The Secret Life of Your Clothes

Genial host Ade Adepitan takes viewers on a journey to show what happens to clothing that is donated to charity shops in the U.K. in filmmaker Andy Wells's documentary, part of the BBC-aired This World series. Adepitan seems genuinely surprised by the enormous wholesaler operation he sees, which ships the clothes overseas to Ghana, where a reported 30,000 tons arrive annually in the capital city of Accra. Brokers sift through the pallets filled with “obroni wawu” (“dead white men's clothes”), come across name-brand finds, and organize items into 1st-3rd class categories (one man says he's made up to £25,000 [roughtly $30,000] in a day). The trail then passes down to the next level of sellers, where the hopeful will gamble on shipments and the atmosphere is tense if the pickings aren't so good (“Old man, you're lying!” “Sister, you're hurting my arm!”). The film also explores the ways that entrepreneurs refurbish cheaper clothes (including re-fitting and dyeing), the disappearance of culture due to the shift from wearing traditional garb to embracing Western-style clothing, and the money to be made in this relatively-new profession (where even in the poorest regions items cost about 30 cents, and still people go into debt for obroni wawu). Easygoing Adepitan—a Paralympian medalist who offers a bit of an atypical perspective squeezing his wheelchair into staggeringly crowded tight market spaces—effectively draws out his interview subjects in this thought-provoking documentary that looks at a lesser-known facet of globalization. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Williams-Wood)