Friday, February 3

Locked Out
6:30 p.m.
Joan Sekler (2010) www.lockedout2010.org
In the wind-swept sands of California's Mojave Desert sits a small town called Boron, population 2000. It is home to one of the largest borates mines in the world. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational company, whose net earnings in 2009 were nearly $5 billion dollars. This company has faced lawsuits by communities around the world over destruction of their way of life and pollution of their environment. In the fall of 2009, when the ILWU Local 30 miners' contract expired, Rio Tinto decided to drastically cut the miner's pay and benefits. But the workers rejected this and the company retaliated by locking out the workers on January 31, 2010. For 107 days the miners and their families stood up to Rio Tinto.

Made in Dagenham
8:10 p.m.
Nigel Cole (2010) www.sonyclassics.com/madeindagenham/#/home
Reminiscent of Norma Rae, this film chronicles an historic 1968 strike at a British Ford factory. Led by spunky Rita O'Grady (Sally Hawkins), the women walk out when they learn that management has classified them as unskilled workers and substantially capped their wages. Dealing with issues still very much with us"the pay gap, collusion between bosses and union reps, global corporate power and the surprising sexism of supposed liberal allies"this film is inspiring entertainment. Co-starring Bob Hoskins and Miranda Richardson.


Saturday, February 4

The Dark Side of Chocolate
6:30 p.m.
U. Roberto Romano/Miki Mistrati (2010) www.thedarksideofchocolate.org
Is the chocolate we eat produced with the use of child labor and trafficked children? The journalist-filmmakers traveled to West Africa where hidden footage reveals illegal trafficking of small children to the cocoa fields in neighboring Ivory Coast--the world's largest producer of cocoa with more than 40 percent of the world's production. Kids as young as seven years old work illegal in the plantations where they face a dangerous job cutting down the cocoa and carrying heavy loads. Some are victims of trafficking and most of the kids are never paid.

Jaffa, the Orange's Clockwork
8:00 p.m.
Eyal Sivan (2009) www.trabelsiproductions.com/Jaffa.php
This film narrates the visual history of the famous citrus fruit originated from Palestine and known worldwide for centuries as "Jaffa oranges". The history of the orange is the history of this land. Through photography and cinema, poetry, paintings, workers of the citruses' industry and historians, memory and present mythologies, Palestinians and Israelis cross and combine. The close reading of the Jaffa brand's visual representation is a reflection on western orientalist phantasms surrounding the 'holy land' and the 'State of Israel' and a tool to reveal the untold story of what was once a commune industry and symbol to Arabs and Jews in Palestine. The screening of this film is co-sponsored by International Programs at The University of Montana.