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A Decent Factory (Finland/France, 2004, Director: Thomas Balmès, 79 minutes): In this documentary, Finnish cellphone giant Nokia sends its recently hired Ethics and Environmental Specialist to China to audit one of its suppliers’ factories. But instead of a manifesto on the dangers of outsourcing and globalization, we get a much smaller film about cultural differences. Well, it’s not exactly that simple, either. I guess this one just didn’t catch fire for me the way I thought it would. Sure, the Finns find labour law violations. But in the presence of the factory’s European management, they tend to focus on small things (some chemicals are stored near the toilets) and gloss over the bigger issues (not a single employee at the factory has signed a contract). The truth is that the entire Chinese manufacturing sector operates by very different rules than the Europeans are used to. I looked forward to hearing the auditors interview the mostly-female employees of the factory, but when they do, they discover the sort of complaints made by factory workers everywhere: their superiors insult them, the cafeteria food is bad. The truth is that none of them actually complain about the low wages, or the forced overtime or mandatory deductions for food and accomodation. It seems like they are content to live in single-sex company dormitories. Things that seem to horrify the progressive Finns don’t seem to faze most of the Chinese.
So, at least by focussing in so tightly on one factory, I think it’s impossible to look at the bigger issues involved in globalization and the migration of jobs overseas. Many of the issues seem to involve more than just economics. There is a lot of cultural disconnection going on as well.
That’s not to say I’m an apologist for unfair labour practices. There are widespread problems with almost all of China’s factories, hinted at by the film. Most factories keep at least two sets of books; one to show the government and auditors like Nokia’s, and one more accurate set. And the issue of government corruption is not even mentioned.
So, even though the film failed to address these issues in a larger context, it was still an enlightening visit to a place where most of the world’s manufacturing will be done in the future, if it’s not already being done there now.
(7/10)
Tagged as:
china,
Documentaries,
finland,
globalization,
Hot Docs
Mondovino (USA/France, director Jonathan Nossiter): Since I work in the wine business, I had been quite eager to see this documentary, and I wasn’t disappointed. Reportedly drawn from over 500 hours of footage, the good news is that Nossiter will be releasing not only a theatrical cut, but a ten-part, ten hour series of the film on DVD by next Christmas (ThinkFilm is distributing it). The bad news is that it’s still a bit of an unwieldy beast. When it was shown in Cannes, it was close to three hours long. For Toronto, he’s cut about half an hour but it still clocked in at 135 minutes. Now, for me, that’s fine. I love wine and I love hearing about the controversies raging in my business. But not everyone wants that much.
Nossiter flits around the globe, from Brazil to France to California to Italy to Argentina, talking to winemakers and PR people and consultants and critics about the state of the wine world. The theme that emerges is that globalization and the undue influence of wine critic Robert Parker are forcing a kind of sameness on wine. Small local producers are either being bought up by larger conglomerates (American as well as local), or are being pressured by market forces to change their wines to suit the palate of Mr. Parker, who dictates taste to most of the American (and world) markets.
It’s a complicated subject, and I can understand why Nossiter wants to let his subjects talk. There is Robert Mondavi, patriarch of the Napa wine industry, and his sons Tim and Michael, whose efforts to buy land in Languedoc faced opposition from local vignerons and government officials. There is Aimé Guibert, founder and winemaker of Daumas Gassac, iconoclastic opponent of Mondavi’s plans and crusader for wines that express local terroir. There is Robert Parker himself, expressing some discomfort with his influence while refusing to stop writing about the wines that he favours. There is “flying winemaker” Michel Rolland, consultant for dozens of wineries all over the world, advising them how to make Parker-friendly wines. There are many many more fascinating personalities in this documentary.
If you are a wine lover, you will want to seek out the ten-part series as well as the theatrical version of this film. But even if you’re not into wine, the film is an interesting look at how the forces of globalization are changing many of the world’s oldest and most established traditions. The effects on local cultures and economies cannot be ignored.
(8/10)
Tagged as:
globalization,
wine
Hot Docs is a documentary film festival here in Toronto now in its 11th year. This year, I finally decided to see some films. It’s a huge contrast to the massive, glitzy, and celebrity-obsessed Toronto International Film Festival that I’ve been attending for the past ten years. Lineups are more manageable, for one. And nobody’s looking for stars all over town. In other words, it’s great.
I saw four films this weekend:
- Slasher (US, Director: John Landis) — This film follows Michael “Slasher” Bennett, a sort of used-car supersalesman who’s brought in to struggling dealerships to “slash” prices in special weekend sales. He boasts of selling 200 cars once in four days. He brings in his DJ pal, as well as a “mercenary” salesman just to turn up the heat on the dealership’s guys. He hires pretty girls to “register” customers to win prizes, including an $88 car. His legendary skills only go so far in economically depressed Memphis, where his crusade only manages to sell 35 cars on Memorial Day weekend. This was enjoyable, but bogged down when the sale started to turn sour. (7/10)
- The Take (Canada/Argentina, Director: Avi Lewis) — Directed and written by Canada’s royal couple of the left, Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein (author of the bestselling No Logo), The Take is a fascinating look at what happens when the unemployed decide to take matters into their own hands. After Argentina’s spectacular economic collapse in 2001, many factories simply locked their doors and fired their workers. Rather than see the bankrupt businesses sell off all the equipment for pennies on the dollar, the workers have begun reclaiming the factories, first occupying them and then restarting production, without the bosses. Lewis and Klein made the film after their anti-globalization message met with the question: “What would you replace globalized capitalism with?” Though the film doesn’t attempt to portray the “occupied factory” movement as the answer for every situation, it raises interesting questions in an emotionally engaging way. (10/10)
- The Ritchie Boys (Germany/Canada, Director: Christian Bauer) — This film tells the story of a group of Jewish refugees who enlisted in the US Army during WWII and were recruited for a special intelligence unit and sent back to Nazi Germany, where they worked mostly as interrogators of POWs. Their story makes for a fascinating and moving film. Surprisingly, it’s also full of humour and fond memories. (10/10)
- Super Size Me (US, Director: Morgan Spurlock) — I’d wanted to see this since I’d heard about it at SXSW, where it was screened in March. Director Morgan Spurlock, inspired by a court case involving two obese teens who attempted to sue McDonald’s for their health problems, decides to live for a month on nothing but McDonald’s food. He intersperses footage of his daily “meals” with interviews with health care professionals, lobbyists for the food industry, educators, even a former Surgeon General. The film has been criticized by some as a bit of a stunt. Of course, eating fast food for thirty days isn’t going to be good for you. (Boy, see the film and you’ll see how much of an understatement that is!). But Spurlock uses his stunt as a way to raise some good questions about personal as well as corporate responsibility. This film makes a good companion piece to Eric Schlosser’s excellent book Fast Food Nation. A harrowing, and yet entertaining, experience. And it’s opening theatrically on May 7. Check out the film’s web site, too. (10/10)
So, a great start. I’ve got six more films to see in the next week, plus a few more to choose. I’ll try to say something about each one.
Tagged as:
argentina,
globalization
