Posted on

Handbook page: impacts


RELATED INGREDIENTS

Change government behaviour
Change corporate behaviour
Change citizen behaviour
Change consumer behaviour
Change the system
Show what’s possible

Have a theory of change
Join with others
Find the unions
Bring managers into view
Bring politicians into view
Bring regulators into view
Hold ’em accountable

Capitalism is sh*t
This is disgusting
I’m so angry
I gotta do something
These people are inspiring

Governments intervene
Corporations are punished
Corporations change


HANDBOOK PAGES

Mangetout
UDITA
<more to be added>

Workers’ pay & conditions improve

IN BRIEF

What’s this page?

This is a placeholder impact page that, once finished, will explain this impact, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, tactics and responses that go with it.


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.


Alice Evans (2020) Overcoming the global despondency trap: strengthening corporate accountability in supply chainsReview of International Political Economy, 27(3), p.658-685

Genevieve LeBaron, Remi Edwards, Tom Hunt, Charline SempĂŠrĂŠ & Penelope Kyritsis (2022) The Ineffectiveness of CSR: Understanding Garment Company Commitments to Living Wages in Global Supply Chains. New Political Economy 27(1), 99-115

Juliane Reinecke & Jimmy Donaghey (2021) Towards worker-driven supply chain governance: developing decent work through democratic worker participation. Journal of Supply Chain Management 57(2), 14–28

Image credit

Icon: improvement (https://thenounproject.com/icon/improvement-7764895/) by Pixels Peak from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

BACK TO HANDBOOK CONTENTS PAGE 👉

SECTION: Responses

by Ian Cook (July 2025)

Posted on

Handbook: response page


RELATED INGREDIENTS

Pop the bubble
Tell the truth
Show capitalist evils
Change consumer behaviour
Change citizen behaviour


Include emotion
Show the violence
Embody exploitation
Include suffering kids
Let the tears flow
Bring managers into view
Juxtapose extremes
Blame, shame & guilt


Capitalism is sh*t
I’m so angry
Creeperific
I won’t buy it!
Who’s responsible?
I gotta do something
LOL capitalism
Nobody cares

Now we’re talking
Activism is inspired
Activists are recruited
Say no to enquiries


HANDBOOK PAGES


Girl model
Ilha das Flores
Mangetout
<more to be added>

This is disgusting

IN BRIEF

What’s this page?

This is a placeholder response page that, once finished, will explain this response, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, tactics and impacts that go with it.


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.


Image credit

Icon: disgusted (https://thenounproject.com/icon/disgusted-3880475/) by Noura Mbarki from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

BACK TO HANDBOOK CONTENTS PAGE 👉

SECTION: Responses

by Ian Cook (July 2025)

Posted on

Handbook: tactic page


RELATED INGREDIENTS

Show capitalist evils
Change industry minds
Change corporate behaviour
Show what’s possible

Target the right brand
Hold ’em accountable
Include emotion
Show both sides
Find a character
Overlap scenes
Juxtapose extremes
Use myths & legends
Go to court!
Show social justice
Show how to win
Create a character
Make the hidden visible
Lie to tell the truth
Bring politicians into view
Bring regulators into view


Capitalism is sh*t
I’m so angry
This is disgusting
Creeperific
Silence your critics
Who’s responsible?
Guilty as charged
That brand deserves credit

Corporations change
Activism is inspired
Workers pay & conditions improve
Can’t tell


HANDBOOK PAGES

Bananas!*
Big boys gone bananas!*
Employee visualisation appendage
Girl model
Mangetout
The true cost
<more to be added>

FOLLOWTHETHINGS.COM PAGES

Bring managers into view

IN BRIEF

What’s this page?

This is a placeholder tactic page that, once finished, will explain this tactic, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, responses and impacts that go with it.


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.


Susanne Freidberg (2004) The ethical complex of corporate food power. Environment and planning D: society and space 22(4), 513-531

Louise Owen (2011) ‘Identity correction’: the Yes Men and acts of discursive ‘leverage’. Performance research 16(2), 28-36

Image credit

Icon: manager (https://thenounproject.com/icon/manager-7545408/) by muhammad rokhis muktafa from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

BACK TO HANDBOOK CONTENTS PAGE 👉

SECTION: Tactics

by Ian Cook (July 2025)

Posted on

Handbook: intention page


Reach new audiences
Cross cultures
Teach economic geography
Show capitalist evils
Show what’s possible

Choose the right thing
Target the right brand
Follow the thing
Join the dots
Find lost relations
Humanise things
Include emotion
Encourage empathy
Show the violence
Tell a story

I know how they feel
This is so sad
I feel sorry for them
Wow 💥 WTF?
Capitalism is sh*t
Who’s responsible?
Oh, I get it now
Thank you
What’s the point?
It could be worse
I won’t buy it

Now I know
Now we’re talking
I get what it’s like
It made me want to shop


HANDBOOK PAGES

Handprint
Ilha das Flores
Jamelia – whose hair is it anyway?
Mangetout
Primark – on the rack
<more to be added>

FOLLOWTHETHINGS.COM PAGES

Pop the bubble

IN BRIEF

What’s this page?

This is a placeholder intention page that, once finished, will explain this intention, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the tactics, responses and impacts that go with this intention.


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.


Image credit

Icon: pop (https://thenounproject.com/icon/pop-4889095/) by Lars Meiertoberens from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

BACK TO HANDBOOK CONTENTS PAGE 👉

SECTION: Intentions

by Ian Cook (July 2025)

Posted on

The followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism

This is the beginning of the next phase of the followthethings.com project. In 2020, we started to analyse the data we’ve compiled on over 100 examples of trade justice activism on followthethings.com. We’ve been trying to better understand the relationships between its intentions, tactics, responses and impacts. It design has been inspired by the short connected ‘pattern language’ approach taken in the Beautiful… activism books (Boyd 2012, Mitchell et al 2017, Williams et al 2025). While these books set out examples of activism, activists’ intentions, and the tactics and theories they can use, they don’t talk about audiences’ responses to, and the impacts of, this work. We’re trying to work out how trade justice activism works, and what it can do. We want to pass on what we have learned to those who are studying and making new trade justice activism. We have concentrated on films and videos to beging with and can only provide a taste of teh Handbook at the moment. But we’d love to hear your thoughts. See our contact page. Please check back.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

EXAMPLES

Bananas!*
Beautiful clothes, ugly reality
Big boys gone bananas!*
Blood, sweat & takeaways
Dream crazy
Employee visualisation appendage
Ghosts
Girl model
Handprint
Ilha das Flores
Jamelia – whose hair is it anyway?
Life of a bullet
Maquilapolis
Mangetout
Primark – on the rack
Tackle the shackles
The ginger trail
The messenger band
The true cost
UDITA

INTENTIONS

What do trade justice activists want their work to do?

Change consumer behaviour
Change corporate behaviour
Change government behaviour
Cross cultures
Educate workers
End violence & exploitation
Improve pay & conditions
Pop the bubble
Reach new audiences
Show capitalist evils
Show what’s possible
Teach economic geography
Tell the truth

TACTICS

What actions and strategies do they use to bring their intentions to life?

Add mood music
Blame, shame & guilt
Bring managers into view
Choose an audience
Create a character
Embody exploitation
Encourage a boycott
Encourage curiosity
Encourage detective work
Encourage empathy
Encourage feminist solidarities
Find & give inspiration
Find a character
Find the unions
Flip the script
Follow the people
Follow the thing
Give workers the mic!
Have a theory of change
Hold ’em accountable
Humanise workers
Include emotion
Include suffering kids
Include the digital
Involve consumers
Join with others
Join the dots
Juxtapose extremes
Lie to tell the truth
Make a website
Make it familiar
Make it funny
Make it incomplete
Make Music
Make the familiar strange
Place things carefully
Put your bodies in the way
Show both sides
Show the violence
Silence your critics
Spend some time
Stage a Q&A
Start somewhere different
Suggest concrete action
Target the right brand
Tell a story
Workers take the mic

RESPONSES

How do audiences respond to this work, the stories it tells, the suggestions it makes?

Attack your critics
Capitalism is sh*t
Creeperific
Guilty as charged
I get what it’s like
I gotta do something
I just cried
I know how they feel
I laughed my ass off
I want to find out more
I won’t buy it
I’m humming that music
I’m so angry
It’s so badly made
Liar! Fraud!
LOL capitalism
My hero!
Oh shut up
Silence your critics
That’s racist
There is no alternative
These consumers are insane
These people are inspiring
They aren’t experts!
This gives me hope
This is disgusting
This is so sad
Who to believe?
Who’s responsible?
Wow 💥 WTF?

IMPACTS

What changes does trade justice activism encourage in the world?

Activism is inspired
Activism is publicised
Activists are recruited
Audiences are empowered
Can’t tell
Corporations are punished
Corporations change
Debts are paid off
Governments intervene
I shop differently now
Now I know
Now we’re talking
Workers suffer
Workers’ pay & conditions improve

ADVICE TO FILMMAKERS

How students have used this handbook to criticaly anaylse trade justice activism

‘Get people to reflect, not recoil’
‘Choose the emotion that won’t let go – then hit ‘record’
‘You can’t Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance’
‘Yes, it’s small. But that’s the point’
‘Just showing up – again and again – can be the start of something’
‘It’s funny how you can be so angry at someone who is just doing their job’

Posted on

Handbook: advice to filmmakers


Primark – on the rack
Mangetout
Ilha das Flores
Blood, sweat & takeaways
Girl model
Ghosts
UDITA


Reach new audiences
Pop the bubble
Change consumer behaviour
Change corporate behaviour
Improve pay and conditions
Show what’s possible

Hold ’em accountable
Blame, shame & guilt
Lie to tell the truth
Start somewhere different
Involve consumers
Humanise workers
Find the unions
Find a character
Give workers the mic!
Encourage empathy
Juxtapose extremes
Suggest concrete action
Encourage feminist solidarities

Attack your critics
Liar! Fraud!
Wow 💥 WTF?
I’m so angry
This is disgusting
Guilty as charged
I just cried
I gotta do something
Who’s responsible?
These people are inspiring

Now we’re talking
Corporations change
I shop differently now
Workers suffer
Activism is inspired
Debts are paid off
Workers’ pay & conditions improve

Get people to reflect, not recoil

IN BRIEF

More about this page.

We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?

Question

How can I make an effective trade justice documentary?

Answer


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Screenshots of Mantheesh testing sequins in Primark – on the rack.

Primark caught? Nope! They fired back. Attacked their critics. ‘Liar! Fraud! The footage is fake!’ I didn’t know who to believe. Commenters argued over who’s right. This pivotal scene of Mantheesh became about everything but his struggles. Backfire! Panicking, Primark abruptly closed the three factories blamed of outsourcing and child labour. Rid themselves of the problem, leaving ‘hundreds of garment workers in an even worse position than before’ (Arnott; 36; in Adley et al., 2025). Workers suffer.

Thanks to the film, ”good days’ for Mantheesh have come to an abrupt end’ (Hunt; 22, in Adley et al., 2025). 😳 . This is the opposite of its intention. I’ve used this example to show you how impactful film can be – and how risky. DON’T lie to tell the truth. Workers might suffer.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

SO.. let’s start smaller – a different angle. Target consumers. Try to change consumer behaviour. If you want people to rethink where their stuff comes from, pop the bubble. All activists need to shine light on the hidden realities (Duncombe, 2012). Cook and Woodyer (2012) explain how the ‘fetish’ of commodities hides the hands making them. So, as Boyd says (2012; in Duncombe, 2016, 122), you must make ‘the invisible visible.’ Showing the workers juxtaposing extremes can do this – it gets people questioning without blame, shame or guilt – which clearly didn’t work for Primark on the Rack.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Mangetout and Ilha das Flores did this. But you can’t just throw any scenes together.Bloomfield and Sangalang (2014) helped me get this – you’ve gotta show the relationship between the scenes, like cause and effect, or moral contrast – so people connect the dots themselves. Leave space for imagination (Cook et al., 2007; 118). Like how Mangetout juxtaposes middle class diners who ate mangetout ‘between outbursts of smug crassness, [as] the African pickers were being treated as slaves’ (Holt, p.5; in Cook et al., 2025). Meanwhile Mark Dady, Tesco manager, smiles over his workers. It showed how Tesco policy exploits workers who completely rely on them, ignorant of their struggles, giving more attention to the vegetable than those producing it. Tesco weren’t explicitly blamed – viewers drew ‘their own depressing conclusions’ (Truss, np, in Cook et al., 2025) about how the workers were treated. I was so angry!

Screenshots of Mark Dady, Tesco buyer, visiting the farm (top left), Blessing Blessing Chingwaru, the farm’s chief mange-tout picker (bottom left) and the UK home counties dinner party guests eatinjg and discussing mage-tout farming in Zimbabwe: all from Mangetout.

Ilha das Flores also juxtaposed extremes showing the tomato-connected lives of workers, animals, and consumers. For some, it hit hard – ‘impossible not to shed tears while watching’ (Anon; 17; in Pavalow, 2025). Wow 💥 WTF? I was shocked seeing dead bodies, children eating scraps a family had previously deemed inedible. But the shock didn’t lead me anywhere. If you look at Chouliaraki (2010), she explains this problem. She says when films show suffering too graphically or abstractly, they risk fetishising all over again. It becomes a spectacle of disgust (Lissner, 1981; 32, in Chouliaraki, 2010). I felt bombarded.

Screenshots from Ilha das Flores.

So, same technique, totally different outcomes. Emotions can work against you ⚠️ . Ilha das Flores left people feeling disgusted – by the end ‘I just felt like being sick’ (Redroom Studios, np; cited in Pavalow, 2025). Disgust can make your audience recoil (Ryynänen, Kosonen, and YlĂśnen, 2023). Someone said ‘the holocaust images made me stop watching’ (@andrewsharpe2587, np, in Pavalow, 2025). Not exactly the spark you need to fuel activism.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

But anger you can work with! Anger at Mangetout’s revelations inspired activism. Read Micheletti and Stolle (2008, p.749) to understand this emotional mobilisation. They explain how strong emotions like anger can drive change consumer behaviour and change corporate behaviour. That’s an effective outcome! Unlike disgust, anger is intentional (Ryynänen, Kosonen, and Ylönen, 2023). Mangetout was effective because, as Brown and Pickerill (2009) explain, there was somewhere to aim it: Tesco. Tesco felt pressured to join the Ethical Trading Initiative. Corporations have changed! SUCCESS!! 🎯 You see there are different ways to apply pressure. Different emotions get different responses. Get people to reflect, not recoil.

Targeting consumer audiences seems to be effective – you can target them other ways! Try to change consumer behaviour. Kahn (2016) explains that consumers are more responsible than ever – the solution to fast fashion problems! Make them feel they gotta do something.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Involving consumers can be a powerful way to show them how to change. Blood Sweat and Takeaways tried this by taking 6 British food lovers to ‘walk-a-mile’ in workers’ shoes in Thailand and Indonesia (Cuthbertson; 46; in Clarke et al., 2025). Millions watched – it reached new audiences and opened viewers’ eyes: ‘I never gave much thought to where my food comes from’ (Lynn, np, in Clarke et al, 2025). But the show failed to tell viewers how to help – ‘boycott tuna or buy more of it?’ (Sutcliffe 2009 np, in Clarke et al., 2025).

🤔 What was the point? Instead, it focused on participants’ personal journeys, like Manos’ emotional revelation and apology to the workers shown below. It didn’t push for social change (Gupta and Fawcett, np, in Clarke et al., 2025), and letting consumers ‘play at’ being workers only extended the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (Yang, 2017; 61).

‘I have to apologize … I need to change.’ British food lover Manos apologies to Indonesia fishermen in Blood, sweat and takeaways.

Screenshot from the Handbook.

You must TELL consumers what to do (Haug and Busch, 2016). Explicitly link consumer habits with workers’ lives. In Primark on the Rack, a young woman is shown video evidence of children working on a top from Primark that she owned. She was shocked! Guilty as charged! Trust in Primark – gone. ‘It’s the end of the affair’ says McDougall (Panorama, 2008; 48:43). Consumer behaviour changed 👍 . people said they’d shop differently now 👍 . Did they?

Screenshots of journalist Mark Heap shows a British consumer some foilm footage of the children who made her top, in Primark – on the rack.

I felt guilty too. All those times I’ve ventured to Primark for another cheap top. But what about the factory owners I’d seen? The children’s parents? Who’s responsible? I started justifying my actions, I’m a student. I can’t afford to shop elsewhere. ‘How dare that reporter incline towards that woman [shopping] in anyway that it’s her fault for buying clothes from Primark’ (Maddox 2008 np; in Adley, 2025). Young (2003) explains this response. Guilt is backwards-looking, people get defensive (Bartky 2002; in Yang 2017) and angry. Instead of collective action, blaming a consumer caused resentment and refusal to take responsibility (Young, 2003). I came to a dead end. But then I returned to Young (2003). She says you want to show people that it’s everyone’s responsibility.Y ou need to show them how to make a difference, but don’t blame. Guilt isn’t always effective.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

So avoid responses that will backfire. Your doc could be more effective by humanising workers. Get people talking about them. You’ve learnt about emotional responses – which ones should you evoke? Here you could turn to Kemp (2025) who explains that empathy can motivate helping behaviour and catalyse action (Nash and Corner, 2016). You want action! So encourage empathy.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

The unintentional popularity of Girl Model shows that finding a character can really effectively connect an audience to workers struggles through empathy. ‘It became ‘essential viewing for adolescent girls’ (Burr, 2012, np; in Hambly et al., 2025) because people had been emotionally impacted. Aspiring model Nadya (13) is carted off to Tokyo with hope for a better life, and money for her family. But these promises dissolve and the glamour and gloss of the industry was stripped away (Kermode, 2012, np, in Hambly et al., 2025). The images show her real emotions under the fake glamour. I just cried ‘I wanted to give Nadya a hug, because I felt her pain’ (DisturbedPixie, np; in Hambly et al, 2025).

Screenshots of Nadya Vall modelling and crying IRL, in Girl Model.

The rawness of disappointment touched a nerve. Canning and Reinsborough (2012) explain that your audience cares more when they relate. So you could include relatable characters to engage your audience. Point your camera towards the workers and it becomes an ‘empathy machine’ (Jackson in Nals, 2018; 135). But there was nothing I could for Nadya. I was invested but at a dead end. But Ghosts shows how empathy CAN effectively inspire action.

Ghosts finds a character: Ai Qin. We follow her closely as she migrates to the UK for better wages and work. But she becomes trapped in a modern slave system. She repeatedly suffers. She cries and then… I cried.

Screenshots of modern slave Ai Qin in Ghosts.

Screenshot from the Handbook.

My emotions mirrored hers (Nals, 2018). Her plight comes up to you like an unforgiving tide (Keak np; in Allen et al., 2025). You want to help her. Some viewers said that showing her ordinary emotions brought her closer to ‘us’ bridging a ‘gulf’ between viewer and subject (Brass; 346; in Allen et al., 2025), but I felt like I was framed in an oppressor vs oppressed dynamic (Bardan, date; in Pereen, 2014; 44). She was a victim, the audience are saviours (Pereen, 2014; 44). Ghosts ends with the Morecambe Bay tragedy: Ai Qin survives, but viewers learn the victims’ families struggle with debt. Broomfield established the Morecombe Bay Victim’s fund (O’Keeffe 2006; in Allen et al., 2025) and emotionally-connected viewers, now cast as saviours, donate to clear these debts. Debts are paid off.

So if you encourage empathy and suggest concrete action you can drive effective change. But this help was temporary. And empathy donation relationships rely on the colonial gaze being maintained (Hall, 1992; in Chouliaraki, 2010) which is part of the problem. Your film can use empathy to get immediate change, but you need to switch it up to improve workers pay and conditions long-term.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Individualising and blaming consumers and corporations can undermine your goal. An effective doc must promote trade justice without endangering workers. So start somewhere different. Let workers take the mic. Like UDITA (Arise) did. Following 5 female union workers, it shows what’s possible: powerful, collective action – ‘women’s hope and commitment to create better conditions for the next generation’ (Spooner; 32, in Barker et al, 2025). These people are inspiring. Empowered workers showed how resistance is already improving pay and conditions (Siddiqi, 2019). They had a voice – and knowing best how the garment industry should change (Khan, 2016), they can tell us what they want – (O’Neill, np; in Barker et al, 2025).

Left: screenshot from UDITA. Right: screenshot from the Handbook.

I could no longer excuse ignoring how my t-shirts are made because ‘[T]he actual garment workers themselves are saying that they want us to shop consciously. WE CAN DO IT’ (Gregory, np, in Barker et al., 2025). It shows that the workers don’t need ‘saving’ – PrimarkOn the Rack showed how victimising workers can harm their interests (Siddiqi, 2019), moving beyond the ‘us’ and ‘them’ divide. Before, I was encouraged to be a guilty consumer . Now I was encouraged to be a feminist in solidarity – an important move for audiences to make because it shows the collective responsibility we all have – that workers need to resist too (Young, 2003; 42).


Screenshot from the Handbook.

After so much despair, witnessing their resilience gave me hope. Your film can help apply pressure in the right places. Find the unions and help them to improve pay and conditions. Inspire viewers to work collectively. Make it forward-looking (Robin Zheng, 2019). Show there is an alternative, and you will make real change.

Left: screenshot from UDITA. Right: screenshot from the Handbook.

So to improve pay and conditions: target consumers and corporations, but be cautious ⚠️ . Get people talking about the workers, and mobilise emotions like empathy and anger into concrete action. Collate these ideas – have a theory of change and apply pressure from different angles. Like UDITA, give workers opportunity to show what’s possible to give the audience hope, a sense of togetherness.


Screenshot from the Handbook.


+25 sources

Brown, G. and Pickerill, J. (2009) Space for Emotion in the Spaces Of Activism. Emotion, space and society, 2(1), pp. 24–35

Canning, D. and Reinsborough, P. (2012) Lead With Sympathetic Characters. in Beautiful Trouble. OR Books, p. 146

Chouliaraki, L. (2010) Post-humanitarianism: Humanitarian Communication Beyond a Politics of Pity. International journal of cultural studies, 13(2), p. 107–126.

Clarke, M Thomson, B. Bartley, V. Ibbetson-Price, K. Christie-Miller. E. & Schofield, H. (2025) Blood, Sweat & Takeaways. followthethings.com/blood-sweat-takeaways.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)

Cook, I. and Woodyer, T. (2012) Lives of Things. in The Wiley‐Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, p. 226–241

Cook, I. et al. (2007) ‘It’s More Than Just What It Is’: Defetishising Commodities, Expanding Fields, Mobilising Change. Geoforum, 38(6), p. 1113–1126

Cook, I, et al., (2025) Mangetout. followthethings.com/mange-tout.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)

Duncombe, S. (2012) It Stands On Its Head: Commodity Fetishism, Consumer Activism, And The Strategic Use Of Fantasy. Culture and organization, 18(5), p.359–375.

Duncombe, S. (2016) ‘Does It Work? The Æffect of Activist Art. Social research 83(1), p.115-134.

Duncombe, S. (2023) A Theory of Change for Artistic Activism. The Journal of aesthetics and art criticism, 81(2), pp. 260–268

Hambly, A, King, E, Keogh, A, Renny-Smith, C, Callow,E, Thorogood, J & Alloy, V (2025) Girl Model: The Truth Behind The Glamour. followthethings.com/girl-model.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)

Haug, A. and Busch, J. (2016) Towards an Ethical Fashion Framework. Fashion theory 20(3), p.317–339

Pavalow., M (2025) Ilha das Flores. followthethings.com/ilhadasflores.html (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)

Kemp, D. (2025) Comparing Disgust and Sadness: Examining the Interaction of Emotion and Information in Charity Appeals. Journal of social marketing, 15(1), p.42–58.

Khan, R. (2016) Doing Good and Looking good: Women in ‘Fast Fashion’ Activism. Women & Environments International Magazine, 96/97, p.7-9

Kister, J. and Wenner, M. (2024) Living Wages as Life Boat to Rescue Fairtrade’s Values for Hired Labour? The Case of Indian Tea Plantations. Die Erde: journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin 154(3), p.80-94

Micheletti, M. and Stolle, D. (2008) Fashioning Social Justice Through Political Consumerism, Capitalism, And The Internet. Cultural studies 22(5), p.749–769

NĂĽls, J. (2018) The Difficulty of Eliciting Empathy in Documentary. in Brylla, C & Kramer, M. (eds) Cognitive Theory and Documentary. Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan, p.135-148

Nash, K. and Corner, J. (2016) Strategic Impact Documentary: Contexts Of Production And Social Intervention. European journal of communication 31(3), p.227–242

Peeren, E. (2014) The Spectral Metaphor: Living Ghosts and the Agency of Invisibility. London: Palgrave Macmillan

Ryynänen, M., Kosonen, H.S. and YlÜnen, S.C. (2023) From visceral to the aesthetic: tracing disgust in contemporary culture. in their (eds.) Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral. London: Routledge, p.3-16

Siddiqi, D.M. (2009) Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving? Sisterhood In The Post-Sweatshop Era. Feminist review, 91(91), p.154–174

Yang, J. (2017) Screening privilege: global injustice & responsibility in 21st-Century Scandinavian film & media. PhD thesis: University of Oslo (https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/70905/Yang%2bPhD%2bScreening%2bPrivilege.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y last accessed 28th April 2025)

Young, I. (2003) From guilt to solidarity: sweatshops & political responsibility. Dissent 50(2), p.39-44

Zheng, R. (2019) What Kind of Responsibility Do We Have for Fighting Injustice? A Moral- Theoretic Perspective on the Social Connections Model. Critical horizons : journal of social & critical theory, 20(2), p.109–126

Image credits

Icon: conversation (https://thenounproject.com/icon/conversation-6769395/) by kliwir art from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

Primark on the rack: credit BBC.

Mangetout: credit BBC

Ilha das Flores: credit Casa de Cinema de Porto Alegre

Blood, sweat & takeaways: credit BBC

Girl model: credit Carnivalesque Films

Ghosts: credit Beyond Films

UDITA – credit Rainbow Collective

Handbook screengrabs: credit followthethings.com




SECTION: advice

Written by Abbie Gollings, edited by Ian Cook (first published July 2025)

Posted on

Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork

followthethings.com
Grocery

Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork
A documentary film dirercted by Eyal Sivan for Trabelsi Productions.
Trailer embedded above, search online for streaming options here.

Imagine visiting your local supermarket and popping a bag of Jaffa branded oranges in your basket. Then imagine browsing your favourite news site on your phone in the checkout queue and reading the latest story about deaths in Gaza, war in the Middle East. Maybe you’ve read a lot about this conflict, or have some first hand experience. But news stories don’t tend to explain its background, how and why it began. That bag of oranges – and this documentary film – can help to do this. Jaffa is an ancient Palestinian city. It’s also where Jaffa-branded oranges have been grown by Arab and Jewish people since the 1800s. Once picked, they would wrap each individual fruit in tissue paper, pack them into wooden boxes, load them onto boats and ship them wordwide. A year after the birth of ‘practical photography’ in 1839, Palestinian photographer Khalil Khaed visited Jaffa to document everyday life and work, including in its orange groves. Photographers, filmmakers, artists and advertisiers have documented the connection between Jaffa and oranges ever since. But, as the Israeli state began to take shape in the 20th Century, this film argues that there was a concerted attempt to remove Palestine from Jaffa oranges and to rebrand them as emblems of Israeli civilisation. It’s settler Colonialism 101. To piece this history together, Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan spent five years sifting through numerous archives for Jaffa-orange photos, films, advertising and resistance. He showed what he found to Israeli and Palestinian people- academics, poets, retired orange workers, advertising executives, others – and filmed their reactions. What he created from this footage is – many have said – a profoundly insightful and moving documentary. It has generated considerable critical and public acclaim from audiences around the world. First screened in 2009, it is still a go-to documentary to spark debate about the Palestine-Israel conflict today. And Sivan continues to attend screenings to answer questions about the film and the futures that might be possible in the region. Sivan’s politics, and films, are anti-Zionist. He has struggled to raise funding and to gain screening opportunities in Israel. He and his films have generated criticisms of anti-semitism. But the main argument in ‘Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork’ is that, if Arab and Jewish people were able to work together harmoniously in the past – like they did in Jaffa’s orange groves – they can do so in the future. You have to see this to believe this. Why not watch the film? Read the comments below. See what you think. We’ve tried to captire all of the discusion we’ve found online.

Page reference: Lucian Harford (2025) Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork. followthethings.com/jaffa-the-oranges-clockwork.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 67 minutes.

Continue reading Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork
Posted on

Handbook: advice to filmmakers


Girl model
Mangetout
The ginger trail
Ghosts
Primark – on the rack


Pop the bubble
Cross cultures
Tell the truth
Show capitalist evils
End violence & exploitation
Change corporate behaviour
Teach economic geography

Have a theory of change
Target the right brand
Follow the thing
Tell the truth
Tell a story
Include emotion
Encourage empathy
Find & give inspiration
Workers take the mic!
Find a character
Create a character
Bring managers into view
Show the violence
Include suffering kids
Juxtapose extremes
Blame, shame & guilt
Encourage feminist solidarities
Add mood music
Silence your critics

This is so sad
This is disgusting
I’m so angry
I just cried
These consumers are insane
Capitalism is sh*t
These people are inspiring
This gives me hope
I want to find out more

Now I know!
Now we’re talking
Activism is publicised
Activism is inspired
Debts are paid off
Governments intervene
Corporations change

Choose the emotion that won’t let go – then hit ‘record’

IN BRIEF

More about this page.

We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?

Question

How can I make an effective trade justice documentary?

Answer

Screenshot from the Handbook.

Now, for your film to be effective, its intentions must lead to real-world impact. To generate the greatest impact, I suggest having a theory of change 🤔 AKA a strategy to maximize your film’s effectiveness. This will help you focus on a specific TJM issue to create meaningful and targeted 🎯 change (Duncombe, 2023)!!!

OK … let me tell you a story. It’s 2008. I’m watching ⚽️ football. Age 6. Suddenly, it’s half-time. A charity’s plea for donations appears on the TV. Starving Sudanese children 👶🏿 scatter the screen. Their exposed black ribs protrude from the telly stabbing 🗡 into my young eyes – bringing them to tears 😢. WHY do I still remember? Emotions imprint far deeper than facts ever can – so your film must aim not just to inform, but to include emotion that will shake your viewer.

In April, I walked past Primark. My attention focused on glossy posters of young girls 👧 posing. Slowly, their faces distorted into Nadya Vall from Girl Model. Filmmakers follow this 13 year old girl from Siberia to Tokyo, chasing her dream to become a model. But it falls apart and she cries for help. The image burnt 🔥 into my brain 🧠. I couldn’t stop thinking about Nadya.

Screenshots of girl model Nadya Vall in Girl Model.

Filmmakers use tactics to trigger 🤮 😭 😢 😫 😡 😳 😊. Girl Model finds a character in Nadya who ‘gives the film a clear protagonist'(Saito in Hambly et al., 2025, np) creating a bond between the viewer and Nadya (Nash & Corner, 2016). The film includes suffering kids 👧 as Nadya cries to return to her impoverished home which is contrasted with Ashley, Nadya’s manager, who is free to wander her ‘cavernous Connecticut mansion’ 🏡 (Lucca in Hambly et al., 2025, np).

Screenshots of model scout Ashley Arbaugh in Girl Model.

By bringing a manager into view, filmmakers reveal Ashley’s apathy through unsettling imagery – strange dolls 🪆and eerie photo cut-outs of models – which underscore her ‘disconnection from the modelling world’ (Redmon in ibid) and Nadya (Natter & Jones III, 1993). These tactics together encourage empathy 🥹by helping viewers really understand Nadya’s suffering → which often makes viewers sad (Redmon in Hambly et al., 2025; Dant, 2012).

Screenshots of Ashley’s baby doll collection and covert snapshots in Girl Model.

It worked! It’s ‘saddening’ ☹️ (Almachar in Hambly et al., 2025, np). I’m so sad. Sadness is ‘a response to and feeling of loss’ (Kemp, 2025, p.44). Myself and others found Girl Model pretty ‘disturbing’ (Cli in Hambly et al., 2025, np)….it’s disgusting 🤮 . These feelings are brought on by violations of morality and with these physical feelings of revulsion 🤢, the film’s message hits deeper into the viewer’s heart ❤️ (Ryynänen et al., 2023).

By not ramming information down our throats, Girl Model told the truth – ‘a veritĂŠ narrative’ (Sabin & Redmond in Hambly et al., 2025, np) and this amplified 🔊 the film’s impacts ☹️ 🤮 (Sabin & Redmond in Hambly et al., 2025).

Activism was inspired! Someone else made a film, people asked how they could create change, and conversations roared online – this engagement with the film is the first step toward real change … now we’re talking 💬 (Sabin & Redmond and Bleasdale in Hambly et al, 2025).

So now we know about Nadya’s exploitation…. our knowledge is the starting point for action ✊🏽.

Hold on ⛔️. Wenzel (2011) warns that consumers often confuse gaining knowledge with meaningful action. As a result, films can end up re-fetishizing commodities, simply generating new demand: dammit 😤 (ibid).

BUT WAIT! Nash and Corner (2016) explain how to overcome this…..emotions can be just as powerful, if not more so, than knowledge. By fostering emotional attachment to an issue, films have the potential to stimulate genuine action, not just passive awareness (ibid)!!!!

OK, now I know emotions are important. Girl Model got people ☹️ and 🤮. Mangetout got people 😡.

Mangetout popped the bubble by confronting Brits ‘with their most popular supermarket Tesco actually running a farm in Zimbabwe’ (Miller in Cook et al., 2025, np). Crossing cultures and following the thing traces the journey of mangetout peas 🫛 ‘from African soil to English dinner plate’ (Phillips in ibid) exposing the interconnected web of commodities and their externalities along the way (Callon, 1998). BAM 💥 my commodity fetishism 🫧 was popped ← Marx can #RIP 🪦 (Cook et al., 2002).

Screenshots of the farm, the TESCO HQ & the dinner table in Mangetout.

Tesco veg buyer Mark Dady travels to Zimbabwe bringing managers into view. He inspects Chiparawe farm [code 🧑‍💻 for] he bullies farmers to grow the perfect 🫛 for minimal Ps 💷 (Aaronovitch in Cook et al., 2025). Mark’s arrival 🛬 is accompanied by imperial music to add mood music 🎵 which juxtaposes extremes with Zimbabweans singing ‘Tesco’s our dear friend’ 🎤(Holt in Cook et al., np; Friedberg, 2004). Juxtaposition is useful to filmmakers cos it helps highlight stark inequalities (Wenzel, 2011)!

A juxtaposition 👨‍🏫 masterclass………

Screenshots from Mangetout.

Mark ⬆️ demands farmworkers trim the 🫛 leaves for the consumer’s benefit …! Grannie ⬇️ explains her past traumas while a British consumer at a dinner party ⬇️ says workers – like Grannie – ‘are probably happy in their mud hut’ (O’Malley in Cook et al., 2025, np).

Screenshots of the dinner party guest and farm worker Grannie from Mangetout

These tactics juxtaposes British consumers 🤵‍♂️ with Zimbabwean farmworkers 👩🏾‍🌾 leading to a response of these consumers are insane – they’re called arrogant, bstards, and c&*ts (in Cook et al., 2025). Contrasting consumers with producers provokes viewers to rally 🪧 against the dinner party guests (Wenzel, 2011). Viewers were so angry 😡 at Tesco 👿 that they wanted to ‘kick in the TV’ 📺 (Jema in Cook et al., 2025, np). Anger helps prompt action by breaking viewer passivity (Chouliaraki, 2010). In response to Mangetout, Tesco joined the Ethical Trade Initiative showing ‘the ability of film to intervene in the foodscape’ (Richardson-Ngwenya & Richardson in Cook et al., 2025, np). Corporations changed 💥💥💥 because of political consumerism (Stolle & Micheletti 2013).

Effective. Intentions → Impacts. But just a word of warning, triggering tooooo strong emotions can backfire. Chouliaraki (2010) – worth a read 📚 btw warns of the boomerang (viewers resent blame, shame & guilt tactics ) and bystander effects (viewers feels powerless 😬). The trick is to deliver enough emotion to spark action 🧨 without triggering paralysis or resentment 🫩.

But The ginger 🫚 trail doesn’t trigger strong emotions at all. 👎 A major flaw?

Screenshots from The ginger trail.

It’s an I-Doc 🎦. Viewers choose clips 📽 and in what order they’re watched. Interactivity facilitates participation in making a film rather than simply consuming it → this immerses viewers (Aston, 2022). This film teaches economic geographies (Ananthanarayana, 2025). It shows slow violence caused by ginger cultivation but it’s hard to show violence that takes place over many years ⏳ (ibid; Davies, 2022). It overcomes this by showing communities suffering consequences of slow violence which impacts viewers emotionally 💓 which is what Davies (2022) recommends!

Screenshots from The ginger trail.

Viewers wanted to find out more. To ‘work out the puzzle 🧩 of seemingly disconnected clips’ (Anon in Ananthanarayana, 2025, np). But responses were ‘not emotionally charged’ 🤦‍♂️ (ibid). Still, now we’re talking; viewers ‘told their house about the film’ (ibid). 🆒 Knowledge is dispersed. But was this an effective film?

IMO…No. It nailed interactivity. But the lack of emotional response means the film risks creating passive awareness 🤷‍♀️ rather than action (Nash and Corner, 2016). Films have to get the viewer emotionally.

That’s where Ghosts 👻 comes in. A fictional film. Based on the ‘true story’ (Broomfield in Allen et al., 2025, np) of 23 Chinese migrant workers who died 💀 at Morecambe Bay in 2004. It tells the truth 💯 and shows capitalist evils by telling the story of Ai Qin and ‘the chain of labour that exploits illegal immigrants’ (Romney in ibid). Telling stories are effective as they help viewers connect to characters which moves them emotionally 💓 (Nash and Corner, 2016). The film created characters AND found characters! Lead actors were Chinese migrants → ‘neither actors nor themselves’ (Martin in Allen et al., 2025, np).

Screenshots from Ghosts (bottom right: Ai Qin goes food shopping).

Oh and also, Ghosts showed the violence 😡→🤕 workers endured in Morecambe bay forcing the viewer to imagine themselves there (Wenzel, 2011). These tactics combine to include (so much raw) emotion in Ghosts meaning viewers know ‘this is the real thing’ (Anon in Allen et al., 2025, np).

Screenshot from Ghosts of ‘the fight between indigenous and migrant
workers’ (Martin in ibid).

Then I cried 😭. Having built an attachment to the workers, having seen the violence they were victims of, the scene where they drown 🏊‍♀️ was TOO MUCH! It’s difficult ‘ NOT to cry’ (Johnjoe66 in ibid). Viewers feel helpless which combined with feeling so sad 😞 they just cry 😭 (Frome, 2014). Ghosts shows how ‘unchecked capitalism haunt[s] this deeply felt film’ (Geall in Allen et al. 2025, np). Ugggh, capitalism is sh*t! ← 😢 😡 😩 🤮.

Screenshot from Ghosts.

But … something positive … debts were paid off ← ‘the crippling debts inherited by the families of the victims of the Morecambe Bay Tragedy have been paid off’ (Anon in ibid).

Screenshot from the Ghosts website.

Emotion + Knowledge = Action❗️2008 → 2025 and a film still makes me 😭. Ghosts 👻 worked.

Now, Primark on the rack 👕👗 worked but wait for the 👀 twist. It showed capitalist evils by exposing Primark’s suppliers using child refugees from Sri Lanka as wage labourers in India, earning just ’19p a day’ 😞 (Williams in Adley et al., 2025, np). Capitalism f*cking failed these people 🫩 (Chellan, 2023). By targeting the right brand – one with ‘170 stores nationwide’ (Williams in Adley et a., 2025, np), filmmakers tried to change corporate behaviour by ‘set[ting] up [their] target’ 🎯 (Maroney in ibid). Exposing the discrepancies between Primark’s brand image and reality hit 👊 them hard ← exploiting their corporate vulnerabilities ❌ ruining reputations, provoking them to change (Micheletti & Stolle, 2008; Cook et al., 2019).

Screenshots from Primark – on the rack.

Want a strong reaction? Like Girl Model, include suffering kids 🔀 Capitalism is sh*t ← ‘An inequality-enhancing machine’ 🏭 (Wright, 2015, np).

BUT THERE’S A PROBLEM!!! The filmmakers [allegedly] ⚠️ fabricated ⚠️ a scene of children working in Bangalore – the ‘footage was not authentic’ (Greenslade in Adley et al., 2025, np). Child exploitation is socially unacceptable, and I think the filmmakers 🎥 took advantage of this to incite 😡 😢 😩 🤮 (Aguigar et al., 2008). Primark tried to silence 🤐 their critics by challenging the filmmakers but this backfired because of the Streisand Effect → activism was publicised 🤯 (Cook et al., 2018). Prioritising PR 🧯drew more attention 👀 to their exploitation… ‘what about the other children that featured in THE REST OF THE ONE HOUR FILM’ (emilynew in Adley et al, 2025, np).

With public outcry magnified 🔎, corporations changed. In 2013, the Rana Plaza clothes factory collapsed killing over 1,100 people in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Cook et al., 2018). Primark’s response was to spend £9 million 💰to support local communities – or to (try) cover their arses (ibid).

An EFFECTIVE film. But the filmmaker who exposed Primark also found out (ibid). The film would have triggered the desired anti-capitalist reaction without the fake footage ← something to avoid 🚫 when making your film!

Uh-oh, back to Rana Plaza. I’m welling up. But I’m crying 😭 because UDITA is inspiring.

Over 5 years, UDITA follows female garment factory workers in their mission for justice before and after Rana Plaza. Ending violence and exploitation was the goal – ‘Udita shows the agency of these women’ (Minney in Barker et al., 2025, np) to overcome injustice. It encourages feminist 🤜🏻🤛🏽 solidarities giving women greater confidence and knowledge to DEMAND their rights (Hale & Willis, 2007). Its ‘just the workers voices’🗣 (Rainbow Collective in Barker et al., 2025, np).

Screenshots from Udita.

In UDITAworkers take the mic 🎙! Collective action is key to taking down capitalism (McLaren, 2019). By finding and giving 🌞 inspiration – ‘like the inspirational Ratna Miah’ (Hoskins in Barker et al., 2025, np), there is one overriding response: these people are ‘inspiring on a global level’ (ibid) 🌍. Inspiration is powerful ✊🏽 cos it encourages the viewer to emulate the inspiring women in UDITA (Thrash and Elliot, 2003). And the best bit? It worked alongside other emotions. This is so sad. I’m so angry. This gives me hope (Season Bangla Drama in Barker et al., 2025, np).

Screenshots from UDITA.

This hope encourages other people to continue with their own activism (Brown & Pickerell, 2009). UDITA inspired activism as people globally challenge injustice through their own community campaigns 🤗 -‘I am filming everything to collect evidence for our own community campaign’ (Salmon in Barker et al., 2025, np). And there’s more! Governments intervened. In France, legislation changed because ‘Rana Plaza was covered by newspapers, petition of NGOs, film, documentary’ (Evans in ibid) like UDITA. 🤩 WHOA! That’s real change ✊🏽.

RIGHT, so what’s my answer???

Effective films use emotions 😡 😢 😭 😩 🤮 🤗 🫩 🤯 🤩 to provoke responses that galvanise action. So think carefully before locking in your theory of change. Choose the emotion that won’t let go – then hit 🔘 ‘record.’ By shaking viewers emotionally and making them feel injustice, you’re not just making a documentary – you’re starting a movement ✊🏽.

Think of Nadya 😭, Grannie 😡, Ai Qin 🏊‍♀️, the children 👧 of Primark, and the women 🧕🏽🧕🏽🧕🏽 of Dhaka.

Effective films ignite emotion. Now you know. Get out there and inspire change! ✨


Aguigar, P., Vala, J., Correia, I. & Pereira, C. (2008) Justice in Our World and in that of Others: Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Victims. Social Justice Research 21(1), p. 50-68.

Allen, H., Heaume, E., Heeley, L., Hedger, R., Johnson, S., McGregor, O. and Webber, L. (2025). Ghosts. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/?p=10357 last accessed 27 April 2025)

Ananthanarayana, B. (2025) Untitled [Q&A video & transcript], GEO3123: Geographies of material culture. University of Exeter.

+28 sources

Aston, J. (2022) Interactive Documentary: Re-setting the Field. Interactive Film and Media Journal 2(4), p.7-18

Bannister, L. & Bergan, R. (2023) A timeline of UK trade and trade justice. London: Trade Justice Movement

Barker, T., Collier, J., Baker, A., Coppen, L. and Eve, H. (2025) UDITA (ARISE). followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/?p=1593 last accessed 27 April 2025)

Brown, G. & Pickerell, J. (2009) Space for emotion in the spcaes of activism. Emotion, space, & society 2, p.24-35

Callon, M. (1998) An essay on framing & overflowing: economic externalities revisited by sociology. The sociological review 46(1), p.244–269

Chellan, N. (2023) The life of capitalism. in his F/Ailing capitalism and the challenge of COVID-19. Leiden: Brill, p.180-216

Chouliaraki, L. (2010) Post-humanitarianism Huamitarian communication beyond a politics of pity. International journal of cultural studies 13(2), p.107-126

Cook et al, I. (2018) Inviting construction: Primark, Rana Plaza and Political LEGO. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 43(3), p.477-495

Cook et al, I. (2019) A new vocabulary for cultural–economic geography? Dialogues in Human Geography 9(1), p.83-87

Cook et al, I. (2025) Mangetout. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/mange-tout.shtml last accessed 27 April 2025)

Cook et al, I. (2002) Commodities: the DNA of capitalism. (https://followtheblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/commodities_dna.pdf last accessed 27 April 2025)

Dant, T. (2012) Mediating morality. in his Television and the moral imaginary. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 147-178

Davies, T.,(2022) Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom? Politics and Space 40(2), p.409-427

Duncombe, S. (2023) A Theory of Change for Artistic Activism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81, p.260-268

Friedberg, S. (2004) The ethical complex of corporate food power. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 22, p.513-531

Frome, J. (2014) Melodrama and the psychology of tears. Projections 8(1), p.23–40

Hale, A. & Willis, J. (2007) Women Working Worldwide: transnational networks, corporate social responsibility and action research. Global Networks 7(4), p.453-476

Hambley, A., King, E., Keogh, A., Renny-Smith, C., Callow, E., Thorogood, J. & Alloy, V. (2025) Girl Model: The Truth Behind The Glamour. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/girl-model.shtml last accessed 27 April 2025)

Kemp, D. (2025) Comparing disgust and sadness: examining the interaction of emotion and information in charity appeals. Journal of Social Marketing [online early], pp. 42-58.

McLaren, M. (2019) Global Gender Justice: Human Rights and Political Responsibility. Critical Horizons 20(2), p.127-144.

Micheletti, M. & Stolle, D. (2008) Fashioning social justice through political consumerism, capitalism and the internet. Cultural Studies 22(5), p.749-769

Nash, K. & Corner, J. (2016) Strategic impact documentary: contexts of production & social intervention. European journal of communication 31(3), p.227–242

Natter, W. & Jones III. J.P. (1993) Pets or meat: class, ideology & space in Roger & Me. Antipode 25(2), p.140-158

Ryynänen, M., Kosonen, H. & YlÜnen, S. (2023) From visceral to the aesthetic: tracing disgust in contemporary culture. in their (eds.) Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral. London: Routledge, p.3-16

Stolle, D. & Micheletti, M. (2013) Does political consumerism matter? Effectiveness and limits of political consumer activism repertoires. in their Political consumerism: global responsibility in action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.204-243

Thrash, T. & Elliot, A. (2003) Inspiration as a Psychological Construct. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4), p.871-889

Wenzel, J. (2011) Consumption for the common good? Commodity biography film in an age of postconsumerism. Public culture 23(3), p.573-602

Eric Olin Wright (2015) How to be an anti-capitalist today. Jacobin 12 February (https://jacobin.com/2015/12/erik-olin-wright-real-utopias-anticapitalism-democracy/ last accessed 27 April 2025)

Image credits

Icon: conversation (https://thenounproject.com/icon/conversation-6769395/) by kliwir art from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

Girl model screenshots: credit Carnivalesque Films

Mangetout: credit BBC

The ginger trail: credit Bharath Ananthanarayana

Ghosts: credit Beyond Films

Primark on the rack: credit BBC.

Handbook screengrabs: credit followthethings.com




SECTION: advice

Written by Luke Elkington, edited by Ian Cook (first published July 2025)

Posted on

Barbie’s Dirty Secrets

followthethings.com
Gifts & Seasonal

Barbie’s Dirty Secrets
A documentary film presented by Isobel Yeung, and produced by Alasdair Glennie for Zandland, first broadcast on Channel 4, UK.
Available on YouTube, embedded above.

Journalist Isobel Yeung latches onto worldwide success of the 2023 Barbie movie and its feminist critique of the toy industry to ask about the lives of the women who make these dolls in factories in China. She drives around Los Angeles in a Barbie pink Jeep, picking up expert passengers who know about Mattel – the LA-headquartered company that makes and markets this doll – and about the wealth enjoyed by its CEO Ynon Kreiz. These scenes are intercut with Yeung’s phone calls to a fixer in China who is tasked to get an undercover reporter into a Barbie factory wearing a hidden camera. This reporter lasts just one day handling scolding hot plastic Barbie limbs with her bare hands, and is withdrawn for her own health and wellbeing. A second undercover reporter then gets a job assembling plastic figures from a forthcoming Disney Moana movie. He seems to last a day or two, unable to meet rising quotas for new employees, but he captures conversations with his co-workers about life and work in the factory. This undercover footage is shown to a representative of a labour rights NGO who is horrified by the violations that she sees. The film then shifts its attention to another Mattel brand – Fisher Price – and a dangerous cot which has been linked to the deaths of babies, and legal cases against the company. [We don’t detail this below, because we are interested in the way that this film connect the labour, marketing and consumption of Barbie dolls]. Our website has documented many landmark examples of trade justice activism when it was new – from the late 1990s in particular – and when it could have shock value and noticeable impact. Audiences in the 2020s, however, seem no longer to be shocked to find labour exploitation at the end of a supply chain. Corporations are better set up to handle the damage that such revelations may or may not do to their reputations and sales. And ‘trade justice activism’ like this is now pitched by production companies to broadcasters as a form of ‘buzzy’ media content. But, for us, there are glimmers of a more complex theory of change at work here. Less than a week after Barbie’s dirty secrets was broadcast, a China Labor Watch report was published that detailed exploitative and dangerous factory conditions in Barbie factories in China. Isobel Yeung refers to such a report in the film. The role that Barbie’s dirty secrets therefore had, we speculate, was to work alongside this NGO research, to make the report’s findings public, and to connect accusations of Mattel’s feminist corporate hypocrisy through the same media as the Barbie movie: film. Should anyone studying trade justice activism expect to final any single example having an impact in and of itself? No. And is possible to follow just one thing? It doesn’t look like it here. Check the comments below.

Page reference: Lucian Harford (2025) Barbie’s Dirty Secrets. followthethings.com/barbies-dirty-secrets.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 44 minutes.

Continue reading Barbie’s Dirty Secrets
Posted on

Handbook: advice for filmmakers


Blood, sweat & takeaways
Girl model
UDITA
Mangetout


Pop the bubble
Cross cultures
Show capitalist evils
Tell the truth
Teach economic geography
Show what’s possible

Have a theory of change
Choose an audience
Make it familiar
Bring managers into view
Involve consumers
Fund the unions
Humanise workers
Workers take the mic!
Lie to tell the truth
Silence your critics

This is so sad
Capitalism is sh*t
I won’t buy it
Liar! Fraud!
It’s so badly mad
Who to believe?
I’m humming that music
These people are inspiring

Now I know
Now we’re talking
I shop differently now
Corporations change
Governments intervene
Debts are paid off
Can’t tell

You can’t Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance

IN BRIEF

More about this page.

We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?

Sainsbury’s Exeter store.

29th of March 2025. Day after my last Geographies of Material Culture seminar. I’m back in Sainsbury’s. Innocent enough, right? Wrong. Aisle 3. Midway between the mangetout and the courgettes. Boom – my brain betrays me.

It whispers: “Tesco’s our dear friend.” 😉

I froze. Kenyan broccoli gave me side-eyes. Ghanaian pineapples look like they’re organising a strike. Jamaican bananas are silently mourning my moral compass. 💀 It was no longer a food shop but a postcolonial reckoning under migraine-inducing strip lighting……..cheers (Cook and Harrison, 2003). Thanks, material culture films. You broke me. But like… in a good way? I guess consumption with a conscience is better than nothing (Wenzel, 2011). Now I’m spiralling. If a film can do that to me (burrow into my nectar choices and trolley). Is that… ✨effective✨? 🤔 Do you even know what ✨effective✨ means? Here’s a clue. Have a theory of change.


Screenshot from the Handbook.

No, it’s not just some academic buzzword. It’s your ‘how’. HOW does ‘X’ lead to ‘Y’ (Duncombe, 2023). Think about it like a chain. Your activism’s intentions need the right tactics, as they likely to lead to specific responses and impacts. Example: If you want your film’s response – IDK – to be ‘capitalism is sh*t‘ and its impact to be ‘I shop differently now‘ 💁 (or go bigger: corporations change!), then it needs the correct intentions and tactics to hopefully lead to this.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

That’s a theory of change 101! Easy, right…….?? NOPE. Thats what REALLY pisses me off. 😤 ⚠️ Disclaimer: This might turn into a crazy rant ⚠️

Right. Say you want to make a film to take down capitalism (slay). If that’s where you’re starting, go back and watch Mark Phillips’ Mangetout (1997). It dropped right before the 1999 Battle of Seattle, a pivotal moment when people really started calling out the global trade injustice screwing over the Global South (Bannister and Bergan, 2023).

Mangetout popped the bubble as it was the ‘first time British viewers were confronted with their most popular supermarket, Tesco’ (Millar in Cook et al., 2025, np). And it crossed cultures of the 🫛pea. From farm 🇿🇼 to shelf 🇬🇧.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

It introduced Grannie Chabvundira, ‘a 25-year-old mangetout caterpillar inspector’ (Philips in ibid), who drops the line: “life is too hard” (Mangetout, 2005 time 41.12), becuase of F***ing Tesco’s!!! 😳

Screenshot of Grannie talking in Mangetout.

Unlike Grannie, Tesco manager Mark Dady was brought into view. On the farm, Mark and his team ‘were treated like Gods’ (O’Mally in Cook et al., 2025, np). ‘It was sickening’ (ibid). 🤢


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Screenshot of Mark Dady’s arrival at the farm where Grannie worked in Mangetout.

Afterwards, ‘Tesco became evil [or sh*t] for me’ (Chapman in ibid). I too questioned my damn shopping habits and thought ‘I won’t buy it!’ ⛔


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Seems a good impact? You might think, ‘to be ✨effective✨, I gotta do what Mangetout did’. Not so fast, young activist, it’s not that simple. 😝 Introducing Blessing. ‘Chief mange-tout picker at Chiparawe’ (Hall in ibid). He has never been to Tesco.

Screenshot + quotation from Mangetout.

Hopefully, the penny has dropped for you as it did for me. Blessing’s life isn’t anyone’s to interpret. There’s no blueprint for ✨effective✨ activism, no one path to impact. People, contexts, and strategies vary, too (Duncombe, 2024).

It’s like me saying Mangetout existed to make JUST ME and YOU 🫵 feel something. #Embarrassed #Selfish 😖 So. You should choose an audience. Nisbet and Aufderheide (2009) say mobilisation begins with specificity. Your film doesn’t need everyone. Just the right people.


Screenshots from the Handbook.

Take Nick Broomfield’s 2006 film Ghosts, it knew who to talk to. Its ‘X’ was to show capitalist evils and blow the lid off the Morecambe Bay disaster to ‘establish our complicity as consumers in the workers’ fate’ (McCahill in Allen et al., 2025 np). 🫥

Take this scene. Read the subtitles! Ai Quin & her co-worker are in a Tesco store. Before they harvested cockles in Morecambe Bay, they’d picked spring onions Tesco. Ghosts ripped the packaging open and said: ‘They’re not just onions. They’re testimonies of struggle’ (Cook & Woodyer, 2012).

Ghosts ‘showed the dark side of globalisation’ (Bradshaw in Allen et al., 2025, np). It didn’t just say the politics of consumption are broken. It ‘made for an uncomfortable viewing’ (Tinniswood in ibid), making Tinniswood feel globalisation’s fracture lines (Hartwick, 2000). 🤕 Great! Now I know about ‘the appalling circumstances’ (Tang in Allen et al., 2025, np) of the Morecambe Bay disaster, and that Ghosts encouraged audience to donate momey to pay off the debts of the drowned workers’ famililes in China. A couple of ‘Ys’ for this film. 🙌


Screenshots from the Handbook.

That’s good impact, but…… in my opinion … MORECAMBE BAY SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! 🤬

I’m getting riled up. Let’s talk irony and absurdity. Ilha das Flores, is a 1989 pseudo-doc that teaches economic geography as ‘deep as a punch in the stomach’ (@nacaotutumbaie3559 in Pavalow, 2025 np). It’s about ‘capitalism, told through the story of a tomato’ (Delaney, in ibid).


Screenshot from the Handbook

The film, particularly this scene at the end (read subtitles 👇), made me feel like ‘an alien watching a documentary about inequality on Earth’ 👽 (@Canalinfantilreinabowwfriends in ibid).

Screenshots from Ilha das Flores.

People raved! ‘What an incredible documentary’ (@rosangelafigueiredo6082 in ibid), and it was crowned ‘the best Brazilian short film ever made’ (Anon in ibid)! 👑 It’s haunting, clever, and people ‘remember it very well’ (@AndersonPedron in ibid). Its impact? I can’t tell…🤷


Screenshot from the Handbook

What now? Let’s try another example. Your intention could be to pop the bubblebecause ‘when it comes to food, we are spoilt for choice, but would we feel the same if we knew the human cost?’ (Anon in Clarke et al., 2025 np) – and your tactics could be to make it familiar and involve some consumers. ‘X’ clearly leads to ‘Y’?


Screenshots from the Handbook
Screenshots from the Handbook.

This is what BBC 3’s Blood Sweat and Takeaways series did. It followed ‘six typical young British food consumers’ (Cuthbertson in ibid) who were dumped into the sweat and steam of Southeast Asia’s food production lines. One, ‘[Manos] was annoying from the first 5 mins’ (HairHolic in ibid) after kindly being hosted at a supply chain worker’s home.

Screenshot from Blood, sweat & takeaways.


Another, Olu, then body slams Manos into a glass wall in a tuna factory. 🫠

Screenshot from Blood, sweat & takeaways.

It was like watching Love Island sweatshop edition! These consumers were insane! Honestly, it was ‘so excruciating that you’re tempted to’ (Ferguson in ibid) turn off this badly made ‘scripted drama bs’ (keikurooka5105 in ibid) 🤬.

Nåls (2018) was right. By involving the wrong consumers/characters, you risk your audience sitting back partially detaching, watching suffering like it’s another episode…..or worse fully detaching.


Tactic screenshots from the Handbook
Response screenshots from the Handbook

Need proof? Read below 😬 👇😂


I know its a little off topic but does anyone know what song it is at 36.14, I really like it (Source: hyperventil8 2012 np link).

The song is called ‘We Walk’ by The Ting Tings (Source: TopshelferDude 2012 np link).

Does anyone know the song @ 53:50 i want to know please reply D: (Source: theMarcus4131 2012 np link).

Song is ‘Kids’ by MGMT (Source: TopshelferDude 2012 np link).

F**k you for putting Chemical Brothers and Justice on such a sh*tty documentary (Source: anevershiftingsun 2012 np link).

Discussion of Blood, sweat & takeaways in Clarke et al (2025, np).


Okay, I need to breathe. You need to breathe. This rant is not over. ☠ Let’s talk about another example. And lies. Yes – LIES. Your doc could lie to tell the truth. Sorry, not sorry. 😈


Screenshot from the Handbook.

Stam (2016) said it. Documentaries are not ‘pure’, never were. Never will be. 🫢 Take Primark: On the Rack. The 2008 documentary followed a thing (a sequin top) by using ‘hidden cameras’ (McDougall in Adley et al., 2025 np) to uncover ‘the use of child labour in the finishing of cheap clothes’ (ibid). Stam would love this 🤣

Screenshots from Primark – on the rack.

This was connective aesthetics – grabbing your senses, stirring emotions, making you realise that every time you throw on a ÂŁ3 Primark tee (Cook et al., 2000). But you’re also watching ‘three boys in a Bangalore workshop testing stitching’ (Anon in Adley et al., 2025 np). So this crashed headfirst into the very myth it challenged. 🙄 And Primark tried to silence its critics. They cried LIAR, FRAUD!!!


Screenshots from the Handbook.

The ‘footage could not be genuine’ (Primark in ibid). Primark even set up a website: ‘www.primarkresponse.com’, showing ‘what Primark had to do to expose this false claim and clear our name’ (ibid). What a MESS! Now. Over to one commenter, Siddy_06 🥲 : ‘What are we meant to dooo?! I wish someone would tell me, If I get what I would buy from another shop, who can guarantee they are not doing the same thing?’ (in ibid). YES, SIDDY_06. SCREAM IT. LOUDER. FOR. THE. PEOPLE. IN. THE. BACK. Who to believe!!!!!???? 😭


Screenshot from the Handbook.

Levine (2007) would probably argue that SIDDY_06’s scepticism wasn’t just ignorance or rejection – it was a complex, socially driven response to fear, stigma, and mistrust of authority in the trade justice movement. Just when you’ve understood that. Now, enter Wallace Heim (2003) who says the power of a documentary lies in sowing seeds for future rethinking – quiet mindset changes that bloom into something bigger.

Thanks for the mind f*ck Wall-Ace. But WTF is one meant to do! Scatter ✨effective✨ seeds into the wind and hope something grows (see Duncombe 2024)!? Actually….. maybe Wall-Ace has a point. 😑 If your film just tells the truth and holds it up to the light, maybe beautiful ✨effectiveness✨ will bloom. Honesty is the best policy, isn’t it?

TBF, the film Udita shows what’s possible by telling the truth. Screw the official story 🥱. The real truth lies in those who live and tell their stories (Zeng, 2017).


Screenshotted intentions from the Handbook.

Udita plunges you into the chaos before, during, and after the Rana Plaza disaster to reveal ‘an extraordinary and raw insight into the lives of the female factory workers in Bangladesh’ (Posh in Barker et al., 2025 np). It humanises garment workers 🙋🏽 by finding their unions ✊🏽 and letting them take the mic 🎤.


Screenshotted tactics from the Handbook.

Screenshots from UDITA.

It was ‘heart breaking’ (McCulloch in ibid) to watch; I know how they feel. This is so sad. ‘My heart goes out to the aged grandmother who lost her two daughters at Rana Plaza’ (Schon-Meier in ibid). 😢 But wait – pause the sadness for a second. ‘A lot of films and articles portray garment workers as victims’ (Minney in Ibid), but in Udita, these people are ‘inspiring on a global level’ (Hoskins in ibid)!


Screenshotted responses from the Handbook.

OMG – THEN – ‘Trade unionists, workers’ rights activists, and local community groups will gather’ (Salmon in ibid). NOW WE’RE TALKING. BOOM! 💥 ! Governments started intervening! There was an ‘acceleration in legislative change in France’ (Evans in ibid) because ‘Rana Plaza was covered by newspapers, petitions of NGOS, film, and documentaries’ (ibid). Like this.


Screenshotted impacts from the Handbook.

There’s a well evidenced ‘X’ to ‘Y’ sequence here. You intend to show what’s possible with trade justice activism and to tell the truth about workers’ involvement in it. You use tactics that can humanise them, by finding their unions and letting them take the mic. This could lead to audiences responding with sadness about their struggles and/or inspiration about their achievements. And your film’s impacts could simply be the talk that it sparks about these tradwe justice struggles and the chance that – added to other activists’ work on this topic – this could help encourage governments to intervene.

But WAIT! ✋ Don’t grab your camera just yet. Time to pop your bubble again (for the last time). Just cus it worked in Bangladesh doesn’t mean you can Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance (Demos, 2010). Grassroots power matters, but remember Morecambe…..? Rana Plaza…? They should have never F***ing happened in the first place!! 🤬. NGL, when the whole global economy runs on exploitation, chasing ✨documentary effectiveness✨ just looks like damage control (Harvey, 2010).

RIGHT, I’ve humoured this long enough!! Here’s the truth! I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW TO MAKE AN ✨EFFECTIVE✨ TRADE JUSTICE DOCUMENTARY! 😭 Cus if you’ve learnt anything on this commodities-lit, capitalist-infused, GEO3123 rant. It’s this! THERE IS NO SINGULAR CORRECT WAY! 😩 IT ALL ADDS UP! Real change is messy! It’s chaos! Contradiction and unexpected moments are what really move the trade justice movement along (Connor and Phelan, 2013).


Screenshotted tactic from the Handbook.

Now this is … awkward. After all this ranting, yes technically all the films I told you about were effective … just in their own ways. #AWKWARD 🤫🫣

HOWEVER! Here’s my theory of change for you. To be effective in the trade justice movement DON’T make a documentary. 🙅 Mic – Drop 🎤 Put the camera down. Take your budget, kit, and big activist dreams. Give them to the unions, co-ops, and grassroots groups already knee-deep in it. Do it for Grannie & Blessing in Mangetout. For Ai Qin & coworkers in Ghosts. For the boys in Primark: On the Rack. For the women in Udita. Supply chain workers don’t need retakes to show struggle. They live it! 💔

Rant Over.

Screenshot from Mangetout.

Screenshot from the Handbook.


+26 sources

HÊlène Bohyn (2025) Omnibus Or Not, Due Diligence Is a Must: Policy Breakdown. Better Cotton, 31 March (https://bettercotton.org/omnibus-or-not-due-diligence-is-a-must-policy-breakdown/ last accessed 22 April 2025)

Stephen Duncombe (2024) Æffect: the affect & effect of artistic activism. New York: Fordham University Press

Erik Olin Wright (2015) How to be an anticapitalist today. Jacobin, 12 February

Image credits

Icon: conversation (https://thenounproject.com/icon/conversation-6769395/) by kliwir art from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)

Sainsburys Exeter Store: Lucian Harford (used with permission).

Handbook screengrabs: followthethings.com

Blood, sweat & takeaways screenshots: credit BBC.

Girl model screenshots: credit Carnivalesque Films

UDITA – credit Rainbow Collective

Mangetout: credit BBC




SECTION: advice

Written by Lucian Harford, edited by Ian Cook (first published June 2025)