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FilmWorks United (2012)
(Scheduled time is approximate)
July 6 (Friday) (Donation) Marine Fireman's Hall - 240 2nd St., SF
Dust: The Great Asbestos Trial 85 min. 2011 Italy, SF Premiere
Written and Directed by: Niccolo Bruna & Andrea Prandstralle. Producer: Enrica Capra
After years of preliminary investigations by Raffaele Guariniello, the “iron prosecuting attorney,” the first great criminal trial against the “Lords of Asbestos” opened in Turin in 2009 and ended with a 16-year prison sentence on February 13th, 2012. All international trials related to asbestos so far had been civil proceedings aimed at awarding refunds to the victims or bringing down the local executives of the companies. The trial of Turin is the biggest environmental case in Europe, with more than 6,000 victims as the plaintiff. Stephan Schmidheiny and Louis Cartier de Marchienne were convicted of “causing a continuing disaster in health and environment” and “willfully neglecting safety regulations in the workplace”. The film explores the current situation of India and Brazil in the light of the tragic trail of deaths provoked by asbestos in Italy in the past.
We Are Wisconsin 90 min. 2012 SF Premiere By Amie Williams
The film will be introduced by Bill Hirsh with Questions and Answers.
Amie Williams has produced a powerful new film “We Are Wisconsin” that shows the strength of the mobilization to defend working people’s rights against Governor Scott Walker, who openly said he wanted to bust the unions. She allows the workers and students to tell their stories about why they were willing to put their lives and jobs on the line. These include a UW-Madison senior, nurse, high school teacher, electrician and others who joined in the occupation of the capitol and the fight to stop Walker’s anti-union legislation.
The battle in Wisconsin against flagrant union busting Governor Scott Walker was a touchstone for workers not only in Wisconsin but the entire country.
The ongoing attack on public workers from firefighters to teachers and social workers and their right to organize has come under direct attack. Public workers are being blamed for the economic decline and the attack on their pensions, healthcare and union rights is a cancer spreading out throughout the country.
The privatization and outsourcing of public services have been the direct result of these political and economic attacks.
In solidarity with Wisconsin workers and youth, Bay Area ILWU Local 10 longshore workers closed Bay Area ports on April 4, 2011.
Public workers in the Bay Area will attend and bring in their stories of struggles to defend their jobs, working conditions, and public education and services.
Northern California public workers will talk about the attacks that they face.
William B. Hirsch: co-founded Peer Review Films in 2006 in order to produce films dealing with important social, political and cultural issues. He has produced Reversion, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008; The Waiting Room, which will be theatrically released in October 2012 and broadcast on Independent Lens (PBS) in January 2013; and We Are Wisconsin, which was recently completed and initially distributed throughout Wisconsin during the Recall Election in June 2012.
www.wearewisconsinthefilm.comJuly 9 (Monday) 7:00 PM (Donation) San José Peace and Justice Center - 48 South 7th St., SJ
Film: Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006) (77 min.) 2012
By Anne Lewis & Mimi Pickering
“Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006)” is a first person feature documentary completed May 1, 2012. Braden rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies. In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthy-style politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. In 1963 she became one of only five white southerners whose contributions to the movement were commended by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” A relentless labor and political organizer, she fought for transformation and liberation throughout her life.
The film was directed and produced by Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering. Anne Lewis will lead discussion after the film. For info: 408-297-2299July 12 (Thursday) 6:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Remembrance of Time Past
(12 min.) 2011 Iran By Sara Davani
This short film is about a working class young woman and her awakening in the midst of 1979 Iranian revolution.
It expresses the hopes and visions for many in the midst of the 1979 revolution and the eventual destruction of the democratic rights of women in Iran and the establishment of a theocratic regime.
Short discussion with the producer Sara Davani will follow.
Milk, Honey and Tomatoes
(25 min.) 2011 Palestine By Andre Kloer and Maaike Broos
This film is about the life of a young Palestinian boy who grows up to work for the rest of his life in the Jewish settlements as a cherry, date and tomatoe picker. These products are labeled and sold in Europe as “Made In Israel”.
Zidan and his friend Rachman go from settlement to settlement because this is the only jobs available to them. They are also exploited by employers to pay them below the minimum wage.
www.march21.nl
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006)
(77 min.) 2012 By Anne Lewis & Mimi Pickering
Anne Braden rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies. In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthy-style politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. A relentless labor and political organizer, Braden fought for transformation and liberation throughout her life.
Anne Lewis will lead discussion after the film.July 13 (Friday) 6:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
Mt. Fuji in Red (From Dreams)
(1990) 8 min. Japan By Akira Kurosawa
Mt. Fuji in Red is part of a series of stories by powerful Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa was not taken in by the media propaganda that nuclear power was safe. This short drama is about a nuclear power station which blows up and the people try to escape from Japan. This dream was a nightmare that has come true for the people of Japan.
Fukushima Never Again
(2012) 57 min. By Labor Video Project
The nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plants in March of 2011 was not supposed to happen according the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company TEPCO. This documentary allows the mothers of Fukushima, health and safety experts and trade unionists to talk about the real history of this disaster and effects of it on their communities and country. The nuclear radiation continues to contaminate not only Japan but also the whole world, and yet the US continues to operate nuclear plants on the coast of California, which is also an earthquake zone and throughout the country. The 104 nuclear plants have hundreds of thousands of used nuclear rods, which are building up at each plant and waiting for a disaster to happen. The lessons of Fukushima have great relevance and meaning for the labor movement and people of the US.
www.fukushimaneveragain.org
ANPO: Art x War
(2011) 89 min. By Linda Hoaglund
In 1960 a massive movement of trade unionists and students rose up against the stationing of nuclear weapons and US military bases in Japan. The US was pushing the Japanese government to sign the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security known as ANPO which allowed for military bases throughout Japan and on the island of Okinawa. This film by Linda Hoagland, who grew up in Japan, is about the artists of the period who expressed their opposition to militarization and war by their art. The best land within the center of Okinawa contains the US base and it has created an environmental and health crisis for the people of the island. Today as the US expands militarization in Asia, the cost of this intervention is paid for by the workers and people of the region. Cheko Shiina from Fukushima will be attending. http://anpomovie.com/en/?p=588July 17 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM (Donation) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St., SF
Laila’s Birthday from Palestine (2008) 71 min., Palestine
By Rashid Masharawi
Join the United Taxicab Workers Union-CWA who will be screening “Laila’s Birthday.” The film by director Rashid Masharawi is about the day in the life of a former judge, now a taxi cab driver in Ramallah. What is life like for taxi drivers in Palestine? This says it all about their jobs and and the lives of their passengers. The absurdity of two states and two laws in one land and the battle for survival are combined in a film that shows the contradictions. It has been called “A dark urban comedy.”
The UTW fights for the rights of San Francisco cab drivers who are fighting for healthcare, a living wage and union rights with decent working conditions.
United Taxi Workers
http://www.utw.us/
http://electronicintifada.net/content/film-review-absurd-humor-succeeds-lailas-birthday/3543July 19 (Thursday) 5:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
(Please note: The time has changed)
Get On The Bus
(2012) By Kim Jung-kun, Busan, Korea
In a workers’ action that shook the Korean people and is now on film, KCTU trade unionist and Hanjin shipyard worker Kim Jin-suk occupied crane number 85 at the Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Youngdo shipyard. She was protesting the lay off of dozens of workers and the transfer of the work to the Philippines, occupying the crane for 309 days. Her occupation struck a cord as workers and families got on buses throughout the country and joined the movement to defend not only Kim Jin-suk but the many other workers who face temporary part time work. Over 30% of the workers of Korea are now temporary and this has been used as a cudgel by the bosses and corporate robber barons to weaken and destroy union labor.
The campaign against precarious work was central in this crane occupation and the support for “A World without Redundancy Dismissals and Precarious Work.” The case, and the solidarity movement it prompted, illuminates issues of precarious, contract and migrant labor in South Korea, the Philippines, Germany the United States and beyond.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/535250.htmlVerita$, Everybody Loves Harvard
80 min. (2011) By Shin Eun-Jung
Director Shin Eun-jung will attend
Harvard is presented and used as an example throughout the world of what a university should be modeled on. Korean film director Shin Eun-jung for the first time looks at the real history of Harvard from its foundation with slave labor to the exclusion of women and the propagation of racist ideology used by the Nazis.
She also interviews intellectuals and academics, who have sought to expose this history. Included in the interviews are Noam Chomsky, Richard Levins and George Katsiaficas.
This powerful new documentary looks as well at how Harvard has played a central role in the control of the US imperial empire in shaping foreign policy for US multi-nationals and helping to train military planners on how to fight their war for the US empire. This also includes the role of Harvard in privatizing the Soviet Union and faculty, including Jeffrey Sacks, in personally and illegally profiting from this privatization despite rules against this.
It also looks at how Harvard is now leading the way in the outsourcing of workers at the University and pushing privatization on a grand scale. This film will shatter the myth that Harvard is something that should be emulated here in the US and internationally. It took a Korean woman to get to some of the real truths about the most famous university in the world.
Eun Jung Shin is from Gwangju, South Korea, where the 1980 people’s uprising was a key event in the overthrow of decades of US-backed military dictatorships. A student activist, she later worked as a TV writer for nine years.
ejindyfilm@gmail.comJuly 20 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) ILWU Local 34 - 801 2nd St., next to the AT&T Ball Park, SF
James Connolly, A Working Class Hero
(102 min.) By Brian O’Flaherty
Irish Film and Music Night: The life and struggle of James Connolly with the music and words of Renee Gibbons and Margaret Cooley
James Connolly is one of the most important working class figures in the history of Ireland and world working class movement. Connolly was a trade unionist, Irish Republican and socialist internationalist who helped build the working class movement both in the United States and in Ireland. He founded the Irish Republican Socialist Party and he supported the Easter Rising as commander of the Dublin Brigade. He fought to set up a working class Republic in Ireland. In the course of the fighting he was wounded and then executed by the British military. We will premiere the documentary film “James Connolly, A Working Class Hero” about his life.
Irish American writer, Margaret Cooley and Dublin-born writer and singer, Renee Gibbons will begin the evening performing songs from the James Connelly Songs of Freedom Songbook.
www.renee-gibbons.comJuly 21 (Saturday) 5:30 PM (Donation) Marine Firemen's Hall - 240 2nd St. near Howard St., SF
The 1913 Massacre 65 min. (2012) By Ken Ross & Louis V. Galdieri /Dreamland Pictures
A film inspired by a song by Woody Guthrie
In December 24, 1913 in Michigan’s upper peninsula town of Calument, striking copper miners and their families were at the Italian Hall to celebrate a Christmas dinner. In the midst of this celebration someone yelled fire and a stampede began that killed seventy-four people, including 59 children. The person who yelled fire was never found.
This documentary recounts that hidden story and the real history of the strike. This story is now told for the first time on film. http://1913massacre.com
The Tool and Die Strike
26 min. (1939)
This film made by the UAW shows how a successful strike is organized and the strategy and tactics of the UAW at one of the highest points of the union. From flying picket squads to strike kitchens, the union had a highly organized plan for a successful organizing struggle.
It also included the political demand for a labor party that was raised in the early history of the UAW. This self organization by auto workers and hundreds of thousands of other workers was successful in forcing the employers to accept unionization.Brothers On The Line
80 min. (2012) By Sasha Reuther
The Reuther brothers Walter, Roy and Victor played an important role in the founding of the United Auto Workers UAW. The basis of this mass organization were sit-downs and factory occupations throughout the mid-west and rank and file worker committees that played a democratic role in challenging the power of the major auto companies. This mass militant mobilization brought millions of workers into unions throughout the United States.
The film looks at the history of the union and these brothers through the witch-hunts and the Vietnam War, and it’s effect on the UAW.
Following the film, a panel discussion with Sasha Reuther, the grandson of Victor Reuther, and Detroit workers will take questions and discuss the film.
http://brothersontheline.tumblr.com/July 22 (Sunday) 7:00 PM(Donation) Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts - 2868 Mission St., SF
Blue Elephants (14 min.) Malaysia By PC Global films
This short documentary shows the dire working conditions of migrant workers in the Malaysian electronics industry. Men and women from Nepal, Indonesia and other countries come as contract workers to work for Dell, HP, Intell and other well-known brand companies. Migrant workers pay several thousands of dollars in commission to labor agents to get work permits. Time to pay off these debts is limited, while pay is low. Migrant workers face discrimination in Malaysian society as well as on the work floor, and have to accept bad housing conditions.
Maximum Yield 29 min. (2011) By Kazmi Torii
John Sferazo was one of the many first responders in 9/11. A member of Ironworkers Local Local 361 and Operating Engineers Local 138, he gave his all to help survivors and also clean the site. Sferazo learned as thousands of others have that these first responders were being used and not being told of the dangers of the highly toxic materials in the air and ground. www.laborvideo.org
That’s Our Power - Greek Working Class Rank and File Organizing For Power & Survival 25 min. (2012) By Reel News
Greek Working Class Rank and File Organizing For Power & Survival 25 min. (2012) By Reel News
The Greek working class is in a struggle for survival. This short video captures their issues including the occupation of a television station by journalists and TV workersWhen The Dust Settles - Uranium Miners In Australia 37 min. (2010)
By David Bradbury
Australia is a major center of the mining of uranium. This film shows how the mining companies recruit electricians and other workers who are encouraged to work in the open pit uranium mines. Behind the clean mining towns is dangerous contamination from the uranium mines. The film, financed by the ETU (Australian Electrical Trade Unions), is a docu-drama on how these workers and their families are bribed to take the jobs and what the real cost of this mining is.
When The Dust Settles - Uranium Miners In Australia 37 min. (2010)July 25 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - Near 16th St., SF
Rendezvous On The Docks (75 min.) French with English Subtitle
By Paul Carpita
The revulsion against the French military occupation of Indochina led to a dockworkers strike in Marseilles in 1953.
Dockers found that caskets of soldiers were arriving while weapons were being shipped out to supply the French occupations from Vietnam to other countries in Asia.
The film using actual dockers, much like Ken Loach’s style, also uses real footage on the docks of Marseilles and debates in the working class. It depicts the growing anti-imperialist anger against the wars and a strike to stop the war.
Presentation following the film by ILWU Local 10 retired longshoremen Jack Heyman.
Sponsored by Transport Workers Solidaity Committee www.transporworkers.orgJuly 27 (Friday) 6:00 PM (Donation) Marine Firemen's Hall - 240 2nd St. near Howard St., SF
We Are The 99 % (26 min.) Australian
By Shabnam Hameed
This film was taken over two months at Zuccotti Park by Australian trade unionist Shabnam Hameed. It shows the views of participants in the Occupy movement and what their visions are. They face repression as they are brutally attacked and evicted. This raises questions about whether it is possible to create a “just society” within the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3v6qbZw9o
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(Between the films, there going to be a panel discussion on labor film festivals around the world)
Panel On Labor Film Festival Around The World, Where They Are And Where They Are Going
Labor Film Festivals and LaborFests are popping up throughout the country and the world. This panel will include activists and organizers of these film festivals who will discuss what they have learned and what is happening on the ground floor.
Speakers:
•Geraldine Hecker-Popov, San Pedro Labor Fest
•Chris Garlock, Washington DC Labor Film Festival
•Mehmet Bayran, LaborFest Turkey
•Representative from LaborFest San Francisco
•Jon Garlock, Rochester Labor Film Series
•Representative from ReelWorks
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Kani-Kou-Sen (The Crab Factory Ship) 110 min. (1953) Japan
By Director-Writer Sou Yamamura, based on the novel by Takiji Kobayashi
This film never before screened in the US is about the horrendous conditions of a crab factory ship. The migrant workers lived and worked under hellish conditions and some died from management abuse. They unite and fight back against their exploitation. The author of the novel Takiji Kobayashi was arrested by Japanese police and was killed by intense torture at the age of 29 in 1933, four years after he wrote Kani-kou-sen.July 28 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Donation) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp, SF
Who Bombed Judi Bari (93 min.)
By Mary Liz Thomson and Darryl Cherney
Producer Darryl Cherney in attendance for a Q & A after the movie.
There is a continuing cover-up of bombing of Judi Bari, an IWW union activist, who was seeking to bring trade unionists together with environmentalists.
This video documentary about Judi Bari’s life and work shows how she was making connections about the need to preserve the forests and to stop the clear cutting for quick massive profits by profiteers who bought the mill.
The need to protect our environment, while protecting the jobs and unions of workers, is an integral part of this story and this battle continues today as workers face mass unemployment.
The role of the FBI and the police in inciting the public against Judi Bari and those union activists, who were seeking to make these connections, is also crucial. The FBI is continuing its efforts to destroy evidence in the bombing despite the fact that the bombers still have not been apprehended. There will be a panel of Darryl and other labor environmental activists discussing the lessons of Judi Bari and what we have to do today.
www.whobombedjudibari.com