FilmWorks United (2015)

July 8 (Wennesday) 6:30 PM (Free) Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library - -6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
Wisconsin Rising
(60 min) (2014) by Sam Mayfield
This film documents the days, weeks and months when Wisconsinites fought back against power, authority and injustice. They were fighting back against newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s action stripping collective bargaining rights from public employees. This fight took place in the same period as the Arab spring, and workers in both struggles saw their common fight.
Discussion to follow.
Sponsored by Speak Out Now and PM Press.

July 9 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Palikari - Louis Tikas and The Ludlow Massacre
(92 min.)(2014) Greece (in English)
By Director Nikos Ventouras and Producer Lamprini Thoma.
The history of immigrants is a story of struggle, and one of the sharpest in our history took place on April 20, 1914 Ludlow massacre of miners and their families in Colorado.
Greek Director Nikos Ventouras and Producer Lamprini Thoma came to the US to do a story on the travels of Jack Kerouac and discovered the hidden story of the Lundlow massacre in Colorado. This includes the story of Greek immigrant Louis Tikas Palikari who they had never heard of.
They learned that Palikari, an immigrant with military training in the Balkan wars, had become one of the leaders of the miner’s strike, and was assassinated by a lieutenant in the Colorado National Guard for leading this strike.
The story of Ludlow is part of our history that has been buried to cover the real contours of US working class history. As Mother Jones said at the time, “No one listened, no one cared, then, came Ludlow and the nation heard”.
Part of their reason for making this film was also the need to fight the growing racism and xenophobia in Greece, which has been a result of the economic crisis. They show that racism and discrimination against immigrants is not limited by borders.
Joining the screening will be SFSU professor Zeese Papaikolas. His book “Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre” was an important link for the filmmakers and all working people about our history. Papaikolas will introduce the film and there will be a discussion following the screening.

July 9 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Suggested donation $5-10 No one turned away) Historic Fellowship Hall - 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, Berkeley
Joe Hill
(1971)(115min)(Sweden) by Bo Widerberg
In the early 1900's, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates from Sweden with his brother to the United States. Joe joined and became active in the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World. In some places unconstitutional laws were passed to forbid freedom of speech and demonstrations. Joe sometimes got around that by singing his songs to the tunes of the day sung by the Salvation Army, which then would feed starving workers if they would listen to a sermon first. Joe had a significant impact and became popular as an IWW singer. Joe Hill also made powerful enemies by doing that. In Utah he was framed on a murder charge. During the trial he fired his lawyer and defended himself to no avail. He was murdered by a state of Utah firing squad.
Sponsored by BFUU Social Justice Committee

July 10 (Friday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Rise of The Oppressed
(18 min) (2012) Pakistan, by Labor Education Foundation
This film shows the conditions of Pakistani textile loom workers and their struggle for human and union rights.
Driving For Hire  (84 min) (2015) USA, by John Han
San Francisco has become the ground zero in new applications and tech that is touted as “disrupting” the world as we know it. Taxi driver and journalist Jon Han looks at how UBER and other apps are affecting the public, users and taxi drivers.
This documentary is the most significant report on this revolution in the industry and what it means for the future of drivers.
John Han will introduce the film and discussion will follow.

July 10 (Friday) 6:30 PM (Donation)First Unitarian Universalist Church - 1187 Franklin Street, SF
10,000 Black Men Named George
(95 min) (2003) by Robert Townsend
10,000 Black Men Named George is filmmaker Robert Townsend’s stirring civil rights drama about the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
The film gives a dramatic look at A. Phillip Randolph, a pioneering black journalist and union leader, who put his life on the line to establish a voice for the forgotten workers by creating the first African-American union.
It was a bold gesture which proved to have a major impact in both labor and race relations in America in the 1920s, as well as today.
For more information please contact: Larry Danos (415) 722-6480

July 11 (Saturday) 7:00 PM (Donation) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
A Day’s Work  (54 min.) (2014) USA, by Dave DeSario & David M. Garcia
Every day workers are killed on the job in the United States, yet there are only 2,000 Federal OSHA inspectors nationally. Thirty percent of Workers today are in the rapidly growing classification of temporary workers.
A Day’s Work is about the death of 21 year old Day Davis after only 90 minutes on he job. The film shines a light on the failure of health and safety protections in the $100 billion temp industry.  This temp industry is a direct result of deregulation of workers from FedEx to Kaiser. Today in California, there are only around 200 Cal-OSHA inspectors for 18.5 million workers and the deregulation of Workers Comp has led to seriously injured workers not getting medical treatment for their injuries. Employers are shifting this expense to social security disability, so the taxpayer ends up with the cost.
Discussion to follow the film with health and safety advocates.
https://vimeo.com/125719950

July 15 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM (Free) ILWU Local 34 Hall - 801 2nd St. next to AT&T Ball Park
The Ballad of Joe Hill
(1971)(115min)(Sweden) by Bo Widerberg
This year is the 100th anniversary of the death of troubadour and union organizer Joe Hill.  His songs still resonate today in the US and around the world. This dramatic film tells his story as an immigrant coming to the United States. This rarely seen Academy Award nominated film is about an ingenious immigrant labor organizer who is framed on a murder charge in a highly sensationalized trial with little evidence.  Despite worldwide appeals by the King of Sweden and the President of the USA, Hill is martyred by a Utah firing squad after one of the most controversial capital punishment trials of the 20th Century. Today, on the hundredth anniversary of his death the state of Utah has reinstituted the firing squad. Despite the bullets that ended his life, his legacy, humor, principles and solidarity with workers of the world live on.
Parking space available at the union hall parking lot. The entrance is at the corner of King St. and 2nd, right next to the AT&T ball park.

July 16 (Thursday) 7:00 PM (Donatione) Redstone Building - 2940 16th St. at Capp, SF
Claiming Our Voice
(2013)(20.5 min)(USA) by Jennifer Pritheevea
The struggle of immigrant South Asian workers in the US is the focus of the group Andolan. This film tells the stories of these South Asian women who have become domestic workers and their struggle for decent working conditions and labor rights. The Domestic Workers United and the National Domestic Workers Alliance have defended and supported the organization of 1.8 million domestic workers. More than 99% of these workers are foreign born, and 93% are women. The video also tells the story through a play called Sukh aur Dukh ki Kahani (Stories of Joy and Sorrow). This theater project puts the workers’ talents and skills to work in expressing their lives and hopes.

Schoolidarity (2014)(90 min)(USA) by Andrew Friend
This documentary looks at the attack on teachers in Chicago who are members of the Chicago Teachers Union CTU and links it to Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public workers in Wisconsin.
The documentary exposes the scapegoating of teachers and the push to privatize education by Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, exposes the forces behind privatization and who will benefit from privatization.
The film also looks at efforts to move toward a general strike in Wisconsin against Walker’s program instead of a strategy of electing Democrats in the legislature.

July 17 (Friday) 4:00 - 6:00 PM (Free) ILWU 34 Hall - next to AT&T ball park, SF
One Generation’s Time: The Legacy of Silme Domingo & Gene Viernes (59:44) (2013) by Shannon Gee
This is a documentary on the lives and legacy of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes.  Both men were leaders of ILWU Local 37, and members of the KDP (Union of Democratic Filipinos), an organization, which had chapters in the major cities of the West Coast during the 1970s and 1980s.  KDP had a two-prong program:  In its international work, it focused on exposing and advocating for the overthrow of the brutal Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines while fighting for workers’ rights in this country.  Viernes and Domingo were elected union officers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 37 in Seattle, WA.  They were elected on a reform platform pledging to end the corruption that had taken over their union local; the union, which represented the mostly Filipino cannery workers in Alaska.  On June 1, 1981, Viernes and Domingo were gunned down in the union hall.  The local president was convicted, but the trial subsequently proved that the assassinations of both Viernes and Domingo were ordered and paid for by the Marcos regime; a regime propped-up and supported by the U.S. government.
Introduction and discussion led by members of the Committee for Justice for Domingo & Viernes, including Cindy Domingo (sister of Silme) and Terri Mast (widow of Domingo). Terri is currently ILWU Secretary-Treasurer of the Inlandboatmen’s Union, Local 37.

July 22 (Wednesday) 6:00 - 7 :30 PM (Free) SF Main Library, Koret Auditorium  - 100 Larkin St., SF
Zerre (The Particle)
(Drama) (80 min.) (2012) (Turkey) Directed by: Erdem TEPEGÖZ
This social drama collected the Golden St. George Award, the main prize at the 2012 Moscow Film Festival.
Erdem Tepegoz directs Jale Arikan, who won the Best Actress award at the same event, plays the character Zeynep, who lost her job and lives with disabled daughter and old mother in an abandoned apartment in Istanbul.
Tepegoz attempts to relate how particles and people take up  a very tiny place with the universe.
“What about Zeynep, how much space does she take up in this immense universe?”
The director focuses on one crowded particle, Zeynep. What is her source? What is her aim? Where shall she disappear to?
The questions presented in this film remain provocative and shows the conditions the working class faces daily.
Screening sponsored by the non-profit Turkish American Gezi Platform
http://www.geziplatform.org/events/archives/06-2015
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/laborfest-cinema-sinema-with-tagp-turkish-film-screening-tickets-17549027614

July 24(Friday) 7:00 PM (Free) 518 Valencia - near 16th St., SF
Siren (2012)(60 min)(Bangladesh) by Molla Sagar
“Siren” by Bangladeshi filmmaker Molla Sagar is a documentary on the organized destruction of the jute industry, which once was the largest employer in the country with 60,000 workers. Jute was known as the golden fiber and this powerful documentary exposes the human cost for workers and their families of the privatization of the nationalized industry with the shutdown of the state-run jute mills starting in 2000. The IMF and World Bank said they were “modernizing” the industry but the real plan to was to shutter the industry. Jute is a natural competitor to DuPont and Monsanto’s synthetic fibers and the closures eliminated this competitor.
Filmed between 2007 and 2008 at Khalishpur in Khulna, the documentary shows desperate conditions as a result of the closure led some workers to commit suicide while others were forced into prostitution.

Killing Ed - Politics, Corruption and the Charter Schools of Imam Gülen (Preview) (2015)(98 min) by Director Mark S Hall
"Killing Ed - Politics, Corruption and the Charter Schools of Imam Gülen" is the new feature-length documentary by award-winning filmmaker, Mark S. Hall, that looks into the realities of ‘education reform.’ The film is an 98-minute exposé that reveals the propaganda, political greed and corruption behind the effort to privatize American public schools. Filmed in locations around the USA the film offers interviews from experts, teachers, insiders and activists - many of whom have never been on camera before. “Killing Ed” reveals the failed promises and the outright lies of education reform. Powerful foundations, corporate interests (testing!) and politicians who have abetted the growth of the privately owned (but public funded) schools are discussed as well. Public education is a $1 trillion expenditure in America; an amount that attracts private for-profit companies, which are in it to make money and are not directly accountable to parents or taxpayers. Perhaps the worst-case scenario of the privatization of American public schools is the charter school network operated by a shadowy Turkish religious group known as the Gülen Movement. It is named after Islamic imam Fethullah Gülen, who arrived in America in late 1990s and lives in a guarded compound with many of his followers in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. This organization operates 147 taxpayer-funded campuses, the second largest number of charter schools in America. “Killing Ed” discusses the Gülen Movement’s questionable practices and the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, some of which is believed by Turkish-American groups to be used for anti-democratic activities in Turkey.“Killing Ed” offers never seen before information on a crucially important subject - the massive attempt to radically change American public education to a corporate system with little oversight and accountability.