Films and Directors 2013

FILMS & DIRECTORS 2013

A Dream Comes True (5 minutes)           
Directed by: Maureen Higgins and Jay Mallin for 1199/SEIU
Documentary Short 

It's 1968, just weeks after her husband was assassinated, Coretta Scott King urged Local 1199 to continue the work of Dr. King by organizing local hospital workers. Members of Local 1199/SEIU Baltimore remember what life was like before the union drive and the effect Mrs. King's presence had on their struggle. 

Amanecer (10 minutes)
Directed by: Pete DeMay
Documentary Short 

Fed up with poverty wages and an employer controlled union, auto partsworkers in a Puebla Mexico plant covertly organize a sit down strike. Will their bold plan go awry? Or will direct action lead to workplace justice. 

American Winter (90 minutes)
Directed by: Joe and Harry Gantz
Documentary Feature

Produced and directed by Emmy award-winning filmmakers, Joe and Harry Gantz, American Winter is a documentary feature film that follows the personal stories of families struggling in the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Years after the recession began, millions of families are struggling to meet their basic needs, and many formerly middle class families are finding themselves in financial crisis, and needing assistance for the first time in their lives.  Meanwhile, the social safety net that was created to help people in difficult times has been weakened by massive budget cuts, creating a perfect storm of greater need and fewer resources to help families in trouble. 
Filmed over the course of one winter in Portland, Oregon, American Winter presents an intimate and emotionally evocative snapshot of the state of our economy as it is playing out in many American families.  The experiences of the families in American Winter are a vivid illustration of what has been happening to families across America, including working families losing their homes, people who remain jobless or underemployed, children going hungry, families getting their heat shut off in the dead of winter, and people with health issues overwhelmed by medical costs.
American Winter’s social action campaign will focus on channeling the frustrations of struggling Americans into a movement for positive change, while also supporting legislators to pass bills that allow all Americans to have an opportunity to live a comfortable life and a chance at the American Dream. 

Bread, And Roses Too: Celebrating The Legacy of Moe Foner (12 minutes)

Directed by: George Stoney and Lora Hays, Highlander Pictures
Documentary Short 

The inspiring story of Jewish labor leader Moe Foner and the arts and culture program he founded at 1199/SEIU, New Yorks Health and Human Service Union. His vision, echoing the plea of female mill workers in Lawrence MA in 1912, proclaimed bread, and roses too, as the staff of life. Joining him on the frontlines of this charge were Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis, who was employed as a postal worker when Moe first discovered him. 

Borderline (11 Minutes)
Directed by: Directed by Carlos Ginard
Documentary Short

Thousands of auto-parts workers organize for justice in a dusty border town. Will they prevail against all odds in one of North America’s largest union elections? What will their Finnish employer do to keep the Mexican “maquiladora” union-free?

Builders & The Games (57 minutes) & Four Worker's Stories (33 minutes)
Directed by: Margaret Dickinson, And Four Worker's by Carmen Valerio, Andrew Berekdar, Ausra Iinkeviciute & Iinca Calugareanu
Documentary Feature

In 2005 the 2012 Olympiad was awarded to London amid a blaze of publicity.  Two years later construction of the Olympic Park in East London was underway. Bureaucracy, security and public relations hype frustrated this film’s mission. Aletha, the researcher/presenter, tries to find a way around these barriers. She talks to union representatives, explores the legacy of past developments and examines the Olympic Authority's promises about safety, jobs and training. We also see in depth stories about construction workers.

Clara Lemlich (51 minutes)
Directed by: Alex Szalat
Documentary Feature 

On November 22, 1909, NYC garment workers gathered in a mass meeting at Cooper Union to discuss pay cuts, unsafe working conditions and other grievances. After two hours of indecisive speeches by male union leaders, a young Jewish woman strode down the aisle and demanded the floor. In Yiddish, she urged her coworkers to go out on strike. Clara Lemlich, a fledgling union organizer, thus launched the 'Uprising of the 20,000.' Two days later, garment workers walked out of shops all over the city, bringing production to a halt. Lemlich's story is recounted through interviews with her daughter and grandchildren, readings from her diary, family photos and archival footage, strike songs in Yiddish, an interview with labor historian Alice Kessler-Harris, a visit to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and excerpts from silent films of the era.  

The Condition of the Working Class (82 minutes)
Directed by: Michael Wayne and Deirdre O'Neill
Documentary Feature 

Everything changes and yet everything stays the same. 1844: Friedrich Engels writes his book The Condition of the Working Class in England, a classic denunciation of the appalling living conditions for working people living at the heart of the industrial revolution in Manchester, England. In 2012, a group of working class people from Manchester decide to put on a show from scratch based on their own experiences and Engels' book. They have 8 weeks to do it. The Condition of the Working Class follows the process from the first rehearsal to first night and situates their struggle to get the show on stage in the context of the daily struggles of working people facing economic crisis and austerity politics.

Cross Class Coalition Building at Columbia (7 minutes)
Directed by: Martyna Starosta
Documentary Short 

What does it take to organize across class lines? In the context of a nationwide revival of both labor struggles and student movements, students and workers at college campuses are trying to find out. What does solidarity mean at a university where students pay up to $60,000 a year, while campus workers can barely make ends meet? Coalition members share insights into how both groups have been building alliances in order to increase pressure on the university.

Divide (22 minutes)
Directed by: Michael T. Miller and Maura Ugarte
Documentary Short

Deep in the mountains of West Virginia, the hard-fought victories of the labor movement have been worn away. That is, until retired miner and union organizer Sebert Pertee decides to confront divisions of race and class rekindled by the 2008 presidential campaign. This amazing film touches on so many current themes that divide and unite our country - a must see!

Edible City: Grow the Revolution (71 minutes)
Directed by: Andrew Hasse
Documentary Feature

Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the local Good Food Movement that's taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Edible City digs into the unique perspectives and transformative work of organizers and local working folks-- from edible education to grassroots activism to building local economies-- finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems. Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that's making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system. 

Farewell to Factory Towns? (61 minutes)
Directed by: Maynard Seider
Documentary Feature

What can residents of communities that have been devastated by deindustrialization do to improve their condition during a time of austerity, war and anti-labor attacks? The film focuses on the introduction of a massive museum of contemporary art in the same buildings that housed Sprague Electric Company in a typical New England mill town. Billed as an engine of economic development, the MASS MOCA hasn't produced the jobs it promised and the city's downtown is semi-deserted. The film argues that national policy must change and that vibrant unions and social movements are needed to bring about a new 'New Deal' to deal with the social and economic crisis facing U.S. cities today.  

Fluoridegate: An American Tragedy (65 minutes)
Directed by: David Kennedy
Documentary Feature           

Fluoride, which has been added to the drinking water of most Americans for decades, turns out to be quite dangerous, according to the scientists and health officials in this film. Several of them lost their jobs for being whistleblowers. This film follows their efforts to clear their own names as well as to warning us about this industrial waste poison masquerading as a beneficial public service. The tragedy is that government, industry and trade associations are protecting and promoting a policy known to cause harm to our health. Eye opening. 

Front Line Films of the Transport Workers Union (60 minutes)
Directed by: Mary Matthews
Documentary Shorts 

A short film series from all over the country by one of the labor movement’s pre-eminent current day
documentary filmmakers – Mary Matthews. Director Matthews, for the TWU International takes us right into the center of worker/labor battles being fought all over the country right now. These shorts will include:
TWU: FRONT LINES OF HURRICANE SANDY
TWU Local 100 and TWU Local 234 join forces in support of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
PRECIOUS CARGO: SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS ORGANIZE
School bus drivers and monitors join TWU in Burelson and Weatherford, Texas.
SUPPORT YOUR DEALERS
The casino dealers of TWU Local 721 In Las Vegas, NV secure contracts at Wynn Resorts and Caesars Palace.
TWU GET OUT THE VOTE
Philadelphia's TWU Local 234  and New York City's TWU Local 100 work together to help get out the vote in Pennsylvania.
NASA FIREFIGHTERS PROTEST HUGE CUTS & LOSSES
TWU Local 525 members fight 20% in salary cuts and retirement benefits for firefighters, paramedics and inspectors who work at the Kennedy Space Center.
THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE
This is the American Workplace, where you will spend most of your life. Hard work in America comes with an important promise.
I SUPPORT AMERICAN JOBS: DFW PROTEST
American Airlines employees unite in protest at Dallas/Ft. Worth airport over tens of thousands of proposed job cuts at the airline. AA mechanics, flight attendants, fleet service, community business people and local leaders speak out on how and why you can show your support.
THE AMERICAN WORKFORCE
Hard working TWU members keep American Airlines and American Eagle operations going every day - rain or shine. In spite of AMR’s bankruptcy, TWU members continue to perform as airline professionals, doing their best for our passengers every day, 24-7.
YOUNG WORKERS OF TWU
Young Workers in the TWU are trained the right way from the start.

Frozen Happiness (30 minutes)
Directed by: Tami Gold, Gerardo Renique and Mariano Wainsztein
Documentary short.

Based on personal testimonies FROZEN HAPPINESS recounts the struggle of a mother and her children to gain the freedom of their husband and father. Falsely charged with the assassination of New York-based Indy-reporter Brad Will, APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) supporter and community activist Juan Manuel Martinez endured sixteen months of unjust imprisonment. With the support and solidarity of participants in the 2006 popular uprising and members of APPO the struggle of the family turned into a broader campaign demanding the freedom of Juan Manuel and an end to impunity. Set against the first democratic change of government in eighty years the video bears witness to the power of solidarity and independent mobilization.

The Hand That Feeds (Special Early Preview of Selected Scenes) (15 minutes)
Directed by: Robin Blotnick
Documentary Short

The Hands That Feed Us, Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3
Short Videos On Dignity at Darden (26 minutes total)
Directed by: Food Chain Workers Alliance
Documentary Shorts 

The Food Chain Workers Alliance is active across the country in the effort to organize food workers from the fields to the restaurant tables into unions. The Hands that Feed Us, in three parts, tells us about the low wages and long hours that these workers face, as well a lack of health and safety precautions or paid sick days. We also see three short videos of current campaigns, “Dignity at Darden,” where The Capital Grille in NYC is targeted as a particular abuser of worker’s rights.  

The History of 1199/SEIU:Narrated by Harry Belafonte (12 minutes)
Directed by: 1199/SEIU
Documentary Shorts 

Produced by 1199/SEIU. This film, made with rarely seen archival footage, is narrated by the great Harry Belafonte. It tells the story of the early years of this powerful and progressive union, from an organizing drive for hospital based pharmacists, by Leon Davis, founder of 1199, to current day struggles led by President George Gresham, to get all healthcare workers a fair deal from an industry that makes billions of dollars a year. 

In Dreamworks China (56 minutes)
Directed by: Tommaso Facchin
Documentary Feature

In Dreamworks China, in the suburbs of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, young workers talk about their lives, existences built on a precarious balance between hope, struggles and wishes for the future. Around them activists and NGO’s strive to give sense and meaning to words like rights, dignity and equity. This is an important film in understanding China in the age of Apple and Foxconn, the huge Chinese manufacturer of IPhones.   

I Am Somebody (30 minutes)

Director: Madeline Anderson.

Documentary Short

In 1969, 400 poorly paid black women -- hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina -- went on strike under the guidance of District 1199, the New York based union, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, only to find themselves confronting the National Guard and the state government. This is a powerful story about perseverance and community/labor union action.

Inside Lara Roxx (60 minutes)
Directed by: Mia Donavan
Documentary Feature

In the spring of 2004, 21-year-old Lara Roxx left her hometown of Montreal and headed to L.A to try and make a ton of cash in the adult entertainment industry. Within two months of working in this industry she contracted the most virulent form of HIV while performing sex in front of the camera. This documentary is about the adult movie industry and its impact on a young life. Lara Roxx was hired legally and both men she had sex with tested negative for HIV—paperwork to this effect was presented to Roxx prior to shooting the scene. Miss Roxx’s story created a media sensation, but it’s when the media hype dies that Inside Lara Roxx begins – in a psychiatric ward in Montreal. Inside Lara Roxx follows this unlikely young woman through a tumultuous 5-year period as she struggles to build a new identity and find hope in the wake of her past.

Iron Slaves (4 minutes)
Directed by:
Documentary Short

In Pakistan, men tear apart huge decommissioned oil tankers with few tools, terrible working conditions and lots of danger. They are called the shipbreakers. To watch this work is a terrifying experience.  

The Internationale (30 minutes)
Directed by: Peter Miller
Documentary Short 

The Internationale draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change, and to evaluate the uncertain fate of once thriving movements of the left. The lyrics are a rallying cry for all the oppressed and exploited people of the world to rise up and overthrow their masters. Using rare archival footage, the film traces the development and meanings of the song before and after the Russian Revolution, during the Great Depression in the U.S. and the Civil War in Spain, and since the fall of the Soviet Union, Tiananmen Square, and the end of the Cold War. Exploring relationships between music, history and social change, this film is a serious but often irreverent meditation on socialism, idealism, and the power of music in people's lives.  

Ivan and Arnold: Day Laborers from Both Sides of the Border (28 minutes)
Directed by: Melinda Levin and Michael McPherson
Documentary Short

This documentary short follows the lives of Ivan, an undocumented worker from Mexico and Arnold, a transitory laborer from New Orleans as they work on the day-laborer circuit during a time of economic recession in the U.S. Their stories highlight the struggles and internal racial tensions in this workforce disengaged from formal labor structures.

Judith: Portrait of a Street Vendor (21 minutes)
Directed by: Zahida Pirani
Documentary Short

Judith: Portrait of Street Vendor is a short documentary that takes the audience on an intimate journey into the daily life of Judith, a street vendor from Guatemala who lives and works in New York City. Judith exposes the routine obstacles and struggles she and her fellow vendors face daily on the city's streets and shows her community's attempts to change their conditions as immigrants and workers. Shot in intimate observational style, the film also unveils Judith's hopes for the future and her aspirations as a mother, worker and community organizer. Judith: Portrait of a Street Vendor is a compelling personal story about perseverance and access to the American Dream. 

A Killer Bargain (57 minutes)
Directed by: Tom Heinemann
Documentary Feature

A Killer Bargain refers to the availability of cheap consumer goods, imported by Western companies, whose prices don’t reflect the human and environmental costs of their production. Consumers remain unaware of the conditions under which the goods they buy are produced. This film makes those connections shockingly clear. Would you buy that batik tablecloth if you knew the children making it were working with cancer-causing solutions everyday?

Land, Rain and Fire (30 minutes)
Directed by: Tami Gold and Gerardo Renique
Documentary Short

What began as a teacher’s strike in May of 2006 against privatization and for better wages and more resources for students, erupted into a massive movement for profound social change in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Government repression brought even greater popular resistance, which ultimately brought the state government to a standstill.

Let It Be War (18 minutes)
Directed by: Andrew Heaberlin
Narrative Short

A young coal miner returns home from the Second World War to the unchanged, harsh reality of life in a company town. Unionization has the town divided and thoroughly at war with itself. Still, the miners toil away in the depths of the mountains, harvesting the company's black gold. Jim struggles to support his family, and in his darkest hour, he and the other miners summon the will to act. They strike back against the company, sending structures crashing to the ground in a heap of fiery rubble. 

Locked Out (65 minutes)
Directed by: Joan Sekler
Documentary Feature

Locked Out is a David vs. Goliath story of how 560 ILWU miners stood up and fought back non-violently over four months against Rio Tinto, a giant global conglomerate with a terrible anti-worker, anti-environmental record. The company tried to slash wages, benefits and worker protections in their new contract. Despite facing one of the largest mining companies in the world, the miners and their families brought the company to its knees by a massive pro-union campaign.

The Machinists (52 minutes)
Directed by: Hannan Majid and Richard York
Documentary Feature

In the teeming city neighborhoods of Bangladesh, young women work 15 hour days. In dangerous and dirty conditions, they make high fashion clothes for Europe and the USA. Their children suffer, their parents suffer and yet they find the will to fight back and organize a union. These women just suffered the worst factory fire disaster since the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in NYC over 100 years ago. Over 112 killed in one fire, with 7 more only weeks later.

Money and Honey (96 Minutes)
Directed by: Jasmine Ching-Hui Lee
Documentary Feature

This is an Asian epic documentary on migrant workers spanning thirteen years. Director Jasmine first came into contact with Filipino caretakers in the Taipei nursing home, where her grandparents were under care. Living away from their loved ones, both the Filipino caretakers and the elderly residents suffer from homesickness. Stories of joy and sorrow take place between them. The Filipino caretakers are humorous. They comfort themselves by singing a self-mocking song, 'No money, no honey'. Being a wife, a mother and a migrant worker, the Filipino women are smart. They know how to survive. And yet, the road home seems to grow longer and longer. What price do they have to pay for love and livelihood? Can their dreams ever come true? 

Mujeres Pa'lante (27 minutes)
Directed by: Tanja Wol Sorensen
Documentary Short

There are more than 500,000 domestic workers living in Spain today. The large majority are migrant women from Latin American countries. Through the stories of three Latin American women living in Barcelona, we get an insight into the reality of being a migrant woman and a domestic worker in Spain today. Through their own words, we learn about their motivations for crossing oceans to live in Catalonia, and why they choose to keep living outside of their native country. Despite the discrimination and abuse they experience, these women are actively trying to improve the rights and conditions for themselves and for others.

Nachtschicht (Night Shift) (65 minutes)
Directed by: Timo Grosspietsch
Documentary Feature

A butcher, a post office worker, a taxi driver, a nurse and a deejay are accompanied during their night in Hamburg. Documentary filmmaker and cameraman, Timo Grosspietsch, observes with his camera in such a way that involves the audience immediately. It is a quiet film that leaves room for the people portrayed and depicts their workplace in carefully composed images. It documents the tough daily life of those whose jobs nobody really wants to do anymore. 

Never Got a Dime (14 minutes)
Directed by: Shelby Hadden
Documentary Short

Never Got a Dime is the story of Lilly Ledbetter, a former manager at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama. On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the statute of limitations to reset 180 days after each discriminatory paycheck is issued. Ledbetter will always be remembered as a champion of women’s rights and equal pay.

New York Taxi Workers Alliance: Films from the Front Lines &
Historic Induction Into the AFL-CIO (6 minutes)
Directed by: Melanie Lindauer
Documentary Short

We see the battles right from the front lines of the struggle to organize taxi drivers in NYC. The NY Taxi Workers Alliance, the newest inductee into the historic AFL-CIO labor federation, has successfully taken thousands of independent contractors and molded them into a potent labor union force. This is the trailer for a future full-lenth feature on the long battle to organize these workers. 6 minutes.

99 Voices (15 minutes)           
Directed by: Alexandra Rosenmann
Documentary Short 

During the first two months of Occupy Wall Street, 99 occupants of Zuccotti Park were asked the same three questions. These are their answers.  

Occupy Sandy (5 minutes)
Directed by:Occupy Sandy Team
Documentary Short

When Occupy Wall Street was forcefully ejected from Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan, where did they go? What did they do to continue the protest and to show they were a valid social movement? This short film helps answer those questions.

Organize and Unite: A History of the Asian Pacific Labor Alliance
Directed by: Emmelle Israel and Ja-Rei Wang, 7 minutes
Documentary Short

The Asian and Pacific American Labor Alliance has been fighting to advance worker, immigrant and civil rights for its members and all workers since 1992. This short film celebrates their mission to connect Asian Pacific Americans with the broader labor movement. 

The Retail Action Project / RAP (9 minutes)
Directed by:(1)Retail Action Project/Yana (2) Erin Morgan
Documentary Short

One of the newest and smartest worker centers, seeking to organize thousands of NYC retail workers, tells their story. RAP has gone up against H& M, Juicy Couture, Abercrombie & Fitch and many other fashion icons. The issue is dignity and fairness in the workplace and a livable schedule for the employees that pays the bills. They are also making the public aware of the safety issues of working in retail in: Feel Safe At Work? Think Again!

The Resurgent Activist (12 minutes)
Directed by: Christian Hubshman
Documentary Short

Youth activism began in the U.S. in the mid-to late-nineteenth century when young activist initiated labor strikes in response to their working conditions, wages and hours. Often stereotyped and marginalized by the media, youth activists have often been at the forefront of progressive social movements, passing the torch for social justice from one generation to another. The Resurgent Activist explores youth activism from the 1960s to the present Occupy movements when once again the youth of today are calling attention to social problems and injustice in American society. Additionally, this video production will briefly show how youth activism has changed in the context of globalization, new technologies, and the mediating effect of mass media.

Risky Business: A Look Inside America's Adult Film Industry (102 minutes)
Directed by: David Mech
Documentary Feature

Risky Business: A Look Inside America's Adult Film Industry examines the social, psychological, and economic impacts of performing in adult films.  What makes people decide to become adult entertainers, how do they go about entering the business, what are their experiences in the business, and how do they deal with career options, finances, and relationships once they exit the business?  The documentary also examines proposed regulations that would address current industry issues, including workplace health and safety, such as mandatory STD testing and condom use, and job discrimination once performers decide to leave the industry and pursue conventional employment.

Salty Dog Blues (52 minutes)
Directed by: Alfred J. Santana and Denise Belen Santiago
Documentary Feature

'Salty Dog Blues' looks at a group of men and women of color who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine from 1938-1975. It examines their relationship to the National Maritime Union in the midst of a transition that left thousands of its members without health benefits. The NMU was forced to dismiss almost all of its original leadership for being members of the Communist Party. That left a vacuum in leadership, one which created a very sad situation for these working men and women.

School of Visual Arts Social Doc Block (40 minutes)
Directed by: Andres Arias (The Cigar Rollers), Alex Budman(The Morning Smile), Alex Budman(Hunts Point Market), Guillermo Fernández Flórez(Luchare Como Una Perra), Amitabha Joshi(Wonder Workshop Tanzania), Lucas Smith(The Ditch)
Documentary Shorts

The program in Social Documentary Film at the School of Visual Arts provides a solid foundation in the fundamentals of non-fiction filmmaking, as well as an immersion into the critical and analytical processes necessary to conceptualize and develop film projects with content of significant social relevance. This program represents the convergence of journalism, social activism and the art of filmmaking. These are films from the 2012-2013 school year.

Including: The Morning Smile 2:48,The Cigar Rollers 5:00, Hunts Point Market 2:06, Luchare Como Una Perra 5:52, Wonder Workshop Tanzania 5:31, The Ditch 4:47 

Set for Life (68 minutes)
Directed by: Susan Sipprelle, Co-Director, Sam Newman
Documentary Feature

Follows three Baby Boomers who struggle to recover from the impact of losing their jobs in the Great Recession. They grew up in an era of optimism and prosperity, but now they find themselves trying to hang onto their homes, health insurance and hope. Over time, the three boomers successfully cope with the drastic effects of unemployment on their lives, but their futures are no longer secure, and they have lost their confidence in the American Dream.  

Stitched Together (22 minutes)
Directed by: Will Delphia
Documentary Short

Throughout the country, college students are organizing and protesting at their campus bookstores to force them to stop buying sweatshop made clothing. In the Dominican Republic, labor activists, students and workers create an independently owned garment factory out of the ashes of an old Nike sweatshop. They call it Alta Gracia. Alta Gracia proves that garment workers can be paid a living wage, treated with dignity and the products can still make a profit.

System Preferences (34 minutes)
Directed by: Anya Belkina
Animated Short

Director and artist Anya Belkina brings back to life her late grandfather -- a pioneer of Soviet computing -- using technology he helped innovate six decades ago. System Preferences is an animated documentary that tells the story of Bashir Rameyev, who is on a quest to achieve something extraordinary for his country in order to prove that he and his family are not 'the enemies of the people'. The result of his struggle is the invention of a computer used to launch Sputnik into space and, as a consequence, to spur the headlong development of Russian and American microelectronics. The second narrative woven into Rameyev's story is organized around a central argument that USSR's 1969 decision to curtail national computer research in favor of cloning American products had tragic consequences not only for Russian computer science, but for the global community of computer users today. This is a must see film.

Tax The Rich:  An Animated Fairy Tale (8 minutes)
Directed by: Fred Glass, Animated by: Mike Konopacki
Animated Short 

Narrated by Ed Asner, this short cartoon parable about how we arrived at this historical moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality.  Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so sure. This land bears a startling resemblance to our land. 8 minutes 

The Welfare Myth (44 minutes)
Directed by: Tim Horvath and Dusan Krnac
Documentary Feature

A family in a Slovak village faces an impossible situation when one of the children falls seriously ill. The small boys' condition requires permanent care, expensive medicine and continuous trips to the capital, a seven hour train-ride from the village. In spite of intensive letter writing to the social authorities there is no help to get and the family becomes dependent on loans from high interest credit companies. The object of the film is not just the unfortunate family but more so the decay of welfare in Eastern Europe after twenty years of crony capitalism and neo-liberal governments busily trying to live up to austerity requirements from the west while indifferent to the plight of its people.

The Women Workers' War (54 minutes)
Directed by: Massimo Ferrari
Documentary Feature

This is a real story of two women who have acted in a virtuous way during the economic and moral crisis that we are experiencing. ROSA is a factory worker in Latina and leads 28 of her colleagues in an active and civil resistance occupying the factory (550 days) after receiving letters of redundancy. Rosa kept a diary of this occupation on Face book. She has been invited onto a number of Italian TV shows. The other woman is Margherita, the owner of a biscuits factory in Carrara. She decides to use a different entrepreneurial model based on a civil relationship with employees. These two women meet, first on Facebook, and then each one visits the factory of the other and imagines a new possible land.

Unequal Justice: The Relentless Rise of the 1% Court (20 minutes)
Directed by: Elena Mannes
Documentary Short

Unequal Justice: The Relentless Rise of the 1% Court explores the growing pro-corporate bias in key Court decisions and their real-world impact on ordinary Americans. Steadily and relentlessly, the Court has been transformed into an institution that frequently serves the interests of the wealthiest one percent. Taking judicial activism to new levels, these justices have rendered a series of pivotal cases to fundamentally change the balance of power in American society, favoring business interests and limiting access to legal remedies for everyone else. These decisions threaten to undermine the core concept of fairness that is embodied in the motto carved into the Supreme Court building, turning Equal Justice Under Law into Unequal Justice Under Law.

World’s Largest Unemployment Line (5 minutes)
Directed by: Phil Hopper
Documentary Short

On March 6^th, 2012, thousands of busy New Yorkers stopped for fourteen minutes on a very cold morning to line up on Broadway and remember the millions who are still unemployed due to the economic collapse created by the 1%ers. This was a cooperative project of both The Working Theater and HERE's Arts Project.

Your Day is My Night (64 minutes)
Directed by: Lynne Sachs,  Co-Director Sean Hanley will attend
Documentary and Narrative Feature

Part Documentary, part narrative, completely enlightening look at what it means to be a Chinatown NY resident for decades and still sharing a bed by shifts, called “shift-bedding.”  This film had it’s world premier in February at The Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight.
“Since the early days of New York’s Lower East Side tenement houses, working class people have shared beds, making such spaces a fundamental part of immigrant life. Initially documented in Jacob Riisʼ now controversial late 19th Century photography, a “shift-bed” is an actual bed that is shared by people who are neither in the same family nor in a relationship. Simply put, it’s an economic necessity brought on by the challenges of urban existence. Such a bed can become a remarkable catalyst for storytelling as absolute strangers become de facto confidants.

In this provocative, hybrid documentary, the audience joins a present-day household of immigrants living together in a shift-bed apartment in the heart of Chinatown. Seven characters (ages 58-78) play themselves through autobiographical monologues, verité conversations, and theatrical movement pieces. Retired seamstresses Ellen Ho and Sheut Hing Lee recount growing up in China during the turmoil of the 1950s when their families faced violence and separation under Chairman Maoʼs revolutionary, yet authoritarian regime. Yun Xiu Huang, a nightclub owner from Fujian Province, reveals his journey to the United States through the complicated economy of the “snakehead” system, facing an uphill battle as he starts over in a new city.

With each “performance” of their present, the characters illuminate both the joys and tragedies of their past. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals the collective history of Chinese immigrants in the United States, a story not often documented. Further, the intimate cinematography and immersive sound design carry us into the dreams and memories of the performers, bringing the audience into a community often considered closed off to non-Chinese speakers. Through it all, “Your Day is My Night” addresses issues of privacy, intimacy, and urban life in relationship to this familiar item of household furniture.” 

From www.lynnesachs.com 

SCREENPLAYS & SCREENWRITERS FINALISTS 

Learn From Mistakes

Written by: Alon Bar 

Liberated

Written by: Leslie Flannery (2012 Workers Unite Film Festival award Winner) 

Cutterjunk

Written by: Julian Hoxter

Bridge and Tunnel

Written by: Jason Michael Brescia

Gabriel's Calling

Written by: Megan Breen