Working Title

Labor is an inevitable part of our lives. For some it's an enjoyable and fulfilling endeavor, for others a difficult and unpleasant necessity. While not romanticizing this fact of life, it is possible to find beauty in the routines that people perform. These filmmakers have crafted elegant portraits of their subjects' labor, whether it's the work they do day in and day out or the reasons behind it. Vángelo Manzón (Andréas Lennartsson, 8 min.) is a portrait of an Argentinian man who has made bricks all of his life. Shit and Chicks (Kees van der Geest, 10 min.) documents, with gentle restraint, a traditional method of feeding chickens in Ghana. As the fishing boats close in on the tuna in El Cerco (Ricardo Íscar/Nacho Martin, 12 min), the tension escalates until the men capture their prizes. In Family Vilakati (Xanthe Hamilton, 10 min.), the focus is on one young man's desire to support his family of sisters so that they may have a better life. Imran Uddin gave up his "modern" life in advertising to learn the business of his father's halal butcher shop, truly A Son's Sacrifice (Yoni Brook, 26 min.). (KLC)