Mardi Gras: Made in China
Duration: 01:06:00 Each year on "Fat Tuesday," the last day before Lent, an enormous carnival spills into the the streets of the American city of the New Orleans. Necklaces made of beads play a large role in the festivities. Thousands of these fly throughout the air to those who are brave...
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| Institution: | Open Society Archives at Central European University |
| Language: | English Mandarin Chinese |
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Redmon, David
2004
United States |
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:177a31f9-b308-4b56-be8e-310ffd399b59 |
| Summary: | Duration: 01:06:00
Each year on "Fat Tuesday," the last day before Lent, an enormous carnival spills into the the streets of the American city of the New Orleans. Necklaces made of beads play a large role in the festivities. Thousands of these fly throughout the air to those who are brave or brash enough to reveal their naked bodies before screaming crowds. Those who are present are oblivious to where these beads come from. All except for documentary filmmaker David Redmont, who in this very successful debut sets off to the Chinese facotry in the special economic zone of Fuijan where the beads are made. Over four hundred young women work here six days a week from morning until night treading beads or decorating miniature carnival masks. During the grueling work, under the threat of a fine, they are not allowed to even whisper. The average earnings for a 12-hour work shift is less than two dollars. Director David Redmontsucceeds in connecting the world of the American consumers and the Chinese workers in a very personal way, and the beads in his ingeniously constructed picture become a metaphor pointing to the structure of globalization, which creates social inequality. It is also worth paying attention to the soundtrack combining the col humor and irony of David Dogherty's mucis with the industrial rhythms of the facotry. |
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| Published: | 2004 |