please? i have to come up with some ideas for a “social justice film series” and hours of googling are not turning out very successful. (“nobelity” looks interesting, though—i want to see it so why wouldn’t other people? also, we have already shown “darfur diaries.”)
requirements:
-films college students would presumably give up some free time to see (so perhaps not documentaries...? or super-topical ones?)
-films i could probably get the rights to show publicly without having to pay hundreds of dollars
i know this isn’t a super-fun question, but i would really appreciate your help. ilxers are good with suggestions in general. thank you so much for any help.
HARLAN COUNTY USA
I am required by marriage and my social conscience to mention Sheriff, which is Wiseman-style verite and therefore the opposite of super-topical BUT worth mentioning anyway...
I saw a decent labor film a couple years ago about SEIU organizing janitors. Can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called.
Matewan
search Ken Loach films, see what applies (pref with subtitles)
I loved Delivered Vacant, which is about the gentrification of Hoboken, NJ. But it wasn’t widely released and I think it might be expensive—not sure. If you google it I think the site for the distributor comes up.
Stence OTM re: Harlan County.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
But not the depressingly poorly constructed sequel.
there’s taht vietnam movie hearts and minds and thumbs and butts and gutts or whatever it’s called, too.
Blue Vinyl and A Healthy Baby Girl and The Uprising of ’34 by Judith Helfand are all really really good. Funny, smart, personal and fast-paced.
Judith is also very approachable and open to ideas.
A woman I know was able to show “Vienna Tribunal” and “Born Into Brothels” as part of her social justice film festival at Mt. Holyoke. College. i could find out more details for you, but probably not until next semester.
Both are very good.The films.
East Side Story, a really unusual, thoughtful & entertaining flick about the 14 musicals made in Soviet Russia/East Germany. It talks about how hard it is to make creative films when all is supposed to be heavy social commentary. Might be a nice reprieve from The Sorrow & the Pity. Maybe not.
abbott otm
God Sleeps in Rwanda
With Babies and Banners
harlan county otm.
also the janitors one is poss. ken loach’s “bread and roses” — i thort it was pretty corny but ok.
farmingville was pretty awesome.
East Side Story is a bit of a stretch for “social justice films.”
Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaade (or several of his others — no idea about cost)
The best recent fiction film on the subject is definitely Human Resources (Ressources humaines). It’s a French flick about a young lawyer who goes to work on the factory where his dad is a manual labourer, but realizes that during the transition period to the 35 hour work week their going to screw a bunch of workers (including his dad) up the ass, so he decides to help them organize a strike. Very effective stuff both on an artistic and political level.
As for the documentary side, I’d recommend Dark Days. It’s about homeless people who live in the sewers of NYC, the director shot it for years, and at one point ended up living there himself. It’s such a unbelievable-yet-true story that it should interest even bored college students.
‘nightcleaners’ (1975)
If you’re willing to show a very left-wing but also very effective anti-globalism/neoliberalism documentary, I’d recommend this fine flick made by a Haitian director.
The Take—recentish documentary about workers in Argentina who take over their closed factory and refuse to leave: http://www.thetake.org/
Also, if you’re looking for a non-documentary, you can’t ever go wrong with Salt Of The Earth: http://imdb.com/title/tt0047443/
Nor La Haine.
Tuomas, none of the films you’re recommending are social-justice-related documentaries! Which is not to say they’re not good! But to me it sounds like Maria is looking for specific stories of people organizing themselves to take control of situations where capitalism and/or governments are conspiring to fuck up their lives.
I’ve never heard of The Take, it looks good.
My mom has been working for years on a movie tentatively titled Morristown, about Latino poultry workers in Tennessee. It’s not out yet but if you’re interested I have no doubt she would give you “the fine cut” of it, Maria!
I thought this would be a pullapartgirl thread.
But to me it sounds like Maria is looking for specific stories of people organizing themselves to take control of situations where capitalism and/or governments are conspiring to fuck up their lives.
Well, at least Human Resources is exactly about that, and she didn’t say they need to be documentaries. Also, I’m not sure if a “social justice related films” should necessarily be about people organizing, can’t they just be critiques of the injustices of capitalism?
I enthusiastically second Matewan. It not only fits the bill, it’s a great movie, too.
Also maybe Norma Rae and North Country.
I think Dark Days is an appropriate recommendation, definitely.
I haven’t actually seen The Two Towns of Jasper yet, but I’ve heard great things about it (and it sounds great)...