Song of the canary

United States, 1978

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Coal miners once took caged canaries into the mines. By collapsing and dying, the tiny birds warned of the presence of deadly gases. Today workers themselves have become the canaries for other workers and society as a whole. The film examines lethal industrial-linked disease in factory workers as well as management and official indifference to this problem.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

co-producers/directors

David Davis

Josh Hanig

Duration

00:56:45:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1978

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

013356

Language

English

Subject categories

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Coal mines and mining

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Factories

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Factory management

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrial accidents

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrial management

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrial safety

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrial sociology

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrialization

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Miners

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Work environment

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Work practice

Climate, Environment, Natural Resources & Disasters → Environmentally induced diseases

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - United States

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Industrial relations

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Labor and laboring classes

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Environmentally induced diseases

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Industrial accidents

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Occupational diseases

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/75762--song-of-the-canary/ |title=Song of the canary |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=2 December 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}