Life (or something like it) in an Indian textiles plant: Rahul Jain's bleak/beautiful MACHINES

Documentaries about the workplace don't come much bleaker-- nor more beautiful in terms of composition, color and artistry -- than MACHINES, the new 71-minute movie from Rahul Jain. This is his debut feature and on which he acted as director, co-editor and -producer, and even helped with the sound. Visually, it's a stunning debut, but it's a good deal more than that. Via visuals and interviews with a number of the workers, the film puts you pretty firmly into their shoes -- if and when they mange to have shoes, that is.

The first thing you may notice in Mr. Jain's doc (the filmmaker is shown at right) is that the initial worker we see manning the ovens has no goggles to protect his eyes form the sparks and flames. This, as it turns out, proves the least of the problems. Because there is no narration/ explanation (other than the visual one), we simply follow along as we see different parts of the factory in which some beautiful textiles are made, along with the workers and their various jobs.

We may have questions -- what's that dark liquid that looks like chocolate in the vat the worker is dragging along behind him via some wide white material? -- but, too bad. Just watch and learn what you can.

Fortunately we see plenty that's educational here. And after awhile, Jain begins allowing the workers to talk to us, telling us about their experience in this factory. In the background, and nearly ever-present, is the noise of the machines, whirring, whirring, whirring.

When the interviews begin, we learn some very interesting things: For instance, one man actually must take a loan out in order to get to work and earn some money at this factory. "Poverty is harassment," notes one fellow. "You can't do anything. There is no cure." Workers travels 36 hours on a train, standing up the entire time, with nothing to eat or drink unless they bring it themselves.

By the time we get to the child labor (though the kids look at least like early or middle teenagers), we're privy to moments such as one child yawning, then briefly falling asleep as he works. We also get a montage of workers sleeping. Then we finally meet or observe the owners (or maybe just their salesmen) talking about fabrics and pricing.

The coup de grâce comes with the interview with a manager/or maybe owner who is so pompous, entitled and nasty that you'll want to put your fist through his ugly face. Unionization? Well, we're told by one person here that "the workers don't unite. There is no unity here." Another explains that when the workers do unite, the bosses then learn who their leader is and have him killed. This has happened over and over again.

The end result -- those textiles -- are certainly beautiful, but at what price? As one worker explains it: "I know from my room to here, and from here back to my room. Neither do I know who the boss is nor how he looks." This may bring to mind that wonderful James Taylor song, Millworker, from the splendid but sadly unsuccessful Broadway musical, Working:
"May I work this mill for as long as I am able, and never meet the man whose name is on the label."

Finally, Mr. Jain does something both bracing and brave, as the workers confront him and his crew to tell him, "People just come here, look at our problems, and leave. Nobody takes any action." And then the fellow looks at the filmmaker and asks, "What will you do?" I would sure as hell like to think that this film might make some difference. But as one of those interviewed caps it off: "My only satisfaction is that everyone dies. Even the rich take nothing with them." Yeah -- but if India is anything like America, they leave it all to their kids.

From Kino Lorber, in English and Hindi with English subtitles, Machines has its U.S. theatrical premiere in New York City at Film Forum tomorrow, Wednesday, August 9, for a one-week run. Elsewhere? Nothing, it seems, has been booked as yet (click here and scroll down to keep current on this). But let's hope for a wider audience soon, as this documentary deserves to be seen and will pay off time spent in major dividends.

Emil Chiaberi's MURDER BY PROXY looks at group killings in the workplace and school...

... and then connects the dots. It's the connection that makes this movie so fascinating and well worth one's time. Beginning with a look at the United States Postal Service, Russian-born first-time filmmaker Emil Chiaberi probes the condition known as "going postal" and, more important, the particular kind of workplace that spawned the phrase and why. Turns out, according to his new documentary MURDER BY PROXY, that at the bottom of many, maybe the majority, of cases of workplace violence is a condition much in the news these days -- but oddly sequestered as though it existed in only the school environment: bullying.

Bullying does not necessarily end with one's school days, though as adults in an environment with some choices, we can more often avoid it. The USPS, it turns out, was not and is not -- particularly from the time in which the postal service turned from a government agency into a wholly-owned government business -- a place safe from bullying. According to the several USPS employees present and former that Mr. Chiaberi (shown at right, who both wrote and directed the film) has brought together, it is rather the perfect place to raise this "art" to a nasty, full-time occupation.

One of the heroes of the documentary, probably the most heroic, is postal worker Charlie Withers (above, testifying), who tells a good deal of the story here. Once the USPS went full-throttle business, a combo of social Darwinism and roughshod Capitalism was the order of the day. And as usually happens, the people holding most of the power use that power badly. "They never stopped being on his back," one woman explains about how the men in charge treated the first of workplace killers whom we meet.

Of the second "gone postal" worker we hear about, Thomas McIlvane (who killed several people in Royal Oak, Michigan, before turning his gun on himself), one of his co-workers tells us "There was an overwhelming feeling of relief that those people (the murdered ones) were gone. I understand why he did it." This is very strong stuff.

It seems that those same bosses had done similar damage in the state of Indiana (without this type of repercussion) before coming to Michigan, where they did it all again. Their message was clear, notes a worker: "If we can do this to McIlvane, we can do it to any of you." Well, they did.  And then, so did he.

Postal worker Withers (center, above), whose presence and gentle demeanor helps hold the film together, is at his most dear as he speaks about his family and daughter. But it is also he who turns the workers' grievances into a petition and tries to get his day in court. Not surprisingly, the union turns a blind eye to his and the workers' entreaties. ("It seemed like they just wanted this whole thing to go away.") So he, along with some others, tries to get the state of Washington's legislature to turn this into a workers' protection law. We follow their efforts as the movie progresses.

A combination of re-enactment, stock footage, newscasts (below) and some very unsettling film from the massacres (above and further above and below), the documentary also uses some funny, clever propaganda films of past times for humor and ironic effect -- as well as scenes from mainstream movies that make their point (two photos down).

The movie may jump around a lot but it never goes far afield from its theme. And when Chiaberi begins connecting what has happened across America over the past few decades -- the cruelty toward workers that has long been a part of the our system but that has increased since the 1970s; Ronald Reagan's breaking of the air traffic controllers' strike that has led to the sickness-unto-death of our unions; how the scale of CEO pay to workers' pay has risen from 35 to 1 up to 425 to 1; religion's role in all of this and so much more -- the movie really takes off. And though the documentary does not mention this, our Supreme Court's Citizens United decision would seem to be the very apotheosis of this trend.

You will realize how much has gone on that is connected to workplace violence in which the media, perhaps unwitting pawns of the powers-that-be, has treated each incident (which have grown enormously since the 1980s) as an event, something to blame on the "crazy shooter," rather than addressing the same problems that lie behind almost each one. How can the aggression of the bosses toward the workers not find some release? It does, finally, in aggression by the workers -- not only in multiple killings, but in various forms of sabotage, as well.

Accountability -- and the halting of abusive management -- would seem to be the key to progress. But the bullying continues, everywhere, and there is little indication of a move in a better direction. Until there is, I would wager, for all the supposed drop in individual crime across the country, we'll see a continued rise in workplace/school violence. Next time you read of another incident, do a little legwork and find out what lay behind the violence.

Murder by Proxy (from RF Releasing, 75 minutes) is being screened now in cities around the country, beginning at the scene of one of the crimes, Royal Oak, Michigan, at the Landmark Main Art Theatre. Unfortunately that screening occurred yesterday only, and I apologize for not getting this post up sooner.  The film will next be seen in Washington DC on Tuesday, March 20, at the Landmark E Street Cinema, and then in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema on Tuesday, March 27.  Click here then scroll down to check for further screenings or to purchase the DVD.