Scenes From the Workplace

Welfare

1975

WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.

Setara

2021

A documentary with an aim to raise awareness for workplace discrimination and see the world from the perspective of the deaf community.

Man burde ta' sig af det

1952

Keep Up the Good Work

2013

It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.

Working Women

1978

Stylized with dramatic interiors and a distorted frame rate, this early documentary miniature from Szulkin depicts six sequences of solitary, repetitious labor.

A Tale of Two Kitchens

2019

Two countries, two restaurants, one vision. At Gabriela Cámara's acclaimed Contramar in Mexico City, the welcoming, uniformed waiters are as beloved by diners as the menu featuring fresh, local seafood caught within 24 hours. The entire staff sees themselves as part of an extended family. Meanwhile at Cala in San Francisco, Cámara hires staff from different backgrounds and cultures, including ex-felons and ex-addicts, who view the work as an important opportunity to grow as individuals. A Tale of Two Kitchens explores the ways in which a restaurant can serve as a place of both dignity and community.

Safety Awareness for Forklift Equipment

1990

An overview on safety precautions that protect forklift operators on the job.

After the Axe

1981

This full-length drama depicts the reality of managers getting fired and the emergence of a new industry specialized in handling executive terminations. The film was made with the cooperation of the business community, which helped script some of the scenes and provided authentic locations. The central figure, D.R. "Biff" Wilson, 44, is a composite figure based on extensive conversations with fired executives.

L'empreinte

2008

A bakery in Herat in Afghanistan. Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, a dozen employees and apprentices repeat the same gestures, while the camera raises questions about the outside world, about images.

Kilometry práce

1950

Document about different types of transportation in manufacturing plants and their importance for speeding up production.

Almost Nothing

2018

CERN, the world's largest physics laboratory, is also a society in itself. A mythological microcosm and science's answer to the Tower of Babel, with its many thousand employees as an indispensable element among cables and computers. The researchers speak the same esoteric and nerdy language. But their physical trials are not the only experiments in the human anthill. CERN is also a utopian experiment in collaboration across cultures, where the world's most advanced technology meets the world's sharpest—and some of the quirkiest—minds.

Is It Worth Your Life?

1992

This video shows ways to prevent or defuse violent situations in retail stores, particularly during an armed robbery.

Sin descanso

2020

The Trouble with Women

1959

This short film illustrates some of the perceived problems a supervisor might face working with women, but ultimately demonstrates where the real problem lies.

Women at Work

1958

An introduction to the employment picture in Canada in the late 1950s, designed to inform potential immigrants of job opportunities existing for women. The film reviews many fields of work in which women are engaged, ranging from the highly specialized to the unskilled, and shows much of it being performed by women who have come to Canada from many different lands. Placement services and information services established to help newly arrived immigrants are shown in operation. Viewed from a modern perspective, the greater part of the film accepts as normal the waste of women's talents in repetitive or service jobs while elevating this work to the status of a career. Currently distributed only in 13-minute abridged form.