Matewan's great.
I would also recommend:
Norma Rae
Behind the Rent Strike
Radical Films
hmm...
i just watched escape from NY which was awesome. weatherman69 by raymond pettibon is an hilarious spoof on the weather people, i just fell in love with the Anderson films starting with If.... and then the next one is fantastic called O Lucky Man!"which has a soundtrack by Alan Price that just about says it all, and it's a sporting life was already mentioned in the literature section. An itallian giallo film called Death Laid an Egg is up there, about a chicken factory stalker. Godard!! Weekend is tops, among others. Leone films are not explicit, but last night i watched Duck You Sucker! (european title: Once Upon a Time in the Revolution) and that was excellent regardless of it's seemingly anti-revolutionary position. Leone considered himself an Anarchist. Then there is Pasolini!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is also the movie Reds with Waren Badey. Supposedly the film Landlord is amazing. Also don't forget They Live, and also Romero's zombie films, including season of the witch. God there are so many. And the resent film: There Will be Blood based on a book by Sinclair called Oil. And let's not forget the obvious Dialectics Break Bricks, etc. Hmm.... I'm going to go watch Born in Flames now-- which will also fit the bill. And, I can't forget that film on the red brigades i just saw resently called Year of the Gun. There are many many more, i just can't come up with them off the top right now.
Will get back soon...
maya
Personally I didn't like Matewan that much, seemed a bit two dimensional. Perhaps that's a bit harsh though, it's still worth a watch. Harlan County USA (about a miners strike again) on the other hand I thought was awesome, very interesting to see how the strike progresses, though it's actually a documentary rather than a dramatisation.
Not heard of most of those though, I'll have to get searching..
Joe wrote:
Harlan County USA (about a miners strike again) on the other hand I thought was awesome, very interesting to see how the strike progresses, though it's actually a documentary rather than a dramatisation.
The new DVD version of Harlan County has several special features, including candid interview segments of coal miners talking about things like communism -- they're almost innocently sincere when they say something about how it couldn't be worse than the way things already are. I know 2 Europeans (a German and Frenchman) who said that as they were getting radicalized in the 1970s, they were hardcore anti-imperialists and hated everything and everyone American -- until they saw Harlan County. It showed them that not all white working class Americans were bought off and live in luxurious suburban ranch-style homes, replete with swimming pools, garages filled with brand new cars, and houses full of all the latest electronic gadgets. Barbara Kopple, the filmmaker, seems to be capturing a more innocent time as the miners don't have the lame spectacular self-consciousness as the subjects of later documentaries do. Compare it to her later documentary "American Dream" about the Hormel P-9 Strike in Minnesota in the mid-1980s, where the scabs cry on screen about how much they care about their families. The humanizing of class betrayers in that film is total bullshit. Kopple should have smashed the scabs over the head with her camera.
Mikus, another good one for the film series, that captures the uniquely American conflict of race and class, is a fictionalized version of the 1919 race riots in Chicago called the Killing Floor. It's set in a meat packing plant and deals with the racial complications of organizing in that turbulent period before and after WWI. It's literally gut-wrenching watching the depictions of the hatred that drove the riots, but it's inspiring too to see the depictions of principled anti-racist class-conscious courage in the midst of it.
Also, the nearly lost version of Bo Wilderberg's The Ballad of Joe Hill, which was made in 1971. It was made for Paramount by a Swedish film crew, but filmed in the U.S. They went to Berkeley to get street people to be extras in scenes about laying railroad track through the Sierras, as a way to drastically cut down on costs by not paying the union scale. But later, when they hired actual IWW members in Sonoma County, it backfired when, in the spirit of Joe Hill, they went on strike and were able to win higher wages for everyone working on that location. Despite the attempts to use scab labor in its filming, it's still an excellent film.
"Sacco e Vanzetti"
"The Working Class Goes to Heaven" AKA "Lulu the tool" AKA "La classe operaia va in paradiso"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066919/ -> this is AWESOME. Great Gianmaria Volontè.... a Petri's film about "operaismo" (workerism), alienation....
A MUST.
What about Battleship Potemkin, also Strike two real classics in every sense of the term. There is the City of God, an excellent dramitization of the decent of a slum area into gangsterism, a really moving film.There is the Bicycle Thieves about the impact on a workers family when his bike is stolen, also the Rocco Brothers about the lives of migrant workers in Turin at the end of the 1950's.
Does anyone know if it is possible to get hold of copies (or information about) the 'Socialist films' made in the US before WW1? I cannot remember the book I read but it said that there was a whole genre of these films produced by socialist organisations
Thanks you all. That's a lot of good suggestions that I'll try to get my hands on.
I probably should have made more clear in the initial post that the idea was to get groups of class conscious workers together watching radical films that focus on labor struggles, so while I really like stuff like City of God, or anything by Romero, and I do think these have class conscious messages to varying extents, it'd probably be best to stick with explicitly political themes. (I broke this own rule in my list. I probably shouldn't have put up things like Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, or Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda.)
Can't think of any other workplace struggle films.
Those two rent strike films are also here if you want a quick preview. Footage of the riot in Kamagasaki (Osaka) 1990 here: http://libcom.org/library/1990-kamagasaki-nishi-nari-riot-video
For films by and about anarchists Richard Portons book film and the anarchist imgination is a great start. You could also check out the Christie films channel on Brightcove he has an amazing list of films available to stream and may be able to help you out with getting decent quality hard copies.
Rocking the foundations - I think that's the name - a documentary on the New South Wales Building Labourers' Union. Staggering in consequence, it relates the social strikes and bans this union used to protect working class interests in 1960s-70s Sydney. My favourite part being a number of middle aged labourers explaining their support of gay and lesbians, they are kind of shaking their heads in disbelief, but by hell they believe in solidarity. remember this is something like 1970.
Joe: Many of my friends in the UK have told me Matewan is too black and white. But it's historically accurate to the miner's struggles in that part of the US. Hell, it leaves off when the US Army started using airplanes to bomb striking miner's towns. And the Miner's army that was armed with machine guns brought home from World War 1. The organizer's character is directly taken from Ralph Chaplin's experiences as told in his autobiography "Wobbly".
I know it's not what US looks like usually, but to me it's a very accurate portrayal of part of US working class history.
Asher wrote:
Yeah, fnbrill, it is called Rocking The Foundations, and its well worth watching.
I heard a while back that Rocking the Foundations was being remastered onto DVD but haven't heard anything since. but yeah it's well worth a watch
Also from this side of the world the doco on the PYM (progressive youth movement) is worth a watch the name escapes me right now....
this film relates back to another discussion about consciouness on the forum:
Quote:
Two other elements of this film are also symbolic of social and historical phenomena. The first is the de-omisation efforts conducted by the Traags. These efforts eerily resemble Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps. Although the film does not spend much time graphically depicting the actual horrors of these exterminations, this is probably purposeful, because the film does an excellent job of portraying the terror they cause. The threat of de-omisation lurks larger than the actual de-omisation efforts themselves. This is a textbook study of how to psychologically terrorise a society. Often, the threat can be more demoralising and controlling than the act itself because the threat persists and endures while the act, albeit horrific and nightmarish, ends. Oppressive or terrorist states want the terror they create to linger and penetrate the consciousness of their victims. This is difficult to do when that consciousness has been exterminated. Thus, Laloux's film is a provocative foray into the psychology of state-sponsored terror.
very silly and dated in many respects, but Alphaville is worth seeing.
Quote:
J.G. Ballard summed it up well: ‘For the first time in science fiction film, Godard makes the point that in the media landscape of the present day the fantasies of science fiction are as ‘real’ as an office block, an airport or a presidential campaign. ’ Chris Darke
Boulcolonialboy wrote:
ein auslander wrote:
Saw that projected at a club in Belfast. Sorry like but I thought it was pretentious arty shite.
Isn't the definiton of pretentious
1. Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified.
2. Making or marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious.
At what point does a metaphor for genocidal history become something that is unjustified or extravagant?
ein auslander wrote:
Boulcolonialboy wrote:
ein auslander wrote:
Saw that projected at a club in Belfast. Sorry like but I thought it was pretentious arty shite.
Isn't the definiton of pretentious
1. Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified.
2. Making or marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious.At what point does a metaphor for genocidal history become something that is unjustified or extravagant?
when it's done in a pretentious manner.
ein auslander wrote:
the film is arty - it's animation. that's why there is blue alien on the cover. animation invariably tries to portray things that real life acting can't do on film. i will try and find a cover for you which is less vomit-inducing.
okay so it's arty animation, sounds like shite for sure now.
ein auslander wrote:
oh fuck off, at what point does animation become shite? when revol says so.
when it looks like turd and is being done by a bunch of arty pricks overlabouring a tenously extended political metaphor. Which i'm willing to stake my cock on this film being despite having never seen it.
Myself and some other people may try to get a radical film night together in our area. I was wondering if people have suggestions for radical films and documentaries. I'd particularly like to know about films/documentaries on labor struggles, but stuff like the Black Panthers, Young Lords, Zapatistas, and so forth are of interest as well. And naturally I think we'd show films on groups that some or all of us are very critical of, as well. The only thing I'm not terribly interest in is documentaries on consumer culture.
Here is a list of videos that I either have or have access to:
ABC da Greve
The Battle of Algiers
Burn!
Death of a Revolutionary - Word In Action
Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda
Finally Got the News
Forat
Huey Newton
Land & Freedom
Matewan
Our Paul - Remembering Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson, Tribute to an Artist
El Pueblo Se Levanta
Robeson on Robeson
The Russian Revolution in Colour
Sir No Sir
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
The Take
De Toda la vida
Los Traidores
Unforgiveable Blackness
Vale a Pena Sonhar
Watermelon Man
The Wobblies
Zapatista
Anything else would be greatly appreciated.
Also does anyone know where I can get an actual hands on copy of Los Traidores? The version I have is really bad quality and may not work to show on a big screen.
And does anyone know where I can get my hands on speeches by old figures like CLR James? I remember hearing a recording of a speech that CLR James gave (maybe to a trade union, I don't remember) and liking it.