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Global Union
Labour Film Shorts 2011

Over the last four years the Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival has taken place in the centre of Geneva enabling unions and working people worldwide to share their stories. This year in order to reach a wider international audience, the festival is refocusing to an on-line and DVD presentation that will be submitted to over 36 labour related film festivals around the world.

The one-hour DVD will focus on short films that are excellent examples of communicating labour stories and messages and the selection will include a range of different films from different parts of the world. The launch of the one-hour line-up will take place at the European Metalworkers' Federation "Unions in Motion" film festival, coming up on June 10 to 11, at Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg, Germany .

Submission of films on all labour issues are encouraged, however this year the line-up will feature films that focus on unions fighting back against austerity cuts.

To reach new audiences and promote the development of trade union films, the Global Union Federations in collaboration with the International Trade Union Confederation will together produce the Global Unions Labour Films Shorts 2011.


Brothers on the line

"Brothers On The Line" explores the influential journey of the Reuther brothers, labor statesmen and civil rights champions who dedicated their lives to the struggle for social justice. This film not only weaves a striking personal narrative of one family's commitment, but provides timely commentary on issues that resonate far beyond their era (pensions, healthcare, the environment, worker rights, democratic trade unionism around the world, etc.) By exploring this crucial piece of history, this film has the potential to motivate, educate, and contribute to the discourse on labor, civil rights and political action in the US and abroad.


Info: this is a trailer the documentary is not yet released
Country: USA
Time: 00:02:01
Director/Producer: Sasha Reuther
www.brothersontheline.com

Red Dust

"Red Dust" tells an unexamined side of China's economic development: the resistance, courage, and hope of workers battling occupational disease, demanding justice from the local government and global capital. Chinese migrant workers are deemed disposable by factory owners and are stereotypically viewed as quiet and passive victims. However, Ren and other GP workers (Min, Fu, and Wu) fight back. Labor issues are very sensitive in China, and workers who publicly discuss their struggles do so at great risk. The audience discovers along with the filmmaker, a Chinese American, the horrors of the global assembly line. This documentary is about women who are the engine of the global economy. Although the film takes place in China, the characters' experiences are universal to workers on the margins around the world, where poverty, migration, and workplace hazards are common realities.


Info: trailer
Country: CHINA
Time: 00:02:00
Director/Producer: Karin T Mak
http://www.reddustdocumentary.org

Locked Out

"Locked out" is a compelling story of 560 unionized borax miners in the desert town of Boron, California who faced off against Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multi-billion dollar global corporation, which is the 3rd largest mining company in the world. Boron, population 2000+, is home to many miners and their families, and is a close knit community of small businesses, churches, the Boy Scouts, the little league and many single family homes where workers have lived stable middle class lives for many generations. But their jobs and way of life were threatened when Rio Tinto locked them out of work on January 31st, 2010 and replaced them with scabs. Will the workers' way of life be destroyed? Who will win this David and Goliath struggle?


Info: trailer
Country: USA
Time: 00:01:02
Director/Producer: Joan Seckler
http://www.lockedout2010.org

Industria TV CCOO

A few years ago the Industry Federation of CCOO launched an on-line television programme called INDUSTRIA TV. Through this mean of communication CCOO has put together a video that summarizes the Spanish trade union fight against the most damaging labour reform.


Country: SPAIN
Time: 00:10:35
Director/Producer: INDUSTRIA TV
www.industriatv.com

UNI Short FILMS

Freedom From Fear
Time: 00:02:27
http://youtu.be/oxFYQ1-Rajo

Breaking Through Peace
Time: 00:03:21
http://youtu.be/kuiBRl39yrE

Breaking Through for Jobs & Justice in a Global Economic Crisis
Time: 00:03:17
http://youtu.be/6ttcnFwAitI

Country: GLOBAL
Producer: UNI

In To The Graveyard

Although we are all familiar with the shipping industry, there is an unknown aspect that has been ignored for too long and that is shipbreaking. When a ship is built it has a limited life, once it can no longer be used it is sent "into the Graveyard" which is generally known as a ship breaking yards. This documentary explore the appalling working conditions of shipbreaking workers in India.


Country: INDIA
Time: 00:22:15
Director/Producer: Prathamesh V. Rane

VER.DI Short FILMS

These films are all in German, I have contacted Ver.Di for the script, hopefully we will receive this soon and get it translated:


Respekt
Time: 00:01:08
http://youtu.be/-B0IqMpKyTA

Streik TV
Time: 00:03:22

Nixtal
Time: 00:03:16
http://youtu.be/3biO7JX3NpM

"wir sind mehr wert" - Schauspielerin
Time: 00:01:00
http://youtu.be/X89u0s4K6b4

"wir sind mehr wert" - Abspann
Time: 00:01:00
http://youtu.be/VBVMRbV0KNc

"wir sind mehr wert" - Vorführer
Time: 00:01:00
http://youtu.be/sxbq4koTD78

Country: GERMANY
Director/Producer: Ver.Di

The Fortune Hunters

Who are our fortune hunters? Who evades paying taxes and pockets large sums of money? This film forms part of an extensive Belgian campaign laathet grote geld niet ontsnappen (don't allow big money to escape) this campaign is devoted to greater fiscal justice. FAN, Belgium's financial action network will no longer put up with the growing divide between the rich and the poor, employers and employees and argues in favour of realism: social welfare and security will become affordable without redistribution and with fiscal justice.

Country: BELGIUM
Time: 00:15:02
Director Producer: Pieter De Vos
http://hetgrotegeld.lbc-nvk.be

When the Dust Settles

A documentary/drama that outlines uranium mining risks. When the Dust Settles is a 35-minute documentary film commissioned by the ETU Qld & NT for the purposes of a renewed campaign against the nuclear industry. It combines comedy and serious content to explain the dangers of uranium mining, the nuclear fuel cycle and the use of depleted nuclear materials - much of which originates in Australian uranium mines - in weapons production. It is presented on location at the Olympic Dam and Ranger uranium mines and Roxby Downs, by veteran Australian actor, and former electrician, Tony Barry. Academy Award nominee and internationally-respected Australian filmmaker, David Bradbury, of Frontline Films, was director. Other participants include Canadian nun, Dr Rosalie Bertell (who led an international team into Chernobyl), Dr Helen Caldicott (paediatrician and high-profile anti-nuclear campaigner), Dr Peter Karamoskos (nuclear radiologist and specialist in the health effects of radiation, including low level radiation), and a representative of the uranium mining industry. The film is based around a family, the Sparkies - played by Austen Tayshus, Mandy Nolan, Zoe Hutchence and Dylan Bradbury - who consider taking the big money on offer for electricians in the uranium mining industry until their son confronts them with the health and environmental risks.

Country: AUSTRALIA
Time: 00:37:00
Director/Producer: David Bradburry
A film for the ETU (Electrical Trades Union)

Iron Slaves

A documentary on the labour of Gadani ship breakers by Outfield Productions and Rockcreek Productions, screening sponsored by Human Rights Commisssion of Pakistan and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research on the International Day of Abolition of Slavery, December 2, 2010.

Time: 00:20:00
Director/Producer: Kahlid Khan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPr0HHMYsRE

Deconstructing Foxconn

Foxconn is the world's largest electronics manufacturer, producing iPhones, iPods, Nokias, etc. It employs more than 1,000,000 workers in China. In the first five months of 2010, the world was shocked to see a continuous series of suicides happening in Foxconn. What actually went wrong? This video is a visual footage for the report "Workers as Machines: Military management in Foxconn"

Time: 00:20:00
Director/Producer: Jack Qiu
http://vimeo.com/17558439

Tin Town, The unacceptable cost of the 2010 World Cup

In June 2010, the (men's) football World Cup finally arrived in Africa. Yet the "rules" for hosting the world's most popular event are often clouded by controversy and the event itself is often marked by injustice, corruption, and exploitation "on the ground." The 2010 World Cup in South Africa was no exception. Thousands of families already living in dire straits were brutally sentenced to a life of poverty, as they were evicted to tin shacks miles from their homes, hidden from the television screens and the world's media attention. Tin Town follows local residents through police brutality, family separation, and their struggle to reclaim the people's game.

Time: 00:30:00
Director/Producer: Geoff Arbourne
www.sportsforsolidarity.org

I'm okay... not really organizing migrant workers

This film is dedicated to all migrant workers who are separated from their families and communities. They are building our cities for our families and communities. This film is produced by Byggnads and BWI with funding from LOTCO and FNV Bouw.

Time: 00:24:00
Director: Mi Re Kim 2010