| The
GET-UP Film Project and Cinema Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania presents
GET-UP
Film Festival -
Confronting
the Issue of Labor Relations
The GET-UP Film Project was created
by graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania to explore
cinematic representations of production, management, and organization
in the diverse global market. Just as economic and political
forces may only be experienced as an encounter with the immediate
environment, and traversed in their multiplicity only through
everyday experiences, so may we only find their representation
in a fleeting encounter with the moving image. The purpose of
the GET-UP Film Project is to screen such representations as
they appear in a variety of media, including feature-length
films, documentaries and television newsreels past and present,
as well as debut film projects and amateur recordings.
Wednesday,
November 9 at 7:00pm
Metropolis
– New 35mm Restoration
dir.
Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927, 35mm, 123 mins, b/w, silent w/ English
intertitles
Introduced
by Penn Cinema Studies Chair Tim Corrigan
 Perhaps
the most famous and influential of all silent films, Metropolis
had for 75 years been seen only in shortened or truncated
versions. Now, restored in Germany with state-of-the-art digital
technology, under the supervision of the Murnau Foundation,
and with the original 1927 orchestral score by Gottfried Huppertz
added, Metropolis can be appreciated in its full glory.
It is,
as
A. O. Scott of The New York Times declared, "A
fever dream of the future. At last we have the movie every would-be
cinematic visionary has been trying to make since 1927."
Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace
is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground
and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor. The tense
balance of these two societies is realized through images that
are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which
presage such sci-fi landmarks as 2001: A Space Odyssey and
Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular, with elaborate
sets and modern science fiction style, Metropolis stands
today as the crowning achievement of the German silent cinema.
Thursday,
November 10 at 7:00pm
Occupation:
The Harvard Sit-In
dir.
Maple Raza and Pacho Velez, USA, 2004, video, 45 mins, color
with
a panel discussion on the future of student action presented
by Michael Janson
 During
the time that the university's endowment tripled and it enjoyed
a more than $100-million budget surplus, it busted unions and
cut the pay and benefits of its lowest paid and most vulnerable
workers. Students organized a living-wage action which culminated
in an occupation of the president's building and national attention
to their cause. It became part of a national movement on university
campuses for living wages for non-faculty workers.
followed
by
Where
Do You Stand: Stories From An American Mill
dir.
Alexandra Lescaze, USA, 2004,
video, 60 mins, color
 Where
Do You Stand: Stories From An American Mill
is a haunting new documentary film about the rise and fall of
an American town and the epic struggle of the people who live
there. In the process it tells the story of dramatic changes
in labor and demographics, in the nature of corporations, the
rise of multinationals, and changes in the American South in
the post-industrial age. Winner 2004 CINE Golden Eagle.
Friday,
November 11 at 7:00pm
The
Business of America
dir.
Larry Adelma, Larry Daressa and Bruce Schmeichen, USA, 1984,
video,
45
mins, color
with
by a panel discussion on gender and diversity issues in the
workplace presented by Tina Collins
 The
film contrasts two Pittsburgh steelworkers conventional faith
in private enterprise with the actual strategies and priorities
of a giant corporation, U.S. Steel. It traces their growing
realization that despite "supply side" business claims,
increased profits don't necessarily "trickle down"
to working Americans.
To
discover why, The Business of America interviews U.S.
Steel chairman David Roderick, travels to Wall Street and visits
Harvard Business School. The film reveals that shareholder pressures
to increase profitability have led many American firms to transform
themselves from manufacturing enterprises into financial conglomerates.
It raises troubling questions about whether the prevailing emphasis
on short-term profits provides for the long-term investments
industries - and the country - need to provide economic opportunities
to all Americans.
followed
by
Live
Nude Girls Unite!
dir.
Julia Query and Vicky Funari, USA , 2000, video, 70 mins, color
 This
first person documentary follows Julia Query, lesbian/
stand-up
comedian/peepshow-stripper, and daughter of a feminist activist,
on her raucous journey to help organize the only union of strippers
in the United States. Shot on a variety
of
formats, Live Nude Girls Unite! weaves backstage and
dancing footage with labor organizing, street protests, stand-up
comedy and comic-book style "animation" making an
intelligent and dramatic cutting-edge film.
Click
here for more information on The GET-UP Film Project.
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