See the CLiFF Toronto schedule here.
Just added!
Labour and the Occupy Movement
What is the connection between Labour and the Occupy Movement? Come and join a discussion at CLiFF Toronto with Jesse McLaren – doctor, socialist, and activist, who has been an active participant among the organizers at Occupy Toronto.
Saturday, November 26, 7:00 PM.
Innis Town Hall
2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto
5 minutes south of St. George subway
(wheelchair accessible)
Films are being shipped across Canada (and beyond), and CLiFF 2011 is almost underway!
Keep watching this site, as it is being updated daily with information on dates, times, locations, and film lists.
A big thank you to all of the location hosts who are preparing and promoting their local festivals. We appreciate everyone’s efforts – and patience. As with our hosts, the CLiFF organizing team and board of directors is made up of – and relies entirely on – unpaid volunteers. As a non-profit venture, this is very much a labour of love. We are involved because we believe that film is an ideal medium for presenting the messages of workers and the work they do – and we believe in those messages.
A big thank you also to all of the unions which are providing support to the filmmakers and the festival to make all of this possible!
Spread the word, and join us for CLiFF in November.
“The Canadian Labour International Film Festival would like to acknowledge the contributions of unionized film crews and personnel in the creation of the films you are about to see.
It is important as we move forward in our struggles for equality that we recognize the creative industries: artists, camera operators, stage hands, screen writers, directors and many others - as workers with valuable and specialized skill sets, no different than our brothers and sisters working in the public service, heavy industry and manufacturing, agricultural work or health care.
At the same time CLiFF will continue to enable working people – including those for whom unionization is an aspiration if not an impossibility – to tell their stories.
Films screened as part of CLiFF have been made with participants from, or the support of:
The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
The Canadian Union of Public Employees
The National Film Board of Canada
The Writers Guild of Canada
The Directors Guild of Canada
The American Federation of Teachers
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation
The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union
The United Steelworkers
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
The Freelancers Union
and many more.”
Thanks to the CLiFF Hamilton Committee for formulating this statement.
There are three things I’d like you to do this weekend — none of them very difficult, and you’d make a difference if you could help out with this.
First, a Norwegian trade union has announced (for the third year running) an international prize worth $86,000 (US) for a person or organization who has promoted trade union rights. If you can think of someone worthy of the prize, check out their website and make your nomination.
Second, some people we know are thinking of setting up a labour films channel for television – and they’re running a very short online survey to find out more about how we might use such a channel. One of the people who fills in the survey will receive an original 1979 “Norma Rae” movie poster – what a great prize! Please take a moment to fill in the survey here (deadline is 13 October).
Third and finally, please have a look at LabourStart’s current online campaign in solidarity with Egyptian workers. Look at the upper right corner – see all those flags? Right now the campaign is running in 9 languages – but we know that there are at least 23 languages in the world spoken by 50 million people or more. We’d like our campaigns to appear in many more languages. If you can help — email ericlee@labourstart.org. Thanks!
Eric Lee
We apologise to all who have been trying to visit us lately. Our website was hacked and inaccessible to most who surfed over to us. We were obliged to remove all file (and lost some as a result) and reinstall WordPress. Never fear, tough, we are back up and raring to go!
Some great news, South Africa now has their own labour film festival. We met with Martin Jansen in 2010, when he visited Toronto where he shared some details of their plan. It’s great to see them come to fruition.
- CLiFF Board of Directors
COSATU and Workers’ World Media Productions will this year host the 6th Annual Labour Film Fes…tival nationwide, starting on Wednesday 13 April 2011 at 6pm at the Ekhaya Centre in Diepkloof, Soweto. The opening night will include speeches by leaders from Cosatu and trade union federations from Tunisia and Egypt. This year’s festival will focus various foreign takeovers.
This year the festival will be held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban and is free.
For more information contact:
· Crystal Dicks at Cosatu on 011 339 4911 or 084 732 4643
· Kgapa Mabusela from WWMP on 011 336 1877 or 079 718 0477
· Martin Jansen on 021 447 2727 or 082 870 2025
Hello all,
we have finished retooling our CLiFF Call for Submissions for 2011. We have received quite a few inquiries, so we thought we should release it sooner than later.
If you are not a film maker, kindly pass on this message to some you know who may be interested in submitting a film about workers, work, or issues affecting either.
Films due 30 June, 2011
The Selection Committee of the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF) invites you to submit your film or video for possible screening during our second Festival to be held this November in Toronto, Ontario and in 50 communities across the country (and counting).
About the Film Festival
CLiFF features film and video made by, for, and about the world of work and those who do it, in Canada and internationally. The films we showcase are about unionised workers, as well as those not represented by unions. We encourage projects regarding any and every aspect of work, as well as issues affecting work or workers.
The festival draws thousands of trade unionists, community members, youth, activists, students, educators, artists, and allies from across North America and one day, we hope, the world.
Eligibility
We are looking for films on a wide spectrum of issues. We seek films about privatization, youth, First Nations people, people of colour, immigrants, refugees, detainees, health and safety, resistance, art, poetry, women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered people, taxi drivers, truck drivers, rickshaw drivers – anyone who does anything considered work.
We also encourage the widest possible variety of films: from documentaries to drama to poetry/poetic treatments to comedy and animation.
1 The Festival is open to all film and video makers.
2 The Festival is open to all lengths but there is a strong preference for shorter works.
Films and videos must be in English or have English sub-titles. French subtitles are also accepted (and encouraged).
3 Entries should be produced between 2008 and 2011.
4 Works in progress are ineligible (except by recommendation of the Selection Committee).
Deadline
Submissions must be received no later than 30 June, 2011. Early submissions are encouraged and appreciated. TWO COPIES of each submission are required. We keep submissions as part of our Labour Film Library which we will use for ongoing educational work. The entry form may be submitted by mail or fax prior to media and other materials being shipped.
Notification
Entrants will be notified of acceptance, via email, by 31 August, 2011.
Special Calls
In addition to our open-call where we look at anything and everything, the Festival is especially looking for: Flash features, micro documentaries, archival oddities and cell phone video submissions under 5 minutes in length. Accepted formats include DVD, VHS, Quicktime, .AVI, Flash. If you wish to be considered by the CLiFF Selection Committee, mark the appropriate place on the submission form. Open to all.
Technical Guidelines
1 Two copies of each entry in DVD/VHS – NTSC (or PAL with prior notice only).
2 DVD’s must be region-1 or “region-free”.
3 Do not send master tapes unless asked to do so.
4 Multiple entries are accepted but each entry must be accompanied by a separate form and submission tape or disc.
5 All tapes and discs must contain only the movie being submitted, cued to the front of the tape or disc. In other words, do not submit tapes or discs containing more than one entry or with material other than the movie being submitted.
6 Preview tapes and discs must be labelled with title, running time and contact information. Poorly labelled material makes it difficult for us to work with.
7 The entrant is responsible for all shipping fees.
8 Entries from outside of Canada must be clearly labelled: “Festival submission, for cultural purposes only. No commercial value”. The Festival will refuse any submission with customs duties owing. Note: Preview VHS and DVD’s will not be returned although applicants are invited to pick up all preview materials in person after the festival.
Publicity Materials If you submit a movie please send, via email, stills from the film. The sooner you send us photos the better the chances they will be used in publicity materials. All other documents (in Microsoft Word, RTF or plain ASCII text format) or photos (in JPEG or TIFF format) may be submitted via email (if overall file size is less than 5 MB). For larger file sizes submit via CD mailed to the address below.
Shipping
To avoid damage to any materials shipped, please use bubble wrap mailers or boxes when mailing submissions. Please label all media with the title and date of the work. Note: Shipping costs are the sole responsibility of the owner/distributor. Our staff will take every precaution in handling all films and videos. However, CLiFF cannot accept or assume responsibility for damage to, or loss of, materials submitted. CLiFF will consider paying for the cost of shipping materials for international or youth entries. Please contact us via email to make your request.
Final Delivery
If your film or video is selected, you will be asked to deliver an MPEG 2 file at a specific bit rate for our duplication service. Please note that your film may not be screening in Toronto, but might at one or more of our other numerous locations across Canada.
Submission Fee and Screening Fees
There are no submission fees. CLiFF screenings are free, so we do not charge for entrance as we believe these films should be seen by as many people as possible. We therefore do not pay screening fees.
Submission Address
Submissions should be addressed to:
Canadian Labour International Film Festival
15 Gervais Drive, Suite 707,
North York, Ontario
Canada M3C 1Y8
Download the SUBMISSION FORM ONLY:
http://labourfilms.ca/CLiFF_2011_CLiFF_FORM.pdf
Download the entire Call for Submissions:
http://labourfilms.ca/CLiFF_2011_Submission_Call.pdf
About the CLiFF Selection Committee
The CLiFF Selection Committee believes in justice at work and society in general. We actively resist racism, elitism, classism, sexism, colonialism, homophobia, ableism, ageism and transphobia. The Selection Committee hopes to foster healthy communities built on fairness at work and at all levels of society. Visit our website: www.labourfilms.ca or write to info@labourfilms.ca
In solidarity
CLiFF Board of Directors
February, 2011
For immediate release:
15 December, 2010
Toronto, ON – The 2010 Canadian Labour International Film Festival has tallied the votes from locations across the country and is pleased to announce that this year’s Best in Festival Award goes to The Coca-Cola Case by German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia. The $2,500 award is given out to the film that captures the highest rating from festival audiences across Canada.
The Coca-Cola Case looks at the trade union murders that occur in Colombia as a result of paramilitaries hired by companies that want to crush the unions. Coca-Cola is one of the corporate brands involved in Colombia and the 86-minute film provides a close look at the situation.
“As someone born and raised in Guatemala, who was affected by the many nasty things the Coca-Cola corporation did to activists in those years, the film really reflects the reality that Columbian trade unionists have to deal with on a daily basis,” said Miguel Cifuentes, a member of the CLiFF Board of Directors and an organiser with UNITE-Here Local 75, who was a panellist at the Toronto screening. “Movies like the Coca-Cola Case are important because they show the kind of hell corporations visit on workers. Although the workers in the film do not succeed legally, it shows that we have strength in numbers and truth on our side,” he said.
In accepting the award, German Gutierrez was grateful to CLiFF audiences for choosing the film and said the prize money would enable him to make more films like this. The Coca-Cola Case was co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
The Coca-Cola Case played at the following locations as part of CLiFF 2010:
Halifax, NS
Moncton, NB
Prince George, BC
Toronto, ON
Vancouver, BC
Check www.labourfilms.ca for updates on CLiFF 2011 and look out for the 2011 Call for Submissions to be posted early next year.
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For information contact:
Frank Saptel, Festival Founder
info@labourfilms.ca
(416) 970-2543
