State of the Union

Unraveling one of the biggest environmental scandals of our time, a group of citizens in West Virginia take on a powerful corporation after they discover it has knowingly been dumping a toxic chemical — now found in the blood of 99.7% of Americans — into the local drinking water supply.

At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza, with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.

The current trend to render prostitution a profession "as any other" is belied by women who were themselves prostitutes. With clarity and courage, the women in this film reveal the hidden face of that so-called "sex work". They are 22, 34 or 48 years old; they live in Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa - They have recently given up prostitution, or are trying to escape it. These women are leading the bitter fight to turn their lives around and it is a long and lonely struggle fraught with difficulties. Shot in a Cinéma Vérité style, The Fallacy (L'imposture) takes us to the heart of their realities.

During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.

A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.

This is the story of a team of 40 agents facing 4,000 job seekers at a job centre in the Parisian suburbs. Samia, Corinne, Thierry, Zuleika must support and monitor, bring in the numbers, obey policy guidelines and communication injunctions, and find job offers while none is to be found. Will their strong sense of humor save them from the Kafkaian world they work in?

In 1910, women working in the silk industry in Bursa, protest against the working conditions. They go on strike.

Since the 1970s and the influx of European, Chinese, Russian, and Turkish trawlers, West African waters have been overexploited. Whether for fishing or fishmeal production, these foreign powers have endangered the livelihoods of local fishermen and artisans.

The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.

The Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) invited an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) delegation to Haiti to learn about their fight against "le plan neoliberal" and recruit help in the form of material aid and solidarity. The delegation was in Haiti from April 24 to May 25, 2008, two weeks after the country erupted in mass protest at burgeoning food prices. This video shares the stories and experiences.

In a highly controversial move, the Justice Department used the RICO statute to take over the entire International Brotherhood of Teamsters, denying free speech and due process for 1.4 million union members over a 30 year period. 'Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union' explores how the Justice Department violated the law and failed to protect constitutional rights of union members.

After losing his job during lockdown, Natan signs up to a microtask website. Having become a “Turker” alongside tens of thousands of others, he is paid a cent for each face he erases on Google Street View. Under the guise of Otto, a fictional character, he embarks on an experimental and playful investigation into “clickworkers”, haunted by the spectre of Beckett.

In 1920, workers from Patagonia, in Southern Argentina, gather around an anarcho-syndicalist society and go on strike, demanding better working conditions. When the situation turns unsustainable, President Yrigoyen sends Lieutenant Colonel Zavala to impose order.

Documentary depicting the life and history of labour struggle of Bairro dos Pescadores, in Setúbal, while following the life of a street artist.

Paul Bedel will be 75 soon. He's and old bachelor, a peasant, a fisherman and a verger. He lives in a farm from another time with his two sisters, also unmarried. This year, they will retire : « Our lives will be filled with emptiness ». Their territory is the Cape of la Hague. The air is bracing, the wind is unpredicable, the granit is rough, and the horizon without boundaries. In here, Paul resisted to modernity, keen to preserve and improve his link to nature.

July, 1936. The terrible Spanish Civil War begins. When the streets are taken by the working class, the social revolution begins as well. The public shows are socialized, a model of production and exhibition of films, never seen before in the history of cinema, is created, where the workers are the owners and managers of the industry, through the unions.

When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided and the very future of this typical mid American town is threatened.

Shrouded in secrecy and notoriously cash-strapped the North Korean regime has resorted to running one of the world's largest slaving operations - exploiting the profits to fulfil their own agenda. These bonded labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, we reveal the scale and brutality of the operation and ask what, if anything, is being done to stop it.

"The Pipeline of the Century -- How Soviet Natural Gas Came to the West" by director Matthias Schmidt shows touching personal memories. The production is a treasure trove of material in which previously unpublished visual material about the construction of the century and its builders can be seen. Writer & Director Matthias Schmidt ; A Co-Production by LOOKSfilm and MDR in Cooperation with ARTE