Scenes From the Workplace

Making the Happiest Employees in Japan: The Challenge of Hotel Associa Nagoya Terminal(ja)

A renowned old hotel near Nagoya Station has been in the red for four consecutive fiscal terms. When the old management stepped down, Akio Shibata, who has long been in the board of the labor union, is appointed its new general manager. Shibata's method for reviving the hotel consists of neither the laying off of the staff nor the introduction of performance-based system. He wants everyone to take part in the making of new management plans and for all employees to lodge together and engage in heated discussions about their management dreams all night. Yes, his management ideal is to "have the happiest employees in Japan" working in their hotel. He throws birthday parties for employees and has company cafeteria remodeled. All these changes bring about yet another change in the mind of everyone.

Midnight Family(es)

In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance, competing with other unlicensed EMTs for patients in need of urgent care. In this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.

The Last Day's Work(en)

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.

Keep Up the Good Work(de)

It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.

A Tale of Two Kitchens(en)

Two countries, two restaurants, one vision. At Gabriela Cámara's acclaimed Contramar in Mexico City, the welcoming, uniformed waiters are as beloved by diners as the menu featuring fresh, local seafood caught within 24 hours. The entire staff sees themselves as part of an extended family. Meanwhile at Cala in San Francisco, Cámara hires staff from different backgrounds and cultures, including ex-felons and ex-addicts, who view the work as an important opportunity to grow as individuals. A Tale of Two Kitchens explores the ways in which a restaurant can serve as a place of both dignity and community.

Stockton-on-Tees(xx)

Residents of the Cleveland market town of Stockton High Street smile for the camera on market day.

L'empreinte(fa)

A bakery in Herat in Afghanistan. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, a dozen employees and apprentices repeat the same gestures, while the camera raises questions about the outside world, about images.

Working Women(pl)

Stylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor.

Ekmek Parasi – Geld fürs Brot(tr)

The vege­ta­bles come from the garden behind the house, the fish comes out of a can, and money for bread is earned at the factory. It’s because of this money that they came here. Women from Turkey stand side-by-side with women form Meck­len­burg at the conveyor belt of a fish-proces­sing factory in Lübeck. Their hands are stained brown, the pungent smell of fish clings to them, and their arms and backs ache. If these jobs were done by men, machines would have been invented long ago to replace them. But female labour is cheap and the women do not complain. They have learned to work – and therein lies the source of their pride. (Source: https://www.artechock.de/film/text/filminfo/g/ge/gefubr.htm)

Kilometry práce(cs)

Document about different types of transportation in manufacturing plants and their importance for speeding up production.

Entre voluntad y madera(es)

After mutilating his fingers, a carpenter decides to go back to work to support his family and prove that he can still do it.

Welfare(en)

WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.

The Trouble with Women(en)

This short film illustrates some of the perceived problems a supervisor might face working with women, but ultimately demonstrates where the real problem lies.

Setara(en)

A documentary with an aim to raise awareness for workplace discrimination and see the world from the perspective of the deaf community.

Miliardy kolem nás(cs)

Is It Worth Your Life?(en)

This video shows ways to prevent or defuse violent situations in retail stores, particularly during an armed robbery.

The Last Blockbuster(en)

A documentary on the last remaining Blockbuster Video in Bend, Oregon.

Safety Awareness for Forklift Equipment(en)

An overview on safety precautions that protect forklift operators on the job.

Almost Nothing(it)

CERN, the world's largest physics laboratory, is also a society in itself. A mythological microcosm and science's answer to the Tower of Babel, with its many thousand employees as an indispensable element among cables and computers. The researchers speak the same esoteric and nerdy language. But their physical trials are not the only experiments in the human anthill. CERN is also a utopian experiment in collaboration across cultures, where the world's most advanced technology meets the world's sharpest—and some of the quirkiest—minds.

A Cop Movie(es)

This documentary walks the line between fact and fiction, delving into corruption in the Mexican police through the experiences of two officers.