GET-UP Film Festival
(through Fri., Nov. 11, International House, 3701 Chestnut St. 215-895-6542)

As they battle the university for a living wage for service workers, the students in Occupation: The Harvard Sit-In repeatedly stress the fact that Harvard is the oldest corporation in the Western hemisphere. It's a slightly misleading statement -- the "Harvard corporation" actually refers to a seven-member governing board -- but it serves the larger, indisputable, point that American institutions of higher learning increasingly conform to the principles of business, not education. According to Maple Raza and Pacho Veles' documentary, the Harvard corporation's membership is composed entirely of CEOs from companies like ExxonMobil and TriCon Global, men and women accustomed to brushing off the complaints of underpaid workers.

Occupation, a lively moment-to-moment account of the 2001 protest that gained national attention and spawned similar movements (including one at Swarthmore College), sets the stage for the GET-UP Film Festival, three nights of labor-related films sponsored by Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania, a group that knows a thing or two about collegiate corporatization. The group, which is certified by the American Federation of Teachers, formed in response to the increasingly commonplace practice of using low-paid grad students to replace tenure-track positions, essentially cannibalizing their future job prospects.

The concerns of a few graduate students might seem remote to some -- these people aren't sucking down coal dust, after all -- but as you watch the GET-UP fest's films, one thing becomes clear: Labor struggles are labor struggles, no matter the industry. Whether it's the North Carolina textile workers of Where Do You Stand? (showing Thu., 7 p.m. with Occupation) or the San Francisco strippers of Live Nude Girls Unite! (Fri., 7 p.m.), worker concerns and management tactics remain strikingly similar -- although, perhaps not surprisingly, the strippers are quicker to see through their bosses' sweet nothings. The workers at Cannon Mills provide the most grueling case study, rejecting union drives, sometimes narrowly, for decades as they swallow promise after empty promise from owners who promise to boost productivity even as they threaten to shift production elsewhere. Live Nude Girls, co-directed by peepshow dancer Julia Query, presents the union drive itself as a piece of cake, followed by prolonged struggles to turn victory into concrete results. They may know the Sisters of Mercy better than Pete Seeger, but these union maids would do Joe Hill proud.

The festival schedule also includes a screening of Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Sun., 6 p.m., Gershman Y, Broad and Pine sts.) Despite numerous inquiries from City Paper (not to mention rolling back deadlines), Greenwald's office was unable to provide a review copy in time.

Throwback Double Feature
(Sat., Nov. 12, 7 p.m., $7, International House)
No blaxploitation fan needs an introduction to Black Caesar, which opens Reelblack's double bill: Starring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson (and directed by cult auteur Larry Cohen), the movie is as gracefully blunt as Williamson himself, a transparent remake of the Depression-era Warner Bros' classic. Trouble Man, on the other hand, needs a little introduction, since it's never been available on video or DVD. (It will be screened in a 16mm print; Black Caesar is 35mm all the way, baby.) Director Ivan R. Dixon is perhaps best known for his acting work on Hogan's Heroes, but the better indicator of Trouble Man's tone is Dixon's brilliantly incendiary follow-up feature, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, a forecast of African-American revolt that nearly ended Dixon's career. Marvin Gaye's eerie title song notwithstanding, Trouble Man never hits those heights: Robert Hooks' turn as T, a neighborhood fixer who gets framed for a murder Dashiell Hammett style, is almost comically one-note, and the dialogue fizzles where it ought to pop. (I mean, "Is an elephant heavy?") But who could resist a movie where Pa Walton (Ralph Waite) is a treacherous drug dealer, and Paul Winfield his willing henchman? Reelblack promises prizes to those in the funkiest '70s gear.

Mirror Dance
(Tue., 10:30 p.m., WHYY-TV)
When Maria Rodriguez and Frances McElroy's documentary cuts from a ballet studio in Havana to one in Narberth, you may find yourself doubting your eyesight: Across hundreds of miles and a cultural chasm, it looks like the same woman teaching girls how to dance. In fact, Margarita and Ramona de Sáa are identical twins, born and schooled in Cuba, who separated not long after the Communist revolution: Margarita followed her American husband north, and Ramona, whose boyfriend was one of Castro's bodyguards, stayed, beginning a period of exile from each other that lasted for four decades. In the De Sáas' story, Philadelphia-based directors Rodriguez and McElroy have found the ideal way to address the yawning divide between the U.S. and its neighbor nation without resorting to sloganeering or easy answers; all they need to underline the human cost of the U.S. embargo is the fact that even after their tearful reunion, Margarita is only allowed to return home once every three years. Mirror Dance is a protest that never needs to raise its voice.