A Time To Rise(1981)

Northern Minnesota's Labor Wars(en)

Filmmaker Gary Kaunonen of KCC-TV in International Falls just released a new documentary about a pivotal time in Northern Minnesota’s labor history. It’s called “Northern Minnesota’s Labor Wars.” The years 1916 and 1917 brought major labor uprisings in the mines of the Mesabi Iron Range and the lumber camps of the state’s far northern pine forests. These events not only shaped local history, but became vital turning points in the national and international labor movement.

Railroad Man(en)

The story of the railroad man in his role in keeping the trains moving on the rails.

The Seafarers(en)

Stanley Kubrick’s first color film, commissioned by the Seafarers International Union to promote the benefits of union membership. Shot inside the union’s Atlantic and Gulf Coast District facilities, it features scenes of ships, machinery, cafeteria life, and meetings, highlighting the daily routines and camaraderie of seafarers. Thought lost for decades, the film was rediscovered in 1973 and preserved by the Library of Congress.

Audrey of the Alps(en)

The personal story of a young woman in her early 20's who escapes societies expectations and becomes a sheepherder for a summer season.

L'acte de la beauté(fr)

Harlan County U.S.A.(en)

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's 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. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

Bananas!*(en)

Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?

Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO(en)

1999 documentary film, first broadcast in daily half-hour installments, about the November 1999 protests against the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington.

80.000 Schnitzel(de)

Battering, breading, frying – Berta has prepared thousands of schnitzels in her old cast-iron pan over the years. This 83-year-old landlady’s life on the family farm with adjoining guest house in the Upper Palatinate has been marked by constant hard work. A life that her granddaughters Monika and Hannah never wanted to lead. Now, the deeply indebted farm is on the brink of collapse. Despite having an academic background and contrary to her intentions, Monika, in her early thirties, decides to give up her modern life and save the family business. The two women join forces and give themselves a year to sort out the farm’s problems.

Behind The Swoosh(en)

Have you ever wondered what it is like to live on a Nike sweatshop wage? Watch the award-winning short film, Behind the Swoosh, and see Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu attempt to survive on a Nike worker’s wage in the industrial slums of Indonesia.

Goodwin’s Way(en)

Goodwin's Way is a 1-hr. documentary exploring a British Columbia town's resistance to a coal-powered future 100 years after the killing of controversial local labour activist Ginger Goodwin.

Alt for Norge(en)

This is a humouristic viewpoint upon Norways history the last 100 years - Since the end of the union with Sweden in 1905. A Guide through Norways history the last 100 years.

Live Nude Girls Unite!(en)

Documentary look 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 Finland Phenomenon(en)

Finland’s education system has consistently ranked among the best in the world for more than a decade. The puzzle is, why Finland? Documentary filmmaker, Bob Compton, along with Harvard researcher, Dr. Tony Wagner, decided to find out. The result of their research is captured in a new film, "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System". In the 60-minute film, Dr. Wagner guides the viewer through an inside look at the world’s finest secondary education system. A life-long educator and author of the best-selling book "The Global Achievement Gap," Dr. Wagner is uniquely qualified to explore and explain Finland’s success. From within classrooms and through interviews with students, teachers, parents, administrators and government officials, Dr. Wagner reveals the surprising factors accounting for Finland’s rank as the #1 education system in the world.

Farrebique, or the Four Seasons(fr)

Farrebique, the first feature-length effort of French documentary filmmaker Georges Rouqier, is widely regarded as his finest film. Rouqier concentrates on a single French farm family, following them through the four seasons. As in the works of Robert Flaherty, the human characters and the land surrounding them are "one", and Rouqier never misses an opportunity to parallel their lives with the eons-old phases of nature. The final symbolic images of Spring, achieved through time-lapse photography, are almost unbearably beautiful. The winner of several festival awards, Farrebique nonetheless did not immediately result in an outpouring of financing for Rouqier's follow-up films (this was a common problem in the financially strapped French film industry of the 1940s). Perhaps as a result, Rouqier did not make his sequel, Biquefarre (filmed in the same region, with some of the same "actors"), until 1983.

Common Cause: The Story of the Operation Solidarity Coalition(en)

A documentary telling the story of the 1983 Solidarity strike in “British Columbia,” a key point in the introduction of neoliberal economic policy in the province.

Harvest of Shame(en)

In this CBS News production broadcast on Thanksgiving 1960, Edward R. Murrow points out the plight of migrant farm workers in America. Topics range from the harsh living conditions, endless travel, low wages, and poor opportunities for their children.

Sacrifice paysan(fr)

On May 20, 2017, Jérôme Laronze, a 37-year-old cattle farmer, was shot dead by gendarmes at the end of a nine-day run. In conflict with government services, the organic farmer, spokesman for the Confédération paysanne de Saône-et-Loire, had evaded yet another health inspection and, during his escape, had tried to alert people to the malaise in his profession. The news of his death came as a bombshell in a farming world already plunged into mourning by a wave of suicides. How did it come to this? While their incomes depend almost exclusively on European subsidies - which favor large farms - farmers must, in return, comply with very strict standards.

The Songs of Rice(th)

In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.

Toxification(pa)

India's prosperous Green Revolution was led by Punjab, a state in northern India famous for its lush rice fields and wet, fertile soil. But as farmers are conned into buying more and more pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers that they don't need, which demand often ten times more water, the water table is sinking at an alarming rate. Punjab's water has been poisoned by the chemicals, and the farmers poison their bodies with opium, helping them to work longer and harder. Loans from a middleman are taken out, with extortionate interest rates that are impossible to pay back. As a result, hundreds of Punjabi families are left without a father, husband or son as more and more farmers cave in under the pressure and drink their own chemicals to end their lives.