Independent Lens
Season 8 Episode 20 - China Blue
They live crowded together in cement factory dormitories where water has to be carried upstairs in buckets. Their meals and rent are deducted from their wages, which amount to less than a dollar a day. Most of the jeans they make in the factory are purchased by retailers in the U.S. and other countries. China Blue takes viewers inside a blue jeans factory in southern China, where teenage workers struggle to survive harsh working conditions. Providing perspectives from both the top and bottom levels of the factory’s hierarchy, the film looks at complex issues of globalization from the human level. China Blue, which was made without permission from the Chinese authorities, offers an alarming report on the economic pressures applied by Western companies and the resulting human consequences, as the real profits are made—and kept—in first-world countries. The unexpected ending makes the connection between the exploited workers and U.S. consumers even clearer.
Episodes in Season 8
Still Life With Animated Dogs
60 min
The World According to Sesame Street
60 min
Muskrat Lovely
60 min
Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire
60 min
Democracy on Deadline
60 min
Two Square Miles
60 min
A Sad Flower in the Sand
60 min
Revolucion: Five Visions
60 min
Short Stack 2006
60 min
A Fish Story
60 min
Shadya
60 min
Beyond the Call
60 min
Twisted
60 min
Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life
60 min
Motherland Afghanistan
60 min
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
60 min
Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
60 min
Stolen
60 min
Race to Execution
60 min
China Blue
60 min
Black Gold
60 min
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
60 min
The Cats of Mirikitani
60 min
Sentenced Home
60 min
Knocking
60 min
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
60 min
La Lupe Queen of Latin Soul
60 min
