DC Labor FilmFest

DC Labor FilmFest
October 9 - 14

Organized and presented by the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute and the American Film Institute, DC Labor FilmFest 2008 boasts an array of new films and beloved classics about work and workers, from the American office to the far-flung factories of the global economy. For more information, visit dclaborfilmfest.org.
 

RAMIN BAHRANI: A Work In Progress

Ramin Bahrani has become one of the directors the DC Labor FilmFest keeps close track of. In just a few feature films, Bahrani--a young director who opened the 2006 festival with MAN PUSH CART--has quickly established himself not only as a filmmaker with strong sympathies for the day-to-day lives of real working people but also as an exquisite cinematic artist with a keen eye for both grit and beauty. Life is tough and often disappointing in Bahrani's films and he offers no easy, sentimental endings, yet audiences invariably leave screenings of his films feeling surprisingly uplifted, as though they have gotten a glimpse of something true and valuable. DC Labor FilmFest is very pleased to screen Bahrani's latest gem, CHOP SHOP, and to bring back his brilliant MAN PUSH CART for a much-deserved encore performance.

MAN PUSH CART

In an affecting and well-told story, Ahmad drags his coffee and bagel cart through Manhattan traffic to set up for the daily rush of morning commuters. Once a famous pop singer in Pakistan, Ahmad is recognized by a young executive who promises to connect him to the right people. Ahmad toils and waits, struggling with his past and self-worth while pining for Neomi, a young Latina woman who works at a neighboring newsstand.

DIR/SCR/PROD Ramin Bahrani; PROD Brian Bell, Bedford T. Bentley, Tom Donahue, Pradip Ghosh, Anura Idupuganti. US, 2005, color, 87 min. In English and Urdu with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Friday, October 10, 6:45
 

CHOP SHOP

The story of Alejandro, a twelve-year-old Latino street orphan in Willet's Point, aka the "Iron Triangle," a vibrant, sprawling, industrial neighborhood teeming with auto-body repair shops, scrap yards and garbage dumps on the outskirts of Queens, NY. Although conditions are harsh, the boy's life is sprinkled with moments of happiness as he carves out a life for himself in the shadow of a glittering Shea Stadium. Intimate, heartbreaking and yet ultimately hopeful, CHOP SHOP is a portrait of a young boy navigating his way through a chaotic adult world.


DIR/SCR Ramin Bahrani; SCR Bahareh Azimi; PROD Jeb Brody, Lisa Muskat, Marc Turtletaub. US, 2007, color, 84 min. NOT RATED

Friday, October 10, 8:45; Wednesday, October 15, 6:30*  

STOP-LOSS

What happens when your boss breaks your contract? If he's the President of the United States, you've got a problem. When decorated Iraq war hero Ryan Phillippe returns to his small Texas hometown following his tour of duty, he tries to resume the life he left behind. But when the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq against his will--"stop-loss," the involuntary extension of a soldier's active duty--the conflict tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty of friendship, the limits of love and the value of honor. Co-sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War and U.S. Labor Against the War.

DIR/SCR Kimberly Peirce; SCR Mark Richard; PROD Gregory Goodman, Kimberly Peirce, Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin. US, 2008, color, 112 min. RATED R

Thursday, October 9, 7:00

THE PROMOTION

Seann William Scott is an assistant manager at a grocery store chain in Chicago. Things are okay--he has a loving wife, Jenna Fischer, and gets along well with his co-workers--until his dreams of a new management position are disrupted by the arrival of John C. Reilly, a new assistant manager who also shows interest in the job. The two men, both essentially nice guys, are forced to compete ruthlessly for the coveted position, goaded into betraying themselves by engaging in dirty tricks in a head-to-head battle of wills.

DIR/SCR Steven Conrad; PROD Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, Steven A. Jones. US, 2008, color, 85 min. RATED R

Thursday, October 9, 9:40; Saturday, October 11, 9:00

OFFICE SPACE With red stapler raffle!

Office workers of the world, unite...you have nothing to lose but your TPS reports!

A perennial Labor FilmFest favorite, the outrageously funny and twisted OFFICE SPACE returns this year with Gary Cole as the smarmy and self-satisfied boss and Ron Livingston as the fed-up 9-to-5er who decides to exact financial justice on the computer company where he works. Ignored on theatrical release, the film (with a young Jennifer Aniston) has become a cult classic.

DIR/SCR/PROD Mike Judge; PROD Daniel Rappaport, Guy Riedel. US, 1999, color, 89 min. RATED R

Friday, October 10, 10:30; Saturday, October 11, 10:45; Sunday, October 12, 9:00

THE MISSING STAR
[La Stella che non c'è]

When an Italian steel mill closes down, its refurbished blast furnace is sold to a Chinese broker who whisks it away, despite warnings of a potentially fatal design flaw. Engineer Sergio Castellitto, who has figured out how to repair the flaw, sets off for China to find the furnace, embarking on a journey that will take him deep into a strange country and into himself. Working conditions in China have been the subject of many documentaries, but none so revealing as this quiet drama. As the determined engineer travels, he comes "face to face with abject poverty and abandoned children, overcrowded apartment blocks and a remote socialist metropolis still presided over by statues of Mao," --Deborah Young, Variety

DIR/SCR Sergio Castellitto; SCR Umberto Contarello, based on The Dismissal by Ermanno Rea; PROD Marco Chimenz, Giovanni Stabilini, Riccardo Tozzi. Italy/France/Switzerland/Singapore, 2006, color, 103 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 11, 12:45

THE CROWD
With live musical accompaniment by organist Ray Brubacher!

This realistic, bittersweet drama of the day-to-day existence of an ordinary American is as relevant today as it was in 1928, just before the Great Crash. Director King Vidor's timeless silent American film masterpiece speaks to us 80 years later as we see James Murray, an Everyman white-collar worker, trying to make it with his wife in the big city, where they must cope with cramped living conditions, a boring job and a limited life with regret and bitterness. King Vidor received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

DIR/SCR King Vidor; SCR John V. A. Weaver, Joe Farnham; PROD Irving Thalberg. US, 1928, b&w, 104 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 11, 3:00

NOTE BY NOTE: THE MAKING OF STEINWAY L1037
In Person: Director Ben Niles

The 2007 SILVERDOCS sensation returns to AFI. Can craftsmanship survive in an age of mass-production and consumption? The most thoroughly handcrafted instruments in the world, Steinway pianos are as unique and full of personality as the world-class musicians who play them. However, their makers --members of Local 81-102 of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America--are a dying breed: skilled cabinet-makers, gifted tuners, thorough hand-crafters. NOTE BY NOTE follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand from forest floor to concert hall. The documentary also features interviews and performances with world-class artists including Chinese phenom Lang Lang, Helene Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and jazz greats Hank Jones, Marcus Roberts, Kenny Barron, Harry Connick, Jr. and Bill Charlap.

DIR/PROD Ben Niles; PROD Geoff O'Brien. US, 2007, color, 81 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, October 11, 5:10

KABLUEY

Last year's OFFICE SPACE! Scott Prendergast is paid $6 an hour to stand on the side of a highway in a blue foam-rubber suit as Kabluey, the corporate mascot of a failing Internet company. Though Prendergast has a hard time doing his job--the fliers he passes out keep slipping from his inflated blue paws--he manages to find "an odd kind of transcendence in the work," writes Stephen Holden in The New York Times, adding that Kabluey "portrays a demoralized American work force fearfully going through the motions of life while waiting without much hope for things to get better."

DIR/SCR Scott Prendergast; PROD Jeff Balis, Rhoades Rader, Rick Rosenthal, Gary Dean Simpson, Douglas J. Sutherland. US, 2007, color, 86 min. RATED PG-13

With:
THE PLANNING LADY
Candice, an elementary student, is confused about her future career until she sits down with her school guidance counselor, who helps Candice realize her dream career path and, in the process, learns an important lesson from the young girl about keeping dreams alive. A light-hearted comedy that reminds us there is no age limit on the age-old question of what we want to be when we grow up. Official Selection, 2008 DC Shorts Film Festival.
DIR Marty Shea. US, 2007, 9 min.

Saturday, October 11, 7:05

9 STAR HOTEL
[Malon 9 Kochavim]

Thousands of Palestinians have illegally crossed borders into neighboring Israel, seeking work as day laborers in construction. Director Ido Haar follows his subjects closely as they flee from police, risk their lives and sleep in hovels at night to build luxury housing by day. 9 STAR HOTEL is a devastating documentary portrait of young men caught in an economic and political maelstrom not of their own making--their dreams subsumed by the hard reality of day-to-day survival. (note courtesy Rochester Labor Film Series)

DIR Ido Haar. Israel, 2007, color, 78 min. In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles. NOT RATED

With:
THE JOB
The immigration debate just got a little funnier. Director Jonathan Browning turns the world of labor relations upside down in this short comedy about the issues faced by day laborers in the US. Winner of an Audience Choice Award at the 2007 DC Shorts Film Festival.
DIR Jonathan Browning. US, 2008, 3 min.

Sunday, October 12, 1:00

MODERN TIMES
#33 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs!

Chaplin's Little Tramp gets trapped in the coils of automation--at one point literally--so frenziedly tightening screws on the assembly line that, once off it, he compulsively tightens buttons on women. Inspired by Rene Clair's A NOUS LA LIBERTE, this corrosive satire on the dehumanizing effects of technology gives its screeches, groans and grinds more lines than the actors. One of Chaplin's most lighthearted works, with highlights including his helpful waving of a red flag dropped by a departing truck just as a Communist demonstration marches up behind him. The final shuffling walk into the distance was the last the Tramp would take--but this time in the vivacious company of Paulette Goddard's "Gamin." This sparkling new 35mm restoration print was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival's closing night.

DIR/SCR/PROD Charles Chaplin. US, 1936, b&w, 87 min. NOT RATED

Sunday, October 12, 2:45

END OF THE LINE
[Fim da Linha]

A World Bank official supposedly said that the only way to really share the wealth in Brazil would be to throw money from a helicopter. END OF THE LINE takes this idea literally and spins it into a clever black comedy. A series of seemingly unrelated events that turn out to be closely interwoven: an Indian tribe goes on strike, refusing to perform their rain dance; a drought creates a power blackout; and a journalist is working on a documentary about Charles Ponzi, the inventor of the pyramid fraud. Meanwhile, a politician wins the lottery, a baby goes missing and money rains from the sky. Everything comes together in an exciting parable about what happens when people put their faith in the absolute power of money.

DIR/SCR/PROD Gustavo Steinberg; SCR Guilherme Werneck; PROD Clarissa Knoll. Brazil, 2008, color, 76 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Sunday, October 12, 7:00

GREAT WORLD OF SOUND

Acclaimed at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, this unique American indie plays like a mix of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and AMERICAN IDOL. A close-up look at the practice of 'song sharking,' the story focuses on pensive Pat Healy and garrulous Kene Holliday, salesmen recruited by a shady record label to seek out new talent, and sell phony recording deals. At first oblivious to the scam, the duo soon realize they're being conned just like the musicians. "Its sense of place, of lonely hotel rooms and fly-by-night offices decorated with spray-painted gold records, is as nicely observed as its morally compromised characters." --Manohla Dargis, The New York Times (note courtesy Rochester Labor Film Series)

DIR/SCR/PROD Craig Zobel; SCR George Smith; PROD David Gordon Green, Melissa Palmer, Richard A. Wright. US, 2007, color, 106 min. RATED R

Sunday, October 12, 4:40; Tuesday, October 14, 9:45