2007 Labor Film Special EventsAll films shown at the Eastman House Dryden Theater, 900 East Avenue.
This eye-opening new documentary may cause you tothink twice before your next trip to Starbucks. By contrasting thriving coffee shops in Europe and North America against devastatingly poor coffee farms in Ethiopia, the filmmakers shed light on the unfair trade and labor practices that have kept Africa mired in poverty for solong. Black Gold’s central figure is Tadesse Meskela, manager of a farmers’ cooperative. He travels the world trying to negotiate fair prices for his members and explain to Westerners that most of their coffee dollar is going into the pockets of commodities traders and multi-national corporations.
A former Pakistani rock star Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) spends his days selling coffee and doughnuts from a cart that he pushes and pulls through Manhattan streets. We follow Ahmad as he works endless, physically grueling hours, reflects on his estrangedfamily, and befriends a young Spanish woman (Leticia Dolera) who works at a newsstand. His travail — its repetition and futility — transfigure Ahmed as a Sisyphus in the global economy.
Winner of the Best First Feature Film at the Toronto Film Festival, this delightful pseudo-documentary follows Montreal resident Christophe (Paul Ahmarani) as he searches for a meaningful job while trying to collect unemployment benefits denied to him on a technicality. Meanwhile, his filmmaker roommate receives more and more funds to complete the documentary project that details Christophe’s increasingly desperate situation. Funny and ironic, writer and director Falardeau artfully, cleverly, and sometimes painfully illustrates how losing a job can mean losing your social identity.
Based on the true story of one of the most notorious trials in American judicial history, this film follows two Italian immigrants, admitted anarchists, through their trial, conviction, and subsequent execution. With Gian Maria Volonte, Riccardo Cucciolla, and Cyril Cusack. Score by Ennio Morricome, the “Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti” written and sung by Joan Baez.
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