Mardi Gras: Made in China

Follows the "bead trail" from the bead factory in China to Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.

David Redmon / USA / 2006 / 72 min

Mardi Gras: Made in China follows the "bead trail" from the factory in China to Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, poignantly exposing the inequities of globalization. First-time director David Redmon cleverly illuminates the clash of cultures by juxtaposing American excess and consumer culture against the harsh life of the Chinese factory worker.

The film confronts both cultural and economic globalism by humanizing the commodity chain from China to the United States. Redmon follows the stories of four teenage women workers in the largest Mardi Gras bead factory in the world, providing insights into their economic realities, self-sacrifice, and dreams of a better life, and the severe discipline imposed by living and working in a factory compound.

Interweaving factory life with Mardi Gras festivities, the film opens the blind eye of consumerism by visually introducing workers and festival-goers to each other. A dialogue results when bead-wearing partiers are shown images of the teenage Chinese workers and asked if they know the origin of their beads, while the factory girls view pictures of Americans exchanging beads, soliciting more beads, and decadently celebrating. The conversation reveals the glaring truth about the real benefactors of the Chinese workers' hard labor and exposes the extreme contrast between women's lives and liberty in both cultures.

Trailer

Credits

Awards & Festivals

Nominated for Grand Jury Prize
Sundance Film Festival

Best Documentary
Florida Film Festival
Camden International Film Festival (Maine)
New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival
Magnolia Film Festival (Mississippi)
Garden State Film Festival
Mass Bay Film Festival

Best Brooklyn Based Film
Brooklyn Underground Film Festival

Audience Award - Best Documentary
New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival
Belgrade International Film Festival

Nominated for Social Justice Award
Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Best Global Consciousness Film
Telluride Mountain Film Festival

Human Rights Award
RiverRun Film Festival

Award Winner
Spindletop Film Festival
Black Point Film Festival
Big Muddy Film Festival
Hearts and Minds Film Festival
George Lindsey UNA Film Festival
Artsfest Film Festival

Special Jury Award
Nurnberger Film Festival - Jury's Statement: "Using one specific case as an example, David Redmon's film debut gives a concrete human face to often abstract notions of globalization and its social consequences. We would like to acknowledge the potential and lucidity demonstrated in this film that has been made in a refreshing manner which makes it easily accessible to an audience often oblivious to a reality on which they have an impact, whether they know it or not."

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