Please Help me organize a Democratic Film Festival

[Chango]

My local club is trying to organize a 4-part film series as a fundraiser and outreach. Ever since Gregory Peck died, we've been talking about screening "To Kill a Mockingbird" - with an appropriate discussion led by a film professsor or defense lawyer. So that would be our first film night - under the general theme of:

(1) Civil Liberties and Justice.

The second film will probably be "Bowling for Columbine" under the theme of:

(2) Violence

Please help us identify 2 more films under the following topics - and not box office films like "Norma Rae" or "China Syndrome" for example - but rather classic and independent films.

(3) Labor

(4) Environment

[rucky]

1. Labor: Matewan

[Chango]

2. Good suggestion!

Thank you.

[MrPrax]

8. Anything by Sayles...

Matewan is superb as well as City of Hope or Men with Guns...

I dunno - some real crowd pleasers:
Altman's Secret Honor (about Nixon)
Carpenter's They Live (funny)

on a more serious note:

Mark Achtar's The Corporation

American Dream from Barbara Koppel (or her Harlan County, USA)

[bryant69]

3. Labor

It is a big box office flick, but you might check out Hoffa. I thought it was pretty good.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Chango]

4. We're also considering "Unprecedented"

Or is it "Un-Presidented"?

Has anybody seen that?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Civil Liberties

"Come See the Paradise," a commercial release that didn't do very well, about the internment of the Japanese-Americans.

"The Fringe Dwellers." Yes, it's an Australian film about Aborigines, but it covers the topic of racism and the varying positive and negative ways in which the objects of racism can react.

"Oppenheimer." This is a PBS biopic (starring a young-looking Sam Waterston) about the physicist who worked on the atomic bomb, became an anti-nuclear spokesman, and was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. I think it may be a multi-episode film, though.

[AP]

6. Labour - Salt of the Earth; Violence - The Thin Blue Line

Salt of the Earth

I haven't seen Salt of the Earth, however, it's experiencing a revival right now. Apparently, it's an extremely powerful movie.


John Sayles films fit in a lot of these categories, but they would be the easy answers.

Any excuse to show The Battle of Algiers should be exploited. You should add an "Imperialism/Foreign Policy" section.

And you should show The Revolution Will Not be Televised.

You should do, "Imigration/Education/The American Dream" and show Spellbound.


The Thin Blue Line can be your criminal justice/Violence movie.

[Chango]

7. Good stuff!

Thank you all.

I'm still stuck for an environment film!

[AP]

9. Any reason to show Hoop Dreams would be good.

It's a movie about economic opportunity and class. It's great.

"Environment" is a tough category. How about A Civil Action?

[iverglas]

16. absolutely Salt of the Earth

Also "Harlan County USA", which on a quick search for film labour miners (I can never remember the name of it, and I never remember to spell it "labor") I found here: http://www.labourstart.org/videos.shtml

Oh, oops, it was "Matewan" I was actually thinking of -- also listed there -- John Sayles, indeed. But Harlan County, too.

Not the best thing for a film fest, but anybody interested in labour film would do well to get hold of the BBC's "The Boys from the Blackstuff":

... BBC TV series that swept the awards board in 1982 and has been talked about ever since.Alan Bleasdale's chronicles of the lives of a group of tarmac layers - Chrissie (with a powerful performance by Julie Walters as his wife, Angie), Loggo, Dixie, George and Yosser - bitterly dramatised the frustrations suffered by a fruitless search for work and an antagonistic social security system. Though harrowing and uncompromising, the stories, laced with scouse wit and humour became a seminal series.

http://www.memorabletv.com/mtg/browse/browseb/boysfromtheblackstuff.htm
I saw it around when it was released, and it certainly isn't the sort of thing generally seen on USAmerican television.

And heck -- never underestimate Warren Beatty's "Bulworth", with Halle Berry's soliloquy about the collapse of blue-collar employment and the effect on the urban African-American population in the US. ;)


.

[central scrutinizer]

17. one more vote for Salt of the Earth

enthusiastic vote

[AP]

10. Kick.

[AP]

11. Labor: Bread and Roses, Ken Loach (starring Adrien Brody)

Bread and Roses is directed by Ken Loach. Every Ken Loach film is very liberal, whether it's about poverty and crime (Sweet Sixteen, or about poverty and Nicarauga, like Carla's Song.

Loach is the British John Sayles.

Here's the Amazon description of Bread and Roses:

Maya is a spirited young Mexican woman who is propelled by her dreams of a better life in America. After a close call with border guards and unscrupulous "coyotes" who smuggle her into the country, she arrives in Los Angeles, ready and eager to work. Her older sister, Rosa, a married woman with two children and a sick husband, is painfully aware of the realities awaiting Latinos in the U.S. But Maya is relentlessly optimistic and grateful for every opportunity, including the chance to join Rosa at her job cleaning office buildings at night.

Quickly, Maya's optimism sours. Her lecherous boss demands a commission of two months' salary just for giving her the job, the hours are long, the wages are ridiculously low, and there is no security. The janitors in Maya's group are always subject to the whims of their volatile boss. Only Reuben, a young co-worker who is saving his money to go to law school, imagines a better life for himself. The other janitors are reconciled to their fates, until Sam, a young and disarming union organizer, opens their eyes.

He explains that union janitors enjoy higher wages, paid vacations, and medical benefits. Maya and her friends should join the "Justice for Janitors" campaign, persuading office buildings that hire cheaper, non-union cleaning contractors to work with the Service Employees International Union. Surprised that she has "rights," Maya helps Sam to rally the janitors in her circle, encouraging them to participate in meeting and demonstrations.

Maya's political and social awakening is a difficult one. Her rush of empowerment is undercut by Rosa's insistence that her younger sister face certain ugly truths. Rosa reveals that she worked as a prostitute in Mexico to support her parents and siblings and that she had to sleep with her boss to secure Maya her job as a janitor. She does not believe in fairy tale endings and is opposed to any involvement with a union. She warns that if Maya persists in fighting for her rights, there will be a price to pay.

Buoyed by her optimism, Maya refuses to believe that she cannot win every battle on her own terms. Her generous, but foolhardy, efforts to help Reuben pay his law school tuition lead her to commit an impromptu convenience store hold-up, and she seems to escape undetected. But every action has its price. Just at the moment when the workers are successful in their efforts to unionize, Maya must face her own harsh realities. In a bittersweet conclusion, she experiences victory and defeat.

(since this advertises their product, I'm sure Amazon won't mind that I've copied 4+ paragraphs)

[LastTime2BeFree]

12. China Syndrome

I often wonder how many people base their fears on nuclear energy from watching that movie. The only difference between "China Syndrome" and "The Swarm" were the actors.

[blueseas]

13. kick

:kick:

[GinaMaria]

14. a few suggestions

Bowling for Columbine
The Revolution will Not be Televised
All the President's Men
Silkwood

[KittyWampus]

15. Milagro Beanfield War & The Grapes of Wrath

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. Environment...

This is a hard to find indie film that is wildly provocative and utterly in your face about what man has done to the environment.

From the IMDB.com:

Clearcut (1991)
Directed by
Ryszard Bugajski
Starring Graham Greene

When a lawyer (Ron Lea) loses an appeal to stop a logging company from clear-cutting Native American land, Arthur, an Indian militant (Graham Greene) drags him and the kidnapped logging mill manager into the forest. The lawyer's empty talk about how the company's greed should be punished is put into brutal action by Arthur, who tortures the manager in allegorical ways mimicking what loggers do to the forest.

[durutti]

19. Don't forget to include some porn

Since most Congressional Democrats have done nothing but take it in the ass from Republicans since Dubya took office.

[Hep]

20. You ought to show Life and Debt

It's a moving documentary.