Videos on Class, Race, and Ethnicity

The battle of Local 5668 c2008

Shawn Bennett, Kevin Jones, and Cinema Guild

How a small labor dispute at the Ravenswood Aluminum Plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia erupted into a national boycott and media campaign that changed the way unions deal with management. Told by the men and women who were directly involved in the dispute, The Battle of Local 5668 meticulously documents one of the most important labor battles of the 20th century. 1 videodisc (54 min.)

MEDIA 10-1412

 

Cocalero c2007

Alejandro Landes, Julia Solomonoff, Fall Line Films (Firm), and Cinema Guild

A documentary centered on the union formed by Bolivian farmers in response to their government's effort to eradicate coca crops, and the man who would come to represent them, Evo Morales. 1 videodisc (97 min.)

MEDIA 10-1156

 

Colombia flowers for the gringo 2010

Ruth Meehan, Peadar King, KMF Productions, Raidió Teilifķs Éireann, and Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm)

"This program goes inside the world of Colombia's flower growers, in particular those who work the hardest for the lowest pay. Profiling two women with varying experiences, the film reveals both the tenuous nature of life on the industry's bottom rung ... and the occasional ray of hope ... The program also features a union activist fighting an uphill battle to improve worker conditions"--Container. 1 videodisc (25 min.)

MEDIA 10-4388

 

Daughters of free men 2006?

Kate Pfordresher, Joshua Brown, Stephen Brier, and American Social History Project

In this dramatized narrative illustrated with photographs and illustrations from nineteenth century books and periodicals, young Lucy Hall describes the working conditions at the Merrimack Textile Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1830's and leads the young women in a strike when conditions and wages become intolerable. 1 videodisc (27 min.) :

MEDIA 10-3205

 

Heaven will protect the working girl 2006

Pennee Bender, Joshua Brown, Andrea Ades Vasquez, Stephen Brier, and American Social History Project

"The dramatic story of the "Uprising of the 20,000," the 1909 shirtwaist strike, is told through vignettes that explore immigrant women's lives in turn-of-the-century New York. The experiences of young Jewish and Italian working women address subjects including immigration, intergenerational conflict, "romance," ethnic tensions, industrial conflict, and the creation of a new consumer and entertainment culture"--Container. 1 videodisc (28 min.) :

MEDIA 10-3207

 

I am somebody 199-?

Madeline Anderson, Moe Foner, American Foundation on Nonviolence, and First Run/Icarus Films

Focuses on the strike by Black, predominantly female, hospital workers in Charleston, S.C., in 1969. Shows how the struggle was won by a coalition of union and civil rights groups. Highlights Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy, and Walter Reuther speaking and working in defense of the workers. 1 videodisc (30 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2608

 

Ina Mae Best 1993

Charlene Gilbert and  Newsreel (Firm)

Story of Ina Mae Best, who was a textile worker at Goldtex, a textile factory in Goldsboro, North Carolina, for 18 years. Explains how she became a union leader at the plant. Includes interviews with Ina Mae, her co-workers, and Ashaki Binta of the Black Workers for Justice organization. 1 videodisc (25 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2537

 

Live nude girls unite! 2000

Julia Query, John Montoya, and Vicky Funari

Follows Julia Query, a peepshow stripper, on her journey to help organize the first strippers' union in the United States. 1 videocassette (71 min.)

MEDIA 2-5901, 10-228

 

Mean things happening 1993

In the American democracy of the 1930's two visions of liberty collided as working men and women battled landowners and factory managers for the right to join a union. On the tenant farms and in the steel favtories working peoplw asserted their citizenship in the midst of great economic turmoil and a tide of government reform. 1 videocassette (60 min.)

MEDIA. MEDIA 10-3549 10-3550

 

Poletown lives! 2011?

George L Corsetti, Jeanie Wylie, Julie Beutel, and Information Factory, Inc

Documentary that tells, from the residents' point of view, the story of Poletown, an inner-city Detroit neighborhood that was destroyed in 1981 when the city used its power of eminent domain to turn the land over to General Motors for construction of a Cadillac plant. Shows the changes in attitudes as the people realized that the institutions they trusted -- the courts, the United Auto Workers, the church, the City Council, and the media -- were not going to help them. 1 videodisc (53 min.) :

MEDIA 10-3138

 

The red tail 2009

Dawn Mikkelson, Melissa Koch, and Emergence Pictures

At age 58, Roy Koch was looking forward to his hard-earned retirement from Northwest Airlines. Northwest, known as "The Red Tail" by its employees, wanted to lay off 53% of their mechanics, custodians and cleaners and outsource their jobs. What followed was a 444 day strike that would end with 4,000 union members out of work. Instead of being left in the wake of this "losing battle", Roy and his daughter Melissa (Director of "The Red Tail") follow the outsourced jobs to Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, the Koch family not only meets Roy's replacement, but learns that workers there are also being threatened with the outsourcing of jobs to Xiamen, China. They follow Roy's job to Xiamen where they discover that the journey doesn't stop there. "The Red Tail" is a search for human solidarity and dignity amidst the ugliness of our current global economic system. 1 videodisc ( 86 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2428

 

Union maids 2010?

The story of three women who were part of the Rank and File Labor Movement during the tumultuous 1930s. Their lives were like many other young working women, but unlike their fellows, these three rose to the demands of their time and became militant organizers for their class. 1 videodisc (51 min.)

MEDIA 10-4992

 

The uprising of '34 2011

George C Stoney, Judith Helfand, Susanne Rostock, Vera Rony, Peter Miller, Research Consortium for the Southside Textile Strike of 1934, Hard Times Productions, and Documentary Educational Resources (Firm)

This films tells the story of the General Strike of 1934, a massive but little-known strike by hundreds of thousands of southern textile workers. After three weeks the strike was stopped, the strikers denied jobs. Sixty years later this strike is virtually unknown, and union representation in the South still suspect. DVD includes "Honea Path Remembers" (13 mins., 2008). 1 videodisc (88 min.) :

MEDIA 10-3625

 

10,000 black men named George 2003

Michelle Mundy, Cyrus Nowrasteh, Robert Townsend , Andre Braugher, Karen Eyo, Charles S Dutton, Mario Van Peebles, Ardon Bess, Carla Brothers , Kedar Brown, Amanda Brugel, Joel Gordon, Fredrick McKissack, Dufferin Gate Productions (Firm), Paramount Television, and Paramount Pictures Corporation

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. 1 videodisc (95 min.)

DANA 58

 

The battle of Local 5668 c2008

Shawn Bennett, Kevin Jones, and Cinema Guild 

How a small labor dispute at the Ravenswood Aluminum Plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia erupted into a national boycott and media campaign that changed the way unions deal with management. Told by the men and women who were directly involved in the dispute, The Battle of Local 5668 meticulously documents one of the most important labor battles of the 20th century. 1 videodisc (54 min.)

MEDIA 10-1412

 

Cocalero c2007

Alejandro Landes, Julia Solomonoff, Fall Line Films (Firm), and Cinema Guild

A documentary centered on the union formed by Bolivian farmers in response to their government's effort to eradicate coca crops, and the man who would come to represent them, Evo Morales. 1 videodisc (97 min.)

MEDIA 10-1156

 

The fight in the fields Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers' struggle 2003

Ray Telles, Rick Tejada-Flores, Henry Darrow, Paradigm Productions, Independent Television Service, and Cinema Guild

The story of Cesar Chavez, founder of the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Examines the grape and lettuce boycotts and the non-violent movements of the 1960s and 1970s. 1 videocassette (116 min.)

MEDIA 2-7153

 

Finally got the news-- 2003?

Stewart Bird, League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Black Star Productions, and First Run/Icarus Films

A documentary presenting the workers' view of working conditions inside Detroit's auto factories. It focuses on the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in their efforts to build an independent African American labor organization. 1 videocassette (58 min.)

MEDIA 2-7673

 

I am somebody 199-?

Madeline Anderson, Moe Foner, American Foundation on Nonviolence, and First Run/Icarus Films

Focuses on the strike by Black, predominantly female, hospital workers in Charleston, S.C., in 1969. Shows how the struggle was won by a coalition of union and civil rights groups. Highlights Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy, and Walter Reuther speaking and working in defense of the workers. 1 videodisc (30 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2608

 

Ina Mae Best 1993

Charlene Gilbert and Newsreel (Firm)

Story of Ina Mae Best, who was a textile worker at Goldtex, a textile factory in Goldsboro, North Carolina, for 18 years. Explains how she became a union leader at the plant. Includes interviews with Ina Mae, her co-workers, and Ashaki Binta of the Black Workers for Justice organization. 1 videodisc (25 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2537

 

Live nude girls unite! 2000

Julia Query, John Montoya, and Vicky Funari

Follows Julia Query, a peepshow stripper, on her journey to help organize the first strippers' union in the United States. 1 videocassette (71 min.)

MEDIA 2-5901, 10-228

 

Made in Thailand c1999

Eve-Laure Moros, Linzy Emery, and Women Make Movies (Firm)

A documentary about women factory workers in Thailand and their struggle to organize unions. 1 videocassette (33 min.)

MEDIA 2-7215

 

Norma Rae 1996, 1979

Martin Ritt, Tamara Asseyev, Alex Rose, Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Sally Field, Ron Leibman, Beau Bridges, Pat Hingle, and Barbara Baxley

A poor Southern textile worker with a disreputable past, who courageously supports the Northern union organizer in a final successful attempt to unionize the last major non-union textile factory in the South. 1 videocassette (117 min.)

MEDIA 2-3637

 

Organizing America the history of trade unions c2003

Kyle Boyd, Susan Pointon, Michael Martin, Joseph W Powell, Joe William Trotter, Rex Hardesty, Ken Sullivan, Maurine Weiner Greenwald, J. Davitt McAteer, Cambridge Research Group, Ltd, and Cambridge Educational (Firm)

Broadly tracing American labor history, this program incorporates interviews, personal accounts, and archival footage to provide a fresh perspective on the history of labor issues including health and safety conditions, the minimum wage, discrimation, job security and strikes. It presents the struggle of American labor against the backdrop of major events that shaped American society as a whole: world wars, the industrial revolution, immigration, unemployment, class conflict, child labor, women in the workplace, civil rights and the emergence of high technology. 1 videodisc (38 min.) :

SMLR 38

 

The red tail 2009

Dawn Mikkelson, Melissa Koch, and Emergence Pictures

At age 58, Roy Koch was looking forward to his hard-earned retirement from Northwest Airlines. Northwest, known as "The Red Tail" by its employees, wanted to lay off 53% of their mechanics, custodians and cleaners and outsource their jobs. What followed was a 444 day strike that would end with 4,000 union members out of work. Instead of being left in the wake of this "losing battle", Roy and his daughter Melissa (Director of "The Red Tail") follow the outsourced jobs to Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, the Koch family not only meets Roy's replacement, but learns that workers there are also being threatened with the outsourcing of jobs to Xiamen, China. They follow Roy's job to Xiamen where they discover that the journey doesn't stop there. "The Red Tail" is a search for human solidarity and dignity amidst the ugliness of our current global economic system. 1 videodisc ( 86 min.) :

MEDIA 10-2428

 

Salt of the earth 1987

H. J Biberman

Semi-documentary covering the events of a bitter, year-long strike of Mexican-American zinc miners in New Mexico. Shot on location in 1953 by a group of blacklisted filmmakers and a largely nonprofessional cast. 1 videocassette (94 min.)

MEDIA. MEDIA  SMLR 2-479 2-3284          32

 

Struggling unions 2002

Henry Bass, Sue Bass, John Lisanti, and Merrimack Films

Are unions now an endangered social institution? Or can unions revive? This video examines this question by reporting on a new generation of leaders struggling to reform and revitalize their unions. 1 videocassette (35 min.)

MEDIA 2-7418

 

Troubled partnerships when labor & management can't make it work c1999

Henry Bass, Sue Bass, Sid Levin, and Merrimack Films

Examines crises and failures in labor-management partnerships. Includes case studies of two companies, Bridgestone and Polaroid, one unionized, the other not. 1 videocassette (35 min.)

MEDIA 2-7417

 

The Wobblies c2006

Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer, Roger N Baldwin, Center for Educational Productions, Docurama (Firm), and New Video Group

Incorporating interviews and archival footage, The Wobblies presents the story of the Industrial Workers of the World (or I.W.W.), which in the early 20th century managed to organize various categories of unskilled worker into a single monolithic union and changed the course of labor history by, among other achievements, facilitating the eight-hour work day and fair wages. 1 videodisc (89 min.)

SMLR. SMLR 29 30

 

Ŕ bientot, jéspčre Be seeing you 2003?

Chris Marker, Mario Marret, S.L.O.N. (France : Firm), and First Run/Icarus Films

From 1967 to 1976 Chris Marker was a member of SLON (the "Company for the Launching of New Works"), which was based on the idea that cinema should not be thought of solely in terms of commerce. 1967 was also the year an important strike broke out at Rhodiaceta, a textile plant in Besançon, France. Chris Marker and members of SLON visited the city to document the strike and the lives and attitudes of the workers. 1 videocassette (39 min.)

MEDIA 2-6903