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Featuring Mike Rowe, Host, Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs."
Rhode Island PBS and NETA are pleased to offer you The Tradesmen: Making an Art of Work, a one hour documentary that takes a timely, real and unflinching look at the lives and work of American tradesmen. Exploring socioeconomic aspects related to the modern blue-collar craftsman, viewers watch the vocational lives of several tradesmen and see issues encountered by the trades in contemporary America.
In large cities and small towns all across America, we hear almost daily how blue-collar workers are losing jobs, whether to outsourcing or our thow-away mentality. What does this change mean to American society as a whole and to the life of individual Americans?
In addition, many Americans favor "mental work," and harbor a long-standing bias against blue-collar manual workers. However, the truth is that only 18 out of every 100 American workers work entirely with their mind alone. 69% of American workers hold positions that require perfect coordination between their minds and their hands. The Tradesmen explores all these aspects as it presents the life of the blue-collar worker. Viewers see an honest, unromanticized portrayal that includes both the passion many of these workers feel about their jobs, as well as the displeasure of some about how they perceive their status and how hard the work can be.
In The Tradesmen, the reality of how invaluable specialized skills that have been honed to an art and helped build America are disappearing is driven home. In one case it's the stone mason who laments the disappearance of stone-working. We see the impact this change has on the lives of everyday people, through their personal stories and interviews, startling statistics and information from sociology and economic experts. From one worker we hear how he didn't pursue his artistic dreams, but settled instead for a job security that is now vanishing. From another person we hear how "working with one's hands is more comfortable than articulation with words. The result is we, the viewer, gain an understanding of the lives, loves and sorrows of the blue collar worker.
The Tradesmen is produced by Richard Yeagley, Dickie Bruce Productions. The documentary is presented by Rhode Island PBS and distributed by NETA. It is underwritten by Taco, Inc. Local underwriting is permissible.
Please contact me if you have questions. I'll be in touch with you about your carriage plans over the next months. Or, when you know them, please zap them over to me. A fact sheet follows.
Very truly yours,
Regina
Regina Eisenberg
R Eisenberg Presents
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