Showing posts with label Ant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ant. Show all posts

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Ant-Society presents: It's A Living, Part 1 (1975)

Excerpt from hour-long program inspired by Studs Terkel's best-selling book, Working. In the book, people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about it. The documentary explores what it is actually like to be on the job with some of these people.






The opening of the piece declares, "As experimental video journalists, we hope to demonstrate that new small-format television equipment allows people to speak for themselves, simply and directly and that real people in real situations make good television."
This excerpt features parking lot attendant Wheelin' Lovin Al Pommier.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Ant-Society presents: Human Hair, Part 1 (1979)


Excerpt from documentary by Nancy Cain and Bart Friedman on their trip from Woodstock, NY to the Chicago Editing Center.







In this excerpt: Cain reads news report about a nuclear accident, and we see a reporter mistakenly attribute the accident at a nuclear power plant to human hair instead of human error; Cain and Friedman at site of a fire at Racine and Clyborn. At Palestine Kosher Red Hots and Sausage next door, people continue to eat, despite the fact that the building next door is burning down completely. They try to interview the firefighters, who are completely reticent, only telling them that the fire was started by a match; Friedman interviews men who are salvaging bricks from the wreckage of the fire. These men do not corroborate the report that the fire was started by a match; Cain and Friedman at an industrial site where scrap metal is being taken out of a giant pile with a giant magnet and put on a barge. Cain talks about capitalism and about having to give her thumbprint to cash a check.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

The Ant-Society presents: Golden Gloves (1977)

A moving portrait of a promising young boxer.







We see him reeling after his first victory, certain of his impending fame and fortune. We also see the boy after his first big loss and his recognition that its really going to be hard for him to support himself while boxing. The tape is incredibly intimate and seems to sum up not only the hardships faced by inner-city project dwellers, but also the general loss of idealism faced by all young adults.