The Forgotten Space

Allan Sekula and Noël Burch's documentary essay offers a critique of international capitalism while analyzing how goods are moved from producing to consuming nations. The “space” of the title is the world's oceans, which have been transformed into a major element of the global transport system through the widespread deployment of huge cargo vessels carrying large container boxes. The lynchpins—i.e., the major ports—have changed radically during this transition, with adjacent neighborhoods (even whole villages) swallowed up to expand ports, or provide land for the railways and highways needed for secondary shipments. Meanwhile, the number of workers has decreased as more technology has led to downsizing. Sekula and Burch follow ships from China to Rotterdam and Los Angeles, interviewing those involved in the transport operations and others thrown out of work. Along the way, the filmmakers contend that the entire system is based on worldwide credit that will ultimately prove unsustainable and bring about its collapse, and they attack governments that use tax revenues to prop it up. The Forgotten Space adopts a blatantly Marxist tone, and some aspects of the argument here—such as criticism of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, as an instrument of capitalist excess in the midst of industrial blight—are strained. But, overall, this portrait of international commerce makes some interesting points that should spur further discussion. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)