Labor Goes to the Movies

Professional
Staff Congress/
Labor Goes to the Movies ~~.
CUNY
~essons
2011-2012
Special Screening
Saturday, January 20
Noon - 2 films
WAITING FOR SUPERMAN
September 23
2 SHORT FILMS PROGRAM
ZERO FOR CONDUCT
(Jean VIgo, France, 1933)
This classic
"natural
French
film. directed
child of surrealism
and anarchy"
- who
011
boarding
the stultifying
school,
Shown largely
of the students,
the anarchic
wondertutty
atmosphere
the school.
"'n this film Vf!.'O lapped
memories
of the small town
had attended
n~ected
beeeeae,
on Its release
the effects
or
awarded
films in Japanese
01
the prolific
instituUonai
qutetly
presents
and theinevitabJe
education
dash
wrde
to the
style,
without
in
lends
itself to the "fly on the wall" sensation
his childhood
school
he
added
titles
or narrative,
as
tbeviewerwunesees
parent-reacher
conferences,
sex education lectures,
gym classes and even ~
home economscs
and the rage he had felt agalnst
music,
beauty
pageant.
twclve
class,
a
collapse
war and peace,
the
over
and World
tn
for
educational
her
and
institution's
possibitlUes
otthls,
ournew
rilUlennlum, lrom
of May '68. A group
retreechment.
corporate
channeHog
0( the
Alain
and
eltects
Although
bias.
scbcet
to
of the falling
the director
he did not intend
Truth, the
attempted
to create
US
has clermed
a pro-charter,
the film highlights
the work
and
advocates.
privati:il:atlon
of
These "heroes" blame: Ineffective
teachers
and
their unlons for preventing
reform. The critical
of young
and popular
acclaim
widespread
dlscussion
Tanner's
utopian
of An /nconl)f!nient
6tm of last year
the causes
anti-union
The Yeor2000loobfotwatd
playing through
the everyday
activists, and In their dassroom.s.
of
between
students
charter
dnematic
Jepen's
issues
that
and
W~r R. Set
Island
head-on
(Alain Tanner, Swltzer1and, 1976)
people in and around ueneva tries to pick up the
pecee oIt_
hopes In the •••••• oIthe 'clampdown'
of world-
galvanizing
Jonoh Who Jl.'iIl&25/n
out of the shadows
and her
the director
most
schools system.
totne
the course
and the tensions
concerns
Japanese
the film traces
on an
community
in the traditIOn
the adults who, in his view, had murdered
and
defamed his (anarchist]
lathez.'" (Alan Williams)
by
the period
the film tackles
teacher's
Directed
a young teacher
spanutng
economsc
sea,
history.
(2 eyes each)
years,
fanning
b;
cee of the most
KJ~hlta.
between
students
inland
in I~,
From
explain
~
in the West. this film quickly
Kelsuke
retauons
regtme of
champions
boarding
Unfairly
of twenty
the eyes
of the students
disciplInary
as a National
of a Philadel-
of Congress
documentary
turmoil, and yet they resonate
with anyone who
has ever been to high school. Wiseman's
simple
through
the film resolutely
reactions
caricatured
Oted by the Ubrary
Treasure,
Wiseman's;
close
of a French
EYES
(Keisuke KInoshita, Japan, 195·0
generations.
The themes
and situations
are
specific to the late 196O's and Its sodal and politicAl
died only a year later. Is a caustic, surrealist
attack
TWENTY·FOUR
(Frederick Wiseman, US, 1968)
phia high school
by Jean Vigo-
December 9
November II
October 21
':Hd:fiShtt,]I
(Davis Gnggenhelm, US, 2010)
for this film has sparked
about education
reform,
as well as a cccnterpomrdocureentary.
Come see
why the Ame:r1can Federatioo
ol Teechers
called
eneegtes
Waiting forSupermnn
lives of post-60s
too, According to
"sca1hing~
a.nd "potentiaJlv
to US teachers.
dangerous"
•
Tanner, film Is "adrameuc
tragicomedy
in poUtical
science fiction." Sc1'eenplay by John Berger.
the
ecquresceece
of militarism.
BINTA AND THE GREAT IDEA
~
(Javier Fesser, SpalnfPortugai,
~
..•..
Nominated
for an Academy Award, BinlV places
young children In the lead roles In a small village
~
pleading
--..'lU..;; to go to
for the right of one of the girls, Soda.
school
in charge
letter
~
over
here."
composed
authorities
the world.
her
father's
The little
by her
explaining
"I'm
writes
father
a
the value
children
stage
.~£
a play
of education.
THE ORGANIZER
~
~
Wanted
(Charles Burnett, US, 1996)
(Amy Heckerling, US, 1982)
10
61 Broadway, 16th F1.
Manhattan
This
1, R, W to Rector Street;
2, 3, 4, 5 to Wall Street;
J, M, Z to Broad Street;
A, C to Broadway/Nassau.
secretly
teach Samy,
to read
and write.
Near the PATH train & buses.
Call for directions, (212) 354-1252
or visit us online at psc-cuny.org.
Is a tale
NIght john,
educate
runaway
- the agony.
institution
Its orbit.
The bruuem
comes
follows
As .Night john
power
You get some words
The
to
ItO
oJ slavery
constriction
degradation
through
1\$
of
well, as the
diminishes
everyone
In
of the word
tTiwnphs
as
Nightjohn's
remarks
got all Ute words,
cast conveys
and tcrced
to cruelty.
of slavery
The
South. TIle
slave girl. how
of the daUyworld
sacrifice.
reactions
the oppressors
to
when he begins
a 12-year-oJd
dcpicucn
slave,
to a plantation
change ••radically
unflinching
Samy
a former
returns
hts people: in the ante-bellum
community
of
about
who
tracings
in the sand.
in the fihu: "Wrote
and tbey mean
(or yourself
folks
to keep tbem.
and you be free."
As
Geece,
mast
with
of our
critics
genre
to Include
grown
movies,
Fasl Times as just
categorized
up
their
another
"pool scene"
starrlng
character,
Youtube
almost
hits. However,
Intractable
subvert
It. It rectifies
spectator,
male
oxymoronlc
(Stephen
but within
audience
Cates
and
formula
Sean
U6e$
"What
an
to p6rtially
the sexism
In
freenng
Ilees
following
homes
the
at dawn
at the factory.
In response
1$ teaching
promoted
The film pohuctees
of the great. postwar
films.
conditions
who
in
public
Italian
workers
to the brutaJizillg
The workers
American
Is tbe ccenecncn
politics?
... \Vhat styfistic
creating
a puliUcai
between
education
are: available
school
criticisms
in the neavuy
lor Superman, a group of
teachers
and education
activists
a counter-nerrenve
suggesting
that low-budgets,
lack of teacher
support.
standardized
testing,
protest
options
to the
Waiting
erttcurated
a different
set 01 problems
and
sOlutlons to the US education
crisis, The result ts
trom
Iuelfectually,
but the Prcteescr channels
their
anger lnto a strike. For GramSdao
scholar Marda
Landy, the film raises qucsUons stili relevant todav:
highly tcafficked
Amy Heckerling
generic
Graffili by ccnstrucung
the
Phoebe
Spicoll, remain
thrust
workers
MastrniannO
workers.
to textile
neo-reenst
~fiuff" movie of the teensptcttaucn
1980$ era.
This was a very successful
teen movie, and Its
Penn's
the Professor{Marccllo
the humanist
It seems
one. At the time, most
ror organizing
Ml1an to stay wjth a friend,
uteracy
have
students
the high school
appropriate
by the ponce
..
,
(Julie Cavanagh, Darren MareIIl,
Norm Scott, Mollie Bruhn,
Usa Donlan, US, 21111)
(Marlo MookelU, Italy, 1963)
February 10
i~lta:;'r.):i:1
~ . .
:
March 9
PSC Union Hall
.'
.
to the
his "Great Idea" to save
while the village
to teach the father
obj~tion:
girl Biota
illiterate
systemic
poverty
and myriad
other
factors
ere
to blame for drop-out
rates and low scores. The
Inronwnie1l1 Truth Behind Wailing for Supenlll1n
~d
challenges
for
the
offers feasible
dnemA?"
common
solutions
mrspercepnces
for students
and
in New York
City and the rest ot the country.
the movie for the female
the humor
is not
of the genre,
alienated;
film - an InteUlgBlt
teen
"[a]
Mayll
rare
comedy"
la:t"ill)!.".,
Prince).
(Satyajit Ray, 19M, India)
Set In British1ndi.J.
Screenings take place on Friday evenings at 6:00 pm"
*e..'<ceptSat., Jan. 20 which is at Noon
']
Ray's twelfth
through
tn the 19th century,
feature
film. explores
the experiences
wife of an upper-class
is consumed
publishes,
$2 suggested donation. Space is limited!
Ught refreshments
served before each screening.
O:antlota.Satyajit
the idea: of learning
of Cham.
Bengali
the young.
bhadraiok
by the highbrow
poIitkal
When the husband's
younger
font:1y
whose
broadsheet
cousin,
time
he
"novice
e5Slryist fresh out or eoUege, comes to stay at Ute family mansion, CllaTU is drawn to him emotionally,
their coeversauons
unkK:kin,g her path to poetry. literature,
and ~ newfound. passion for writing. In
Charuloto,as
In his later
feminist seU-expreS3Wo
Ghore Batre (Home ond the World, 1984).
as carafysts
for the emergence
Ray explores
of the modem
woman
the: power of lea.mingand
In pre-independence
India.
t;z..,/