Filmmaker-narrator Barry Stevens' feature expose on exploited garment-industry laborers in the Third World repeats sad truths that viewers may have already seen detailed in Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion (2014), The True Cost (2015) and even in the scripted UK dark comedy Greed (2019). Still, the roll call of dismal statistics (one in four slave workers is a juvenile) is a meaningful one, and the presentation scores by damning consumer complacency.
The focus is on India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, principally. Manufacturers at the peasant-ground level have instituted a scheme called "sumangali" that particularly ensnares young village women, seeking dowery money for marriage in the male-dominated society. Factory bosses advance their families the sum, then make the girls work impossible and dangerous hours in ways they can never pay the loans back.
Paying a fairer wage, one interviewee says, would only raise the retail price of a finished item of clothing by one Euro or so.
While fabric and knitting mills treat workers abominably, viewers are also informed that local fireworks factories habitually employ small children in Dickensian-slave conditions - but this business is losing ground to even cheaper fireworks products made in China; somehow this news does not inspire uplift.
A heroic figure fighting the system with his NGO is Joseph Raj, a Christian activist (converted when "liberation theology" resonated with him). There is the human-interest element that he and his Hindu wife nevertheless came together in a traditional arranged marriage (they say they fell genuinely in love anyhow). Raj threads throughout the narrative, and it is fair to say that by the end he is a truly unforgettable figure.
The hands-on filmmakers also arrange a prosthetic limb for a young man whose arm was shredded by factory machinery, and they film practitioners of sumangali. When one interviewee predicts that an evolution towards "socialism" will finally bring justice and equality to these workplaces, Stevens doubts that the mighty Western corporations behind the whole dirty business will go along nicely with that.
He recommends instead that buyers take their protests to the top-level fashion designers and retail executives, who are far removed from what goes on in India, Karachi, or Tamil Nadu and may be unaware of the injustice (although, with films as good as this one, that seems unlikely).
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Politics, economics, world affairs, and business sections should add this unflattering title, even if it makes their greed look fat. Sections focused on Third-World development, with an emphasis on the cultures of India and East Asia, will also want to pay attention.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
Current events, economics, business, global commerce/globalization, sustainability, and international development are all good markets. A case may be made for fashion and India-related subjects.
What type of classroom would this documentary resource be suitable for?
Animation inserts depict occasional acts of sweatshop violence and bloody accidents. High school and above are recommended.