The Cinema of Globalization: A Guide to Films about the New Economic Order

by Tom Zaniello

Overview

Tom Zaniello's fascinating new guide to films about globalization—its origins, its relationship with colonialism, neocolonialism, the growth of migratory labor, and movements to counter or protest its adverse effects—offers readers and viewers the opportunity to both discover new films and see well-known works in a new way. From Afro@Digital to Zoolander, Zaniello discusses 201 films, including features such as The Constant Gardener, Dirty Pretty Things, and Syriana; documentaries and other nonfiction films such as Blue Vinyl, Darwin's Nightmare, and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price; online films; and television productions.

Zaniello casts a wide net to provide cinematic representations of globalization from all angles:

-films about global labor and labor unions affected by globalization;
-films about global capital and multinational corporations;
-films about the transnational organizations (WB, IMF, WTO) most closely identified with globalization and global capital;
-films about labor history and the daily life of working-class people as they relate to the development of globalization;
-films about the environment directly related to changes in labor or capital; and
-films about changes in both the workplace and the corporate office in the era of multinational corporations.

Each entry in The Cinema of Globalization offers a summary of the main issues in the film and their relationship to globalization, sometimes a reference to the film's place in a director's work or tradition of cinema, and an often-opinionated assessment of the film's strengths and weaknesses. Like the best film guides, this book is an addictive reading experience full of ideas for future viewing. At the same time, it serves as an inviting and accessible introduction to a difficult topic—the central themes and aspects of globalization.

To read Tom Zaniello's blog on the cinema of labor and globalization, featuring even more reviews, visit http://tzaniello.wordpress.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801473067
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	02/23/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tom Zaniello is Director of the Honors Program at Northern Kentucky University and Adjunct Professor at the National Labor College, George Meany Center for Labor Studies. He is the author of Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor, also from Cornell.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
The Films     23
Afro@digital     25
Alambrista     25
All for One     26
American Daylight     26
American Jobs     27
Another World Is Possible     28
The Apprentice     29
Argentina     30
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet     31
Baked Alaska     32
The Bank     32
Baran     33
The Battle of Orgreave     34
The Bed You Sleep In     35
Beijing Bicycle     36
Bella Ciao     36
Betrayed     37
Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow     38
Big Bucks, Big Pharma     39
Bigger Than Enron     40
Blacklist of the Skies     41
Blackout     42
Blind Shaft     43
Blue Collar and Buddha     44
Blue Vinyl     45
The Border     46
Breaking the Bank     47
Caribe     48
Chain     48
Chain of Love     50
Choropampa     50
CollisionCourse     51
Commanding Heights     52
Congo     53
The Constant Gardener     54
Controlling Interest     55
The Corporation     56
The Crooked E     57
The Curse of Inca Gold     58
Czech Dream     58
Dance with Farm Workers     59
A Darker Side of Fair     60
Darwin's Nightmare     61
A Day without a Mexican     61
Deadliest Catch     62
Death in the Garden     63
A Decent Factory     63
The Diamond Life     64
Diamonds and Rust     65
Dirt     65
Dirty Pretty Things     66
Diverted to Delhi     67
Divine Carcasse     68
Dockers     69
Dot Con     69
Do They Catch Children Too?     70
Edge of Darkness     71
Edit     73
E-Dreams     73
Enron     74
EPIC 2014     75
Extreme Oil     76
Farmingville     77
Fear and Trembling     77
Fishing in the Sea of Greed      78
Fish Is Our Life     79
Le Franc     80
From Mao to Money     81
From the Other Side     81
The Future of Food     82
Ghost in the Shell     83
Girl in the Cafe     84
The Global Assembly Line     85
The Globalisation Tapes     85
Global Village or Global Pillage?     86
Grupo Alavio Films     87
Gutted     88
H-2 Worker     88
The Hidden Face of Globalization     89
High and Low     90
How Yukong Moved the Mountains     92
The Human Cost behind Bargain Shopping     93
Human Error     94
Human Trafficking     94
Hyenas     95
I Heart Huckabees     96
I Like to Work     97
Inch'Allah dimanche     98
The Inheritance     98
The Insider     99
The Island     100
Is Wal-Mart Good for America?     101
It's All True     102
The Jaguar Quartet     103
Knock Off     104
Life and Debt     105
Lilya 4-Ever     106
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun     107
Live Nude Girls Unite!     108
Maid in America     109
Mandabi     110
Maquila     110
Mardi Gras     111
The Mark Thomas Comedy Product     112
The Mattei Affair     113
McLibel     114
The Men Who Would Conquer China     115
Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti     116
Mine     117
MM     118
Mojados     119
Mondovino     120
My Journey Home     121
Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night     121
The Navigators     123
Net Loss     124
The New Americans     124
New Earth     125
The New Rulers of the World     126
Nightcleaners     126
Night on Earth     127
No Logo     128
No Sweat     129
Not This Time     129
Now or Never     130
Off the Clock     131
The Oil Factor     132
Oil on Ice     132
Our Friends in the North     133
Outrageous Fortunes     134
Outsource This!      134
The Phantom of the Operator     135
The Ploughman's Lunch     136
Il Posto dell'anima     137
Power Trip     137
Profit & Nothing But!     138
Railroad of Hope     139
Rancho California     140
Rebellion in Patagonia     140
Re-Code.com Commercial     141
Red Desert     142
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised     143
Rollover     143
Rouch in Reverse     144
Saaraba     145
Savage Capitalism     146
Save the Green Planet     147
Save the Tiger     147
Sex Slaves     148
Showdown in Seattle     149
A Single Spark     150
Songs from the Second Floor     151
Squaring the Circle     152
State of Play     153
Store Wars     153
Syriana     154
The Take     155
Talking to the Wall     156
The Tank Man     157
Taxi Dreams     158
Tell Us the Truth     159
They Live     160
Thirst     160
This Is Nowhere     161
This Is What Democracy Looks Like     162
Los Trabajadores     162
Trading Women     163
Trinkets and Beads     164
Under the Skin of the City     165
Under the Tower     166
The Universal Clock     167
Unknown Quantity     168
Unreported World     169
Up in Smoke     170
Uprooted     172
El Valley Central     172
Valley of Tears     173
A Very British Coup     174
Wage Slaves     175
Wall Street     176
Wal-Mart     177
Wal-Mart's War on Workers     178
Water     179
Waydowntown     179
Where Do You Stand?     180
Where's Rosie?     181
Where the Heart Is     181
Where the Rivers Flow North     182
The White Rose     183
Why Cybraceros?     184
Why Wal-Mart Works     184
Winstanley     185
The Wire     186
Women for Sale     188
Workingman's Death     188
Working Women of the World      189
The World     190
Yang Ban Xi     191
The Yes Men     192
Zoned for Slavery     193
Zoolander     193
Topical Index     195

What People are Saying About This

Pat Aufderheide

Teachers, students, programmers, and film buffs will find this book an immensely helpful tool. Tom Zaniello's knowledge of film form is matched by his understanding of social and economic issues. A timely, useful guide—thank you, Tom!

Christopher Martin

"Viewing globalization through the lens of cinema makes the issues visceral and reminds us that there are real lives at stake in every instance. This book brings a worldwide range of voices on globalization to our attention. The Cinema of Globalization will be useful to film buffs and people working in labor studies, sociology, anthropology, refugee studies, history, journalism, and mass communication. Tom Zaniello's writing is smart, concise, and funny, making this much more than a reference book. I was at times thrilled and outraged just reading the entries; now I have to see the films for myself."

Judith Ancel

When I heard that Tom Zaniello was doing a new labor film book on globalization, I was elated. This guide will be very useful to people like me who are labor educators as well as to people who put together film series, professors of film, people who teach in the social sciences, and the growing number of global activists who are part of the human-rights movement, international labor movement, and the anti-sweatshop movement.

Adele Horne

The Cinema of Globalization is an excellent guide to a diverse array of popular and avant-garde films on globalization. This is a superb resource for educators.

Editorial Reviews

It was bound to happen. A societal trend gathers enough steam to warrant not just one movie or a handful of films, but an entire genre. Just so you think the genre didn't begin and end with Dirty Pretty Things, Tom Zaniello, has assembled an eminently workable guide to more than 200 films where globalization and the mobile market for human capital registers in the plot. Zaniello doesn't offer his own thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Rather, he gives a rather dispassionate plot summary and includes at least one article on the film-often, a published critical review-that prospective viewers can read for further context and insight. Zaniello points to additional literature on the broad subject areas of the filmmakers, as well as a topical index at book's end. Not surprisingly, Wal-Mart merits its own citation, one of the largest in the index. This could be an indispensable reference work for an eyes-open labor studies program. A credit course would be feasible, either on globalization films, or on labor films, based on Zaniello's earlier work. Or these could be extra-credit options. This would also serve as a terrific resource if students wanted to start a film discussion group, since distribution details for virtually every film listed are included.

Labor Studies Journal

A clear and easy-to-navigate survey of films dealing with different aspects of globalization.... Strongly geared to educators, programmers and other concerned citizens, the main value of The Cinema of Globalization is simply in alerting the reader to the wealth of material that is out there awaiting discovery. The individual entries are generally informative on the content of films and the key issues covered.... It is a wonderful resource for dipping into and finding what you didn't know you were looking for.

--Catherine Lupton "Vertigo"

It was bound to happen. A societal trend gathers enough steam to warrant not just one movie or a handful of films, but an entire genre. Just so you think the genre didn't begin and end with Dirty Pretty Things, Tom Zaniello, has assembled an eminently workable guide to more than 200 films where globalization and the mobile market for human capital registers in the plot. Zaniello doesn't offer his own thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Rather, he gives a rather dispassionate plot summary and includes at least one article on the film-often, a published critical review-that prospective viewers can read for further context and insight. Zaniello points to additional literature on the broad subject areas of the filmmakers, as well as a topical index at book's end. Not surprisingly, Wal-Mart merits its own citation, one of the largest in the index. This could be an indispensable reference work for an eyes-open labor studies program. A credit course would be feasible, either on globalization films, or on labor films, based on Zaniello's earlier work. Or these could be extra-credit options. This would also serve as a terrific resource if students wanted to start a film discussion group, since distribution details for virtually every film listed are included.

-- "Labor Studies Journal"

From the Publisher

"When I heard that Tom Zaniello was doing a new labor film book on globalization, I was elated. This guide will be very useful to people like me who are labor educators as well as to people who put together film series, professors of film, people who teach in the social sciences, and the growing number of global activists who are part of the human-rights movement, international labor movement, and the anti-sweatshop movement."

Judith Ancel

"Viewing globalization through the lens of cinema makes the issues visceral and reminds us that there are real lives at stake in every instance. This book brings a worldwide range of voices on globalization to our attention. The Cinema of Globalization will be useful to film buffs and people working in labor studies, sociology, anthropology, refugee studies, history, journalism, and mass communication. Tom Zaniello's writing is smart, concise, and funny, making this much more than a reference book. I was at times thrilled and outraged just reading the entries; now I have to see the films for myself."

Christopher Martin

"The Cinema of Globalization is an excellent guide to a diverse array of popular and avant-garde films on globalization. This is a superb resource for educators."

Adele Horne

"Teachers, students, programmers, and film buffs will find this book an immensely helpful tool. Tom Zaniello's knowledge of film form is matched by his understanding of social and economic issues. A timely, useful guide—thank you, Tom!"

Pat Aufderheide

A clear and easy-to-navigate survey of films dealing with different aspects of globalization.... Strongly geared to educators, programmers and other concerned citizens, the main value of The Cinema of Globalization is simply in alerting the reader to the wealth of material that is out there awaiting discovery. The individual entries are generally informative on the content of films and the key issues covered.... It is a wonderful resource for dipping into and finding what you didn't know you were looking for.

Vertigo - Catherine Lupton