China Blue

Micha X. Peled
China Blue

Abstract: Like no other film before, this documentary is a powerful and poignant journey into the harsh world of sweatshop workers. Shot clandestinely, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retailers don't want us to see: how the clothes we buy are actually made. For Jasmine, a thread-cutter in a blue-jeans factory, the working conditions she and her friends endure are literally unlawful by Western standards, and tensions in the factory are already running high. So when the factory owner strikes a deal with a Western client and demands around-the-clock production in order to meet the deadline, a confrontation becomes inevitable. Following a pair of denim jeans from birth to sale, the film links the power of the U.S. consumer market to the daily lives of a Chinese factory owner and two teenaged female factory workers. Filmed both in the factory and in the workers' faraway village, this documentary provides a rare, human glimpse at China's rapid transformation into a free market society.

Production Date:
03/01/2006

Distributor:
Bullfrog Films
P.O. Box 149
Oley, PA 19547

Phone:
610-779-8226

Fax:
610-370-1978

Email / Website:
winnie@bullfrogfilms.com

http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/china.html

Running Time:
88

Medium:
DVD

Film Credits: Editor: Manuel A. Tsingaris; Camera: Micha X. Peled; Composer: Miriam Cutler; Sound: Song Chen; Additional Camera: Monica Lam, Michael Zong Hwa; Translation Supervisor: Song Chen; Translation Consultant: Bonny Lin. A Co-Production of Teddy Bear Films and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National American Asian Telecommunications Association (NAATA), and the Sundance Fund. Executive Producer for ITVS: Sally Jo Fifer.

Film Purpose: The purpose of the film is to raise awareness about globalization and China's role as the world's largest producer of consumer goods. The intent is to provide a view of the terrible sweatshop conditions created not by the government, but by the multinational big brand retailers, who pressure the factories to keep their cost inhumanely low and their production running all night long. The film underscores the fact that the retailers demand such low prices that the factories can remain competitive only by violating China's labor laws that guarantee minimum wage, overtime compensation and rest days.

Film Audience: The intended audience includes students of China, Asian Studies, consumerism, economics, economic justice, anthropology of work, business practices, business ethics, garment production, geography, globalization, human rights, international relations, and women's studies.

Filmmaker: Micha X. Peled, Teddy Bear Films

Keywords: China, sweat shop, globalization