Complicit

Filmmakers Heather White and Lynn Zhang focus on the human toll of high-tech sweatshops in modern China. The documentary starts with a rustic rural funeral for a young assembly laborer (who died of cancer just prior to his 26th birthday) who worked in the notorious Foxconn factory that contracts to build Apple devices. Migrant farm boys and peasant girls seem to be grist for the mill of unventilated, toxic factories such as Foxconn (and even more unscrupulous subcontractors used by Samsung). These naive youngsters consider their $550 per month wages—while working 15-hour shifts practically every day—to be astounding windfalls for their families. But the chemicals used—especially benzene and n-hexane—are banned in most of the civilized world, and lead to nerve damage and leukemia. Grassroots Chinese activist groups are fighting for worker safety and holding the companies accountable, but such NGOs are based off-site in Hong Kong, and have little enforcement power over the mainland's corporate bosses (who can also bribe doctors to find no industrial involvement in the rampant illnesses). Following the stories of several patients, Complicit paints a sad picture of the tragic cost of the sobering statistic that Communist China now produces 90 percent of the world's electronics. Presented in both its full-length version and a 58-minute abridged edition, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Cassady)