Labor Film Festival and Citizen Empowerment Workshops

Thursday, April 28

 422E, 502 and 616B RIEVESCHL

(view the flyer)

 

Films 3:00pm – 9:00pm in 502 RIEVESCHL

Workshop 3:00pm – 4:15pm and 4:30 – 5:45pm (repeat) in 422E RIEVESCHL

Refreshments & Information Desk from 3:00 – 9:00pm in 616B RIEVESCHL 

 

Living History:  From Yesterday's Social Movements to Today's Labor Battles in Ohio and Beyond

Citizen Empowerment Workshop

How to Research the Persons & Organizations behind Political Movements and Legislative Proposals

3-4:15 or 4:30-5:45

422E RIEVESCHL

 

In today’s fractured media environment and complex political scene, it’s hard to know where political movements or legislative proposals are really coming from, whether “left”, “right” or “center.”

From University of Wisconsin-Madison historian William Cronon’s “Study Guide for Those Wishing to Know More,” available at Professor Cronon’s blog: http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/ 

 “After watching the sudden and impressively well-organized wave of legislation being introduced into state legislatures that all seem to be pursuing parallel goals only tangentially related to current fiscal challenges–ending collective bargaining rights for public employees, requiring photo IDs at the ballot box, rolling back environmental protections, privileging property rights over civil rights, and so on–I’ve found myself wondering where all of this legislation is coming from.”

At this workshop, you’ll learn how to research that question for yourself!

 

Films

At the River I Stand

California Newsreel (1993), 56 minutes 

Documentary film and discussion

3:00-4:15pm

RIEVESCHL 502             

                  

At the River I Stand skillfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a strike by Memphis sanitation workers into a national conflagration, and disentangles the historical forces that came together with the inevitability of tragedy at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.                  

Recipient of the 1994 Erik Barnouw Award for Best Documentary, organization of American Historians

“More than any other Civil Rights documentary, this is a deeply emotional, riveting narration of black working-class resistance that speaks to the current crisis and jars our collective memory.  To see these determined, dignified sanitation workers and to witness the Black Memphis community’s solidarity with the strikers was enough to bring tears.”  --- Robin D. G. Kelley, Columbia University

 

You May call Her Madam Secretary

Vineyard Video Productions (1987), 58 minutes

Documentary film and discussion 

4:30-5:45pm

RIEVESCHL 502             

 

You May Call Her Madam Secretary chronicles the life of the New Deal’s Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, and traces the rise of social conscience in this country: from the outrage that followed the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 (still the worst industrial fire in U.S. history) to the revolutionary legislation of the New Deal: Social Security, unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, the regulation or banning of child labor.

Awards:

  • Red Ribbon, American Film & video Festival
  • Cine Golden Eagle
  • Outstanding Film List, Booklist and Choice (American Library Association)
  • Chris Bronze Plaque (Columbus International Film Festival)

“A splendid, touching, effective job…I hope the Frances Perkins film gets the widest possible circulation.” – Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

 

Social Genocide (Memoria del Saqueo)

Fernando E. Solanas, Argentina (1994) 114 minutes

(In Spanish, with English Subtitles)

Documentary film and discussion 

6:30-9pm

RIEVESCHL 502             

 

The United States is not alone in its debate on the proper role of the government in the economy.  What makes for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy?  After the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, successive democratic governments launched a series of reforms purporting to turn Argentina into the world's most liberal and prosperous economy.  Less than twenty years later, according to Solanas (konwn as "the Argentinian Michael Moore"), Argentineans have lost literally everything:  major national companies have been sold well below value to foreign corporations; the proceeds of privatizations have been diverted into the pockets of corrupt officials; revised labour laws have taken away all rights from employees; in a country that is traditionally an important exporter of foodstuffs, malnutrition is widespread; millions of people are unemployed and sinking into poverty; and their savings have disappeared in a final banking collapse.  The film highlights numerous political, financial, social and judicial aspects that mark out Argentina's road to ruin. 

 

Awards, 2004

  • Berlin International Film Festival
  • Ghent International Film Festival
  • Istanbul International Film Festival
    • Montreal Festival of World Cinema
    • Vienna International Film Festival

Awards, 2004

  • Palm Springs International Film Festival
  • San Francisco International Film Festival

“…Solanas takes his legendary epic film ‘The Hour of the Furnaces’ and brings us the first great fresco against neoliberalism.  It is not just the complaint of Menem, but the global model.  It is an act of courage and a film full of emotion.  Aesthetics and lyricism melt into a clear political analysis.”

          ---Gillo Pontecorvo