Turturro, 118 min.
It's a family affair. Immigrant carpenter's funeral is the starting point for the story of his three sons, construction workers who live in Queens, New York in the 1950s. The passionate bros battle, bitch, and build, with Turturro as the eldest summing up the prevailing philosophy: "It's the doing, that's the thing." Turturro's directorial debut is a labor of love and a tribute to his own dad. Filmed on location in New York City. Fine performances from newcomers Badalucco and Capotorto are complemented by smaller roles from Amos, Barkin, and Turturro's real-life wife Borowitz and brother Nick.

Germinal (1993), Claude Berri, 152 min.
In France of the 1870s, an unemployed machine-worker, Étienne Lantier, arrives at a coal mine desperate for work. He is given a job in the mine and is befriended by a miner named Maheu, who has a wife, Maheude, and seven children. When the mine’s owners decide to reduce the miners’ pay, the miners, prompted by Lantier, go on strike. Although the strike begins peacefully, passions are aroused when workers at a nearby pit go back to work and when the mine’s owners draft in Belgian workers. The strikers decide to vent their anger in an orgy of violence...

Down on the Waterfront (1993), Stacy Title, 27 min.
A mob-involved union boss demands that a couple of industrial filmmakers re-write a screenplay that negatively portrays the union.

The Burning Season (1994), John Frankenheimer, 123 min.
Chico Mendes is a a socialist union leader who fought to protect the homes and land of Brazilian peasants in the western Amazon rain forest. With Mendes' help the peasants form a union and struggle to prevent the building of a road that will provide easy access to forest land for speculators and cattlemen. Naturally, they are violently opposed by corruption-ridden capitalist powers in the government. Julia provides a haunting portrayal of the heroic figure who was assassinated in 1990. Based in part on the book by Andrew Revkin. Filmed on location in Mexico.

Justice in the Coalfields (1995), Anne Lewis, 57 min.
This documentary follows the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) strike against the Pittston Coal Company and explores the strike's social, cultural, and economic impact on coalfield communities.

Luisa Capetillo: Passion for Justice (1995), Sonia Fritz, 42 min.
Outlines the life and work of early 20th century feminist and labor organizer Luisa Capetillo. Focuses on the labor movement in Puerto Rico and Capetillo's involvement in this movement. Uses sepia toned photographs, old film footage, and live action re-creations.

A. Phillip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom (1996), Dante James, 86 min.
Chronicles the life of labor leader and civil rights activist A. Phillip Randolph.

Struggles in Steel: The Fight for Equal Opportunity (1996), Tony Buba, Raymond Henderson, 58 min.
This documentary tells the forgotten story of the African-American struggle for equality in the U.S. steel industry (based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). In a series of interviews intermixed with archival footage and stills, we learn how these workers faced and overcame discrimination that came from white workers, the big steel companies, and even from their own unions.

The Cradle Will Rock (1999), Tim Robbins, 132 min.
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 drama film which chronicles the process and events that surrounded the production of the original 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein. Tim Robbins, in his third film as director, adapts history to create this fictionalized account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce this commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the 1930s labor movement and the corresponding appeal of socialism and communism among many intellectuals and working class people of that time.

Oh Freedom After While (1999), Steven John Ross, 56 min.
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.

Dockers (1999), Bill Anderson
A film about the fall of the Liverpool dockers. Sold out by their employer and not backed up by their Trade Union.

Ressources humaines (1999), Laurent Cantet, 100 min.
With a diploma in business studies under his belt, 22-year old Franck returns to his home village, looking forward to a successful business career. He has been offered a placement job in the Human Resources department at the factory where his father has worked for the past 30 years. Franck’s new status as a trainee manager is at odds with his working class background and the strain soon begins to show. He is discouraged from fraternising with workers on the factory floor – even though they include his father and former school friends. Then he finds his job requires him to place the needs of the company above the needs of individual workers. Franck is encouraged when the management agrees to his idea to organise a questionnaire, to get the workers’ input into changes needed to implement the 35 hour week. However, he soon discovers that he is being used as a political tool by a management who see redundancies as the only solution. Shocked that his father is one of the workers to be dismissed, Franck takes matters into his own hands and precipitates industrial action. Far from being pleased with his son’s stand, Franck’s father is sickened by what he sees as a cruel betrayal of his aspirations.

Awaken (2000), George Ballis, 32 min.
Adventures of 5 union plumbers during the historic events to stop the WTO in Seattle.

Harlan County War (2000), Tony Bill, 104 min.
Ruby Kincaid (Hunter) is the wife of striking Kentucky coal miner Silas (Levine). After a court order severely restricts the union members' protests, Ruby leads the wives into action, even allowing her arrest to be used as propaganda by union rep Warren Jakopovich (Skarsgard) to her husband's dismay. Good lead performances, although the dramatic power of the story is subdued. Inspired by Barbara Kopple's 1976 documentary, "Harlan County, U.S.A."

Bread and Roses (2000), Ken Loach, 106 min.
Typical Loach political polemic--this time about union organizing of janitors (many of them illegals) in Los Angeles. Maya (Padilla) is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who's working for an office cleaning company. She meets union organizer Sam (Brody) who convinces Maya to join with him, even though she not only risks her job but deportation. Things go from bad to worse for Maya but Loach never takes the easy road and his characters are flawed human beings rather than mere symbols.

Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000), Vicky Funari, 70 min.
This documentary looks at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, customers' surreptitious video cameras, and no paid sick days or holidays, the dancers get help from the Service Employees International local and enter protracted bargaining with the union-busting law firm that management hires. We see the women work, sort out their demands, and go through the difficulties of bargaining. The narrator is Julia Query, a dancer and stand-up comedian who is reluctant to tell her mother, a physician who works with prostitutes, that she strips.

The Battle of Orgreave (2001), Mike Figgis & Jeremy Deller
In 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for over a year and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926, marking a turning point in the struggle between the government and the trade union movement. On the 18 June 1984 there occurred at the Orgreave coking plant one of the strike's most violent confrontations, begun in a field near to the plant and culminating in a cavalry charge through the village of Orgreave. Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave was a spectacular re-enactment of what happened on that day, orchestrated by Howard Giles, historical re-enactment expert and former director of English Heritage's event programme.

American Standoff (2002), Kristi Jacobson, 95 min.
The Teamster's Union goes on strike against Overnite Transportation, a nationwide freight company that has resisted unionization. The Union, however, faces its own internecine battles as factions inside the organization, one led by James P. Hoffa (son of the infamous Jimmy Hoffa), vie for power.

10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), Robert Townsend, 95 min. IMDb
synopsis: A dramatization of the true story of the formation of the first black-controlled union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Asa Philip Randolph, a black journalist establishes a voice for the forgotten workers of the Pullman Rail Company, where all black porters were simply named “George”, after George Pullman, the first person to employ emancipated slaves

The Take (2004), Avi Lewis & Naomi Klein, 87 min.
In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

Strajk - Die Heldin von Danzig AKA Strike (2006), Volker Schlondorff, 104 min.
The film follows the life of Agnieszka Kowalska (Katharina Thalbach) in about three segments covering first her life as a dedicated worker in communist Poland of the early Sixties (DVD chapters 1-4), then following events leading to the Polish 1970 protests (chapters 5-10), and finally the early Eighties including the dedication of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970, the Gdańsk Agreement, and Martial law in Poland.

Maquilapolis (2006), Vicky Funari & Sergio de la Torre, 68 min.
Just over the border in Mexico is an area peppered with maquiladoras: massive factories often owned by the world's largest multinational corporations. Carmen and Lourdes work at maquiladoras in Tijuana, where each day they confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos. In this lyrical documentary, the women reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change, taking on both the Mexican and U.S. governments and a major television manufacturer.

An American Tragedy (2007), Doug Meyer, 17 min.
In 1922 a nationwide coal mining strike occurs. David's family and the rest of Herrin, Illinois try to suffer through. But David's father is sick and he must find a way to help pay to take care of him. He does the unthinkable and crosses the picket line to take work as a scab at the local mine. But David soon discovers that his choice may have not been the safest one as the union and the rest of the town will stop at nothing to keep the mine from operating under scabs and breaking the strike. David has to decide what is stronger, loyalty or poverty? Based on actual events.

Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009) RenÈe Bergan & Mark Schuller, 52 min
The compelling lives of five courageous Haitian women workers give the global economy a human face. Each woman’s personal story explains neoliberal globalization, how it is gendered, and how it impacts Haiti: inhumane working/living conditions, violence, poverty, lack of education, and poor health care. While the film offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women’s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance demonstrates these are global struggles. Finally, through their collective activism, these women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.

La Huelga: The struggle of the UFW (2009), Alex Ivany, 18 min
The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the union movement he inspired.

Workers’ Republic (2009), Andrew Freund, 50 min
Three weeks before Christmas 2008, in the depths of the economic crisis, Chicago company Republic Windows and Doors told their workforce that the factory was closing shop. Republic executives complained about dwindling sales due to the crash of the housing market. Three days later, when the Republic employees came in to pick up their final paychecks, they were informed that they would not be paid for their final week or receive their accrued vacation pay. Their insurance benefits were cut immediately, and they were denied the 60-day severance guaranteed under the federal WARN Act. What those workers did next reverberated across the country, reminding the working class it possesses a power long forgotten. They occupied the doomed factory 24-hours a day for six days, declaring they would not leave until they were given what their employer owed them. For six days in December, the workers and their allies won over the public to their cause. Bank of America, who accepted over $25 billion in federal bailout money, was one of the culprits in the closing of the factory, and the details that eventually leaked out of their involvement shocked even the most ardently anti-corporate activists. This factored heavily into the outpouring of solidarity from all over the country.

Gracias V por traerla aquí. Arrolladora.

Esta de hoy me impacto especialmente. ¿qué aspecto hubieran tenido los soviets en la america profunda de la gran depresion? King Vidor lo retrató magistralmente.

viewtopic.php?f=1002&t=68827&hilit=Our+Daily+Bread

Por cierto existe una version doblada en youtube.

Si señor, una obra maestra. Por cierto a Karen Morley la persiguió y hundió la carrera el HUAC, pero ¿ y a King Vidor? ¿Es la ambigüedad de su obra?