TACTIC: not all of the emotions your work could generate will encourage audiences to act in the interests of supply chain workers. But if you can encourage people to imagine themselves in the shoes of those workers, you’re in with a shot.
“Handprint“ A short fashion film by Mary Nighy for Livia Firth’s EcoAge consultancy. Uploaded to YouTube & embedded in full above.
The elegant, graceful actor and model Eletrra Wiedemann, wrapped in a towel after a brisk shower, walks through her beautiful apartment, designer clothes strewn everywhere. As she chooses a red dress, other people’s hands appear to help her get it on, her jewellry on, her shoes on. She doesn’t flinch until she sees the people whose hands these were in a mirror. This film isn’t about the footprint of her clothes. It’s about the handprint. These are the people who made them for her. In the room. With her. Helping her to get dressed. Every day. She couldn’t do it without them. Gulp. This film was made for an exclusive fashion industry audience to encourage them to take care of supply chain workers in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. It was later published online for a wider audience. What impacts could this vision have on them? What can we find out?
Page reference:Ian Cook et al (2020) Handprint. followthethings.com/handprint.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Fugitive Denim“ A non-fiction book by Rachel Louise Snyder published by W.W. Norton & Company. Preview available on Google Books (embedded above).
Journalist Rachel Louise Snyder visits five countries and talks with factory workers, designers and many others who work in the global denim trade to make a pair denim jeans. She’s trying to appreciate the complex geographies connecting the people (she jokes) ‘in our pants’. To do so, she meets and works alongside the people who pick their cotton, weave their cloth, design, sew and sell them. But this isn’t another ‘sweatshop’ exposé. It’s charming, funny, haunting. And it’s showing what’s possible. The jeans she chooses to follow are more ‘progressive, humane [and] environmentally secure’ than most. So, if one brand can make jeans better, what’s stopping the others?
Page reference: Gabriela Camargo, You Bin Kang and Yvonne Yu (2011) Fugitive Denim. followthethings.com/fugitive-denim.shtml last accessed (<insert date here>)
“The Forgotten Space“ A documentary film / film essay written & directed by Nöel Birch & Alan Sekula, produced by Frank van Reemst & Joost Verhey and narrated by Alan Sekula for Doc-EyeFilm & WILDart Film Vienna. Trailer and pay-per-view stream embedded above. Search online for other streaming options here.
So much attention is paid in trade justice activism to producers and consumers, where they live and work, how their lives are connected, how they might be responsible for one another’s lives and lifestyles. But there’s more to the world economy than that. There are plenty of other people and places that make it tick, each with their own concerns and struggles over ethics, justice and sustainability of one kind and another. The Forgotten Space that’s the subject of this documentary film is the sea, and the thousands of container ships that are constantly moving between ports carrying 90% of the commodities that are sold on the world market. This is a whole other world of trade and trade justice, a world that connects the places and the people that virtually all trade justice activism seems to concentrate on. One of its directors – Alan Sekula – is best known as a photographer and, just before embarking on this project, had published a celebrated photo book set at sea called Fish Story. He and co-producer Nöel Burch shared a fascination with perceptions and ideologies of the sea, travelled on board container ships, hung around at the ports they connected, filmed the people they met there – working and protesting – as well as in some of the factories whose goods were being sent in the containers on board. There are two things that are notable about this film. First, it’s about the ‘forgotten space’ of the sea – as mentioned – and sits the viewer amongst the containers on board ship as they are taken slowly across vast seas to deliver their precious contents. But, second, it’s not a straightforward documentary. It’s more of a ‘film essay’ which Sekula narrates, and which is illustrated by the footage that’s included. It’s fascinating, often bleak and beautifully shot. Lots of viewers seem to appreciate the lesson that they have been given. They like Sekula’s polemical and pessimistic Marxist approach – making visible a whole new group of unseen labourers at sea and crises of capitalism that container shipping so vividly illustrates – along with the film’s surprising, sometimes sweet meanderings. Commenters like his open and generous interest in the lives of people he meets. And this leads to some fascinating discussion about how a bleak Marxist understanding of trade is perhaps easier to convey through photography, while the moving image is more unruly and briefly shows glimpses of happiness and humour.
Page reference: Rachael Midlen, Rosie Cotgreave, Lowenna Carlson, Nacim Meziane, Floss Flint & Alex Manley (2024) The Forgotten Space (taster). followthethings.com/the-forgotten-space.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>) groupa a
“Sorry We Missed You“ A feature film written by Paul Laverty & directed by Ken Loach for 12 production companies including BBC Films & Canal+. Official trailer embedded above. Search online to streaming options here.
‘Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill struggle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to wrestle back some independence appears with a shiny new van and the chance to run a franchise as a self employed delivery driver. It’s hard work, and his wife’s job as a carer is no easier. The family unit is strong but when both are pulled in different directions everything comes to breaking point’ (Source: Anon 2019, np link).
Page reference: Ian Cook et al (2024) Sorry We Missed You (holding page). followthethings.com/sorry-we-missed-you.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Plastic bag“ A short film directed by Ramin Bahrani and narrated by Werner Herzog for ITVS. Published on YouTube, embedded in full above. Search online for other streams here.
Remember those thin plastic bags that used to be available, free, at the checkout? This is the starting point for Ramin Beahrani’s short film. What lives do they lead after the shopping is emptied from them at home? And what if one of them could tell that story for itself (in a droll Bavarian accent)? What would it say? It’s exciting to have finally been chosen, there at the checkout, to fulfil your destiny. To help a shopper carry their shopping home. The shopper-bag relationship is short-lived, but beautiful. But what if she then uses you to pick up her dog’s poo? And put you in a bin? How would you feel about her then, as your life continued, further and further away from hers? You’re not the slightest bit biodegradable. Your life is going to last for ever, starting in a landfill dump. What’s it like to be there with millions of bits of other trash? Imagine being caught in the wind, blown through the countryside, travelling hundreds of miles, and ending up in the sea, with the fish, possibly causing them all kinds of problems. Who and what might you have seen and met on your journey? What would you ponder about your life now its purpose is so far in the past? It’s a silly and unbelievable plot, but a wonderfully moving film. Viewers are surprised to find themselves empathising with a plastic bag. Caring about its fate. How its life could have been different. Maybe this is the best way to change people’s minds about the mountains of waste created by capitalism and its commodity culture. See what you think…
Page reference: Molly Healy, Josephine Thompson, Daisy Aylott, Lily Andrews, Kate Ward, Charlotte Rooker, James Swain, Edward Denton & Ethan Langfield (2024) Plastic Bag (taster). followthethings.com/plastic-bag.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
