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How the clean, bright displays in our supermarkets hide a murkier story of exploitation in the supply chain.
ITALY'S ROTTEN TOMATOES If you buy a tin of tomatoes chances are they come from Southern Italy - picked by migrant labour usually from Africa. They're paid a pittance, have no rights and live in shacks. It looks like a third world scene, but this is in the heart of the EU. The Italian authorities are beginning to act against the gang masters, but the exploitation goes on.
SLAVERY AT SEA Chinese and South Korean trawlers work the coast of East Africa, hiring local labour who work in slave-like conditions. The fish is not supposed to go to the EU but it does, by changing the labels on the boxes! EU officials say they try their best to guarantee the quality and source of the fish - but they are understaffed and admit that the law is frequently flouted.
A BAD CASE OF BANANAS PHP is a French multi-national producing bananas for Europe - they claim their workforce is happy, but the crops are being sprayed with chemicals that have been banned in the EU. Local towns and villages have been affected - some workers have gone blind. What chance of change when the local politicians are working for the company?
This collection of short programs will help students get to grips with the causes and extensive consequences of an increasingly globalised economy. Our experts address issues of sustainability, opportunity, threat, energy, tourism, manufacturing and transnational corporations in these engaging and accessible programs.
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Note : The above titles may have some territorial restrictions. Please feel free to send us an enquiry.
The final film in Micha X. Peled's Globalization Trilogy examines the epidemic of suicides amongst India's cotton farmers, deeply in debt after switching to genetically modified seeds.
As industrial agriculture spreads around the world, many small-scale farmers are losing their land. Nowhere is the situation more desperate than in India, where every 30 minutes one farmer, deep in debt and unable to provide for his family, commits suicide. It's an epidemic, which has claimed over a quarter million lives.
Following a U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organization, India had to open its doors to foreign seed companies like the U.S.-based Monsanto. Now only genetically modified (GM) seeds for some major crops are available at the seed shops. The GM seeds are much more expensive; in addition to precious water, they need additional fertilizers and insecticides and must be re-purchased every season. Large farms have prospered, but the majority of farmers are now struggling to make a living off their land.
Ram Krishna, a cotton farmer at the epicenter of the suicide crisis region, is struggling to keep his land. Manjusha, the neighbors' daughter, is determined to overcome village traditions and become a journalist. Ram Krishna's plight becomes her first assignment.
BITTER SEEDS raises critical questions about the human cost of genetically modified agriculture and the future of how we grow things.
Reviews
"Films like this can change the world." - Alice Waters, owner Chez Panisse, author and activist
"A tragedy for our times." - Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, author The Omnivore's Dilemm
"Better than a Batman movie...with real villains making up their own lines." - Peter Sellars, theater director
Global business has been growing rapidly in recent decades for a number of political, economic, technical and social factors. Despite the growth of global trade and investment, globalization is not without controversy. This video reviews the essential issues that have been debated by governments, businesses, and NGOs.
Globalisation has resulted in increased competition for Australian businesses and sometimes this is seen as a negative. But whether a business decides to stay local or branch out internationally can be the deciding factor in its survival. There are numerous Australian businesses that are successfully competing in international markets and one of the best is Intrepid Travel.
In this program we introduce the concept of transnational corporations and multinational corporations and then look specifically at Intrepid Travel's niche beginnings and growth, their global moves, evidence of success and what's in store for the business's future. Along the way, we hear from the cofounders of the business, director Geoff Manchester and chief executive officer Darrell Wade. This is an exciting, practical and information-packed insight into Australian business at the international level.
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Note : The above titles may have some territorial restrictions. Please feel free to send us an enquiry.
With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown. By placing the crisis within this larger historical and systemic frame, Wolff argues convincingly that the proposed government "bailouts," stimulus packages, and calls for increased market regulation will not be enough to address the real causes of the crisis, in the end suggesting that far more fundamental change will be necessary to avoid future catastrophes.
Richly illustrated with graphics and charts, this is a superb introduction that allows ordinary citizens to comprehend, and react to, the unraveling crisis.
Review
"With unerring coherence and unequaled breadth of knowledge, Rick Wolff offers a rich and much needed corrective to the views of mainstream economists and pundits. It would be difficult to come away from this viewing with anything but an acute appreciation of what is needed to get us out of this mess." - Stanley Aronowitz, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education, City University
Examines every facet of the diamond trade from the prospectors to the miners, cutters, jewelers, smugglers and dealers, and advocates for fair trade.
Directed by Nisha Pahuja
Every year 24 tons of diamonds are teased from the heart of the earth. Once mined they begin their year-long journey through the "pipeline," a vast network encompassing five continents and a diverse cast of characters. By the end of their journey these tiny bits of carbon will have made multi-millionaires of some and virtual slaves of others.
Boring deep into the diamond world, Diamond Road seeks to understand the multiple meanings this object has for a few of the fascinating people who are part of the diamond pipeline - international prospector, impoverished miner, child cutter, celebrity jeweller, smuggler, high-end dealer. Interwoven with their stories is the determined pursuit of one industry leader to bring fairness and transparency to this secretive world. What results is a multi-layered portrait of a stone which is steeped in a history of intrigue, conflict, love and hope.
Reviews
"A most useful classroom tool to raise issues concerning socio-economic deprivation, poverty reduction, and other allied problems." - Dr. Jeremy Sarkin, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, Hofstra University Law School
"A gripping picture of the world and the myth behind the much-loved stone...the weight of fact is overwhelming: diamonds are sold as an idea, that idea is eternity and that eternity comes from mines staffed by the poorest people in the world." - Erik Jensen, The Sydney Morning Herald
"Diamond Road seeks to understand the multiple meanings this object has for a few of the fascinating people who are part of the diamond pipeline...What results is a multi-layered portrait of a stone steeped in a history of intrigue, conflict, love and hope." - TakingITGlobal
"Diamond Road is an interesting and information rich documentary that showcases the transactions in the global market of the diamond trade as well as some of the human stories behind it." - Aniuska Luna, African Peace and Conflict Network
"Has potential value in a number of curricular areas such as African studies, economics, globalization, and human rights." - School Library Journal
Mainak Bhaumik's film provides insight into India's often-overlooked Chinese population, examining the thriving Chinatown in Kolkata, Bengal. There, skilled Chinese immigrants have historically established themselves in business Despecially tanneries and shoemaking - and created a unique Indo-Chinese cuisine. Exploring the factors that make up Chinese-Indian identity, the film looks at the Indian cultural stereotypes of Chinese immigrants and the effects of government resettling of Chinese-Indians during the 1962 border conflict between the two countries. A portrait emerges of a hardworking and traditionally enclosed immigrant community, but one that is becoming increasingly assimilated with mainstream Indian culture. Melting Wok pays attention to the unique contributions and experiences of Chinese-Indians, while also helping the audience to understand the larger phenomena of immigration and cultural identity.
Looks at the benefits of fair trade goods and product certification for people and the environment.
Under the auspices of the WTO, globalization of world trade seems like a juggernaut that will not be stopped. But is there a way to make trade FAIR? How can retailers and consumers use their purchasing power and market choice to make the world better for people and the environment? What is the promise of product certification and labeling?
BUYER BE FAIR looks at two major trade goods -- timber and coffee -- to find out how certification works and whether it helps the world's poor, and their lands. Can the lessons from certification of timber, by the Forest Stewardship Council, and coffee, by Fair Trade, be applied to other products?
BUYER BE FAIR takes viewers to Mexico, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, the USA and Canada, where compelling stories and characters raise and answer these questions in a powerful documentary that explores new ways to make globalization work for all of us.
Reviews
"It's moving, it's gorgeous, it's engaging, and the viewer feels empowered, not preached to." Frances Moore Lappe, author of "Diet for a Small Planet" and "Hope's Edge"
"Buyer Be Fair will have a huge impact. It's moving, it's gorgeous, it's engaging, and the viewer feels empowered, not preached to." Frances Moore Lappe, author of "Diet for a Small Planet" and "Hope's Edge"
"The film makes one simple point: as consumers we have the power. When we buy products with eco-labels like the Forest Stewardship Council and Fair Trade we really make a difference, for both people and nature." Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation
"Buyer Be Fair offers an engaging look into one of the hottest topics in today's marketplace. Its straightforward approach illuminates the considerable and increasing power that is in our hands as consumers to have a direct impact on the lives (and environments) of countless people. This film helps people understand WHY to care and WHAT to do." Daniele Giovannucci, World Bank, Senior Consultant and author of "The State of Sustainable Coffee" and "Coffee Markets: New Paradigms in Global Supply and Demand"
"BUYER BE FAIR is an excellent introduction to how fair trade can be a win-win innovation in the marketplace. Students will enjoy the clear exposition, and teachers will find that the documentary opens many doors to classroom discussion. The documentary has two parts-one on coffee and one on lumber-that can be seen and discussed in two separate class sessions." Michael Kevane, Associate Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University
"Buyer Be Fair shows us that our economic decisions need not be made in a moral vacuum; that our purchases in the marketplace are a statement of the type of world we wish to live in. It carefully explains the concept of fair trade and demonstrates the power American consumers could have in transforming the global economy. A must see for every American consumer." Paul Winters, Dept. of Economics, American University
"As a professor of business and society courses, I am excited about Buyer Be Fair. Fair trade and product certification are two extremely important practices that can link corporations, consumers, and producers together in socially responsible ways to address challenging global issues of poverty, environmental degradation and social justice. Textbook discussions of certification and fair trade are relatively uncommon, and fail to effectively communicate their essence and potential. Buyer Be Fair provides viewers with an understanding of these practices and their importance. This film helps fair trade and product certification move from abstract concepts to real, practical mechanisms for making the world a better place." Gordon Rands, Associate Professor of Management, Western Illinois University
"A fair, balanced look at certifying timber and other products. It left me wanting to purchase only certified coffee in the future!... [Buyer Be Fair] portrays so well the relationship between economic and environmental sustainability." Sally D. Collins, Associate Chief, USDA/Forest Service
Awards
Honorable Mention, Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
The Indian software outsourcing industry has emerged as a key node of the global economy. The series of ethnographic films, Coding Culture, explores the cultures of outsourced work and the moulding of a new workforce to cater to this global high-tech services industry. Each of the three films focuses on a single company, representing one of the major types of software company found in Bangalore: a medium-sized Indian-owned company software services company (Mphasis: The 'M' Way); the offshore software development centre of a U.S.-based IT company (Sun Microsystems: Fun@Sun); and a small 'cross-border' startup company that produces its own software products and markets them to global customers (July Systems: July Boys). All three companies are engaged in the production of software products or services for markets outside of India, but the nature of their work and their position in the global economy differ, producing significant variations in their cultures of work. Each film revolves around a distinct theme that is central to the outsourcing industry as a whole, but that also has wider sociological significance: the systems of time and people management that are typical of these new global workplaces; the functioning of multicultural 'virtual teams' and the absorption of Indian software engineers into a global corporate culture; and the new identities that are emerging in this highly transnational sector of the Indian economy.
Fun@Sun: Making of a Global Workplace
Fun@Sun is an inside look at work and work culture in the software development centre of a large American multinational company, Sun Microsystems, located in Bangalore (Indian Engineering Centre, or IEC). The film highlights the multiple ways in which 'culture' operates as a management tool in the new global economy. In offshore centres such as IEC, work is organised through 'virtual teams' comprised of software engineers and managers located in Bangalore and Santa Clara, U.S.A. To integrate their employees and sites across cultural and geographical space, Sun attempts to initiate the Indian software engineers into Sun's corporate culture. The film depicts the techniques through which this American-style work culture is transplanted into the Indian subsidiary, such as induction programmes and 'soft skills' training programmes.
The film also points to the contradictory ways in which 'culture' is invoked in the global corporate workplace: while cultural sensitivity training programmes validate cultural difference, Indian software engineers are expected to conform to the dominant model of global corporate culture by learning appropriate communication and behaviourial styles.
The 'M' Way: Time + People = Money
The 'M' Way was shot inside MphasiS-BFL Limited, a medium-sized Indian IT services company that typifies this highly competitive business, in which the provision of high quality and low-cost service is key to attracting and retaining customers. The film focuses on two teams - a software development team and a quality control (testing) team - that work on a project for a U.S.-based customer. The candid footage and interviews convey the high-pressure work atmosphere that prevails in this industry, especially due to the need for tight control over the work process and for coordination of activities within and between teams and with the customer site.
Two main themes are foregrounded in the film: the complex systems of time and quality control through which software projects are managed, and the techniques of people ('resource') management that are employed - especially how software engineers are motivated to identify with the company's goals and to work longer hours.
July Boys: New Global Players
July Boys focuses on a small 'startup' company in Bangalore that designs and produces software products for cellular service providers in Europe and the U.S. Turning the tables on the usual outsourcing story, July Systems has leveraged U.S.-based venture capital and Indian technical expertise to break into the latest high-tech markets.
The film explores the creation of a Silicon Valley-style work culture within this 'cross-border' company that has one leg in Bangalore and the other in Santa Clara, California. It also highlights the emergence of new kinds of identities (global, transnational, cosmopolitan) that incorporate and transcend pre-existing identities such as the national and the regional. But the narratives of the film's characters reveal a tension between their assumed global subjectivity and their nationalist pride in July's achievements as a company founded and run by Indians that makes 'cutting edge products' for the global market.
Vividly reveals the dysfunctionality of the industrialized world food system and shows what world hunger has to do with us.
Close to a billion of the nearly seven billion people on Earth are starving today. But the food we are currently producing could feed 12 billion people. This is a film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, the flow of goods and cash flow -- a film about scarcity amid plenty.
Why doesn't a tomato taste like a tomato today? How does one explain that 200 million people in India, supplier of 80% of Switzerland's wheat, suffer from malnutrition? Why are thousands of acres of the Amazon being cleared to grow soybeans? Is water something to which the public has a basic right or, as the CEO of the world's largest food company Nestle suggests, a foodstuff with a market value?
These distressing questions are addressed as filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer travels from Austria to Brazil, France to Romania to interview Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, CEOs and directors of the world's largest food companies, agronomists, biologists, fishermen, farmers and farmworkers.
On a daily basis, in Vienna alone, enough left-over bread to supply a small city is destroyed. The planet has enough production power to feed everyone, but 800 million people suffer from hunger. What does world hunger have to do with us?
Reviews
"Through evocative images and compelling stories, We Feed the World illustrates the ominous ecological and societal consequences of a global food system driven solely by the relentless quest for corporate profits and growth. The documentary reflects a European perspective from which every American might learn. Clearly, the future of humanity is at risk and time is running out." - John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, author of Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense, A Return to Common Sense, Small Farms are Real Farms, and Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture
"The absurdities of a globalized food industry are subject to mounting scrutiny and criticism. These excesses are illustrated with jaw-dropping efficacy in this timely documentary from Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer." - Sofia International Film Festival
"This unsettling documentary from Austria meticulously documents how the mechanization of modern food production has created a monster. It reveals how the Western agro-industry's insatiable hunger for yield is creating poorer quality food, mind-boggling wastage, and impoverishing our natural environment and those who work in it." -iofilm
"Sincere...perversely fascinating. It's enough to put you off poultry." - Variety
"The documentary focuses on various aspects on the supply side of the food chain, giving insight to the various industries which produce food, like fishing, vegetables and poultry...It just boggles the mind, and makes you feel sad at the way things work, illogical as it may seem, in the name of profit." - A Nutshell Review
"We Feed the World highlights two of the most pressing issues of our time: food distribution and globalization. Students can surely learn much by observing the differences shown between large agribusinesses and small farmers...This film illustrates many surprising results and connections among the people who produce foods and those who consume them...A great resource to spark a dialogue about the effects of globalization on food production and distribution systems." - Laura Skelton, Assistant Program Director, Facing the Future: People and the Planet
"We Feed The World tells us that we are all part of the system, and that it is up to 'us' to change it, as we are the ones who should desire to do so." - Shift Magazine
"The film is a thoughtful look at the problems facing small food producers in the face of increasing subsidies and industrialization of agricultural processes...provides fodder for student discussion on the perils of the modern agriculture system. Strong production values make We Feed the World visually interesting as well as thought provoking." Dr. Jeffrey Miller, Professor, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University
"We Feed the World ensures that viewers will rethink their ideas about what farms look like, where their groceries come from, and why people starve. A provocative instructional tool, this film will be an asset anywhere educators wish to inspire students to think critically about globalization, food, and hunger." - Charlotte Biltekoff, American Studies & Food Science and Technology Departments, University of California- Davis
"This powerful film provokes the viewer to thought about the real nature of the world's food system, and what we need to consider in moving beyond mere concern with just lower food prices...[We Feed the World] does a superb job of stirring the emotions on the way to envisioning a different and better future with regard to the way we produce the food we eat." - Gary D. Lynne, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska- Lincoln
"We Feed the World provides a thought provoking look at the global food industry...an excellent starting point for discussion of several important topics. The problems of overproduction and food waste, global corporate policies and their impacts, government regulations and subsidies, the dark side of biotechnology, environmental degradation both of the ocean's resources and the Amazon, and water rights are just some of the subjects that can be further studied and discussed after viewing this film. Recommended." - Educational Media Reviews Online
"Does this film have a place in the anthropology curriculum? Absolutely! Students, like most consumers, have virtually no connection to their food nor are interested in the technology...[We Feed the World] will increase awareness and impress students with the complexity of global food policies. The film may be used in courses on globalization, capitalism, culture change/development, or applied anthropology." - Thomas Stevenson, Ohio University, Anthropology Review Database
Awards
Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
The Guelph International Film Festival
The Portland International Film Festival
Belgrade International Film Festival
One World Film Festival (Prague)
Thessaloniki Film Festival
Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival
Taos Mountain Film Festival
CounterCorp Film Festival
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, German With English Subtitles) / 2005 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 96 minutes
Globalisation offers many benefits to be enjoyed, but not all nations have benefited equally. There are vast differences in living standards and income around the world and this program explains these differences. People in industrialised countries live longer, more comfortable lives than ever before, whilst in poorer countries thousands die each year from preventable diseases such as measles and malaria.
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Note : The above titles may have some territorial restrictions. Please feel free to send us an enquiry.
This program investigates economic growth and development, differences in development levels across the global economy, international convergence, and the environmental consequences of globalization. It features a case study of the impact of globalization on the Republic of Ireland.
Over the past eight years world famous Swedish auto maker Volvo has gained a foothold in the South American market by establishing a major manufacturing plant in Brazil.
The program explores:
Why Volvo sought to expand its global business by building its plant where it did, including geographical, operational, human resource and political considerations;
How Volvo seeks to create a positive work environment for staff; 'Environmental initiatives and objectives;' Community initiatives.
The company's contribution to Volvo's global business
How the plant is managed. Appearing on camera is Volvo's South American director Carlos Morassutti.
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Globalisation refers to the way the individual nations of the world are becoming more connected with each other, and in the process more interdependent. Using various case studies, this program investigates the nature of globalisation and the global economy. We see how financial markets in New York affect a farmer on the other side of the world. Other issues of the Global Economy examined are trade and financial flows, free trade and protection, trading blocs and agreements, and international economic organisations.
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From humble beginnings in 1942 when Clarrie Mance started the business, Windsor Smith has grown to become one of the country's most prominent and successful footwear companies. This program focuses on the four key elements that make up Windsor Smith's marketing mix and are often described as the 'four Ps': product, price, place and promotion. The program looks at each of these areas in relation to the high profile marketing campaigns conducted by the company. Reference is also made to marketing objectives, market research, the target market and marketing channels.
Review
"The presenter will appeal to students... She speaks naturally, and with a lot of expression... It will be easy for a teacher to expand on each section of the video during showing..." - Lyn Chisholm, VET Business Coordinator, Claremont College, TAS.
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Examines a phenomenon that truly characterizes our time. The rapid expansion of the international market place and the power of those who control it is perceived to be the principal reason why the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, not diminishing. This viewpoint was also expressed by the thousands who demonstrated against the WTO in Seattle and Prague. On the other hand, some view globalization as being the only way for prosperity to spread to developing countries.
Increase in urban poverty and population, caused by globalization, threatens Peruvians.
Urban poverty is one of the biggest challenges facing the world in the 21st century. In 1950, three hundred million people were living in urban areas; by 2001 that figure had increased to 2.85 billion, or almost half the world's population. And the flow of rural migrants arriving in the world's mega cities shows no signs of slowing down. -- "It is a trend which cannot be stopped," says Anna Tibaijuka, the new executive director of the UN Center for Human Settlements, "even in the developing countries..."
With the backdrop of Lima, Peru, this program examines the enduring magnetism of big cities -- and asks whether the migrants who have moved here now feel that city life is the answer to their dreams.
Award
Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Globalisation has had major effects on Australian companies and the consumers of their products. In this ground-breaking study of one of our most fascinating companies, we see how globalisation:
Forced Rip Curl to manufacture overseas
Heightens competition between suppliers
Pressures companies to go public in order to increase finance for expansion
Creates special problems because of currency movements
Makes companies even more subject to constant and rapid change * Forces improvements in quality and efficiency
Brings up major issues related to brand protection, political instability, treatment of low wage workers and cultural differences.
A great program for teachers and students of Business Management and Business Studies
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Looks at the impact on a small town when Wal- Mart plans to build a mega-store there.
In the US, Wal- Mart opens a new mega-store every two business days. This is the story of the impact of discount chain stores on American towns and cities, and on our society as a whole.
STORE WARS follows events in Ashland, VA, over a one-year period, from the first stormy public hearing that galvanizes residents' opposition till the Town Council takes a final vote on the proposed Wal- Mart store. Arguments for the store (tax revenues, low prices, jobs) and against it (destroys small town character, traffic, low-end jobs) are articulated and hotly debated. The cast of characters includes the mayor and Town Council members who will eventually make the decision, Wal- Mart representatives and the "Pink Flamingos," the grassroots citizen group opposed to the store.
STORE WARS does not single out Wal- Mart, but rather highlights its position as the icon of the Big Box industry. While offering a critical view of this industry, the film presents fairly all viewpoints on this controversial issue
Reviews
"This film, with a suspense and narrative abillity unusual in a documentary, tells with exceptional precision and humour about the battle of a typical small, prosperous and tranquil little town against the arrival of a giant." - Buenos Aires International Film Festival Program
"This excellent program uses a David vs. Goliath scenario -- small-town citizens versus corporate behemoth -- to offer an engaging rendering of a placid community enlivened by political action." - Julie Salamon, New York Times
"The video provides a human perspective that is missing from textbooks. It's very well researched and balanced. I look forward to using it in my classes." - A. Bruce Dotson, Chair, Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia
"The year-long battle roughly reflects a larger cultural clash between homespun American values and cold corporate homogeneity...Palpable drama and suspense as a lame-duck Town Council gathers for its vote." - San Francisco Chronicle
"This story has been told in towns across the United States for many years, but rarely has it been told with as much clarity and verve." - Tim Feran, Columbus Dispatch
"A documentary about a town's struggle with the concepts of preservation and change -- it is a dramatic tale, and one with a true cliffhanger ending...Store Wars is a primer for social activism, a handbook for any David thinking of taking on a Goliath." - Business Week
"What chance does a small town have in a battle against a huge corporation? This engrossing film details the animosity and taut political intrigue sparked by Wal- Mart's saturation retail strategy in an unenthusiastic community." - Timothy McGettigan, Professor of Sociology, University of Southern Colorado
"Store Wars takes you inside the grassroots politics of Ashland, Virginia, and inside a campaign by Wal- Mart to overpower the town. It is not pretty, but it lays out why Wal- Mart has become the most reviled corporation in America today." - Al Norman, Sprawl- Busters
"[Store Wars] would be very useful for classroom use in courses in globalization, urban anthropology, or social movements, as well as in other disciplines like political science or sociology. Clearly this is not the usual journalistic approach, in which filmmakers invade a town and, in a short time, expect to capture all sides of the argument. They painstakingly saw through this process for a year, and were allowed to record scenes from which other outsiders may have been barred. In an era when globalization is rampant and multinationals enjoy increasing government support, the documentary video could not be more timely." - Helen Safa, Anthropology of Work Review
Awards
Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival
Gold Plaque, Chicago International Television Competition
CINE Golden Eagle
Bronze Plaque Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Jury Citation, New Jersey International Film Festival
Singapore International Film Festival
South by Southwest Film Festival
Dallas Video Festival
IMAGE Atlanta Film & Video Festival
Magnolia Film Festival
Port Townsend Film Festival
Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
Conscientious Projector Film Festival
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
In Advertising & the End of the World, Sut Jhally, exposes the inherent conflict between commercial culture - as aggressively sold by private, global media systems - and environmental stewardship. This powerful program goes beyond simply critiquing commercial images to challenge us to evaluate the costs of consumer society and how we participate in it.
Review
"Like a martial artist who deftly redirects his assailant's energies, Sut Jhally turns Madison Avenue against itself." NANCY FOLBRE - University of Massachusetts
DVD (With English, Spanish Subtitles) / 1997/ 40 minutes
This astonishing documentary investigates how an advertising slogan invented by Madison Avenue executives in 1948 has come to define our most intimate and romantic rituals and ideals. The Diamond Empire, which sent shockwaves through the transnational diamond industry when it first appeared, systematically takes apart the myth that "diamonds are forever."
It exposes how one white South African family, through a process of monopoly and fantasy, managed to exert control over the global flow of diamonds and change the very way we think about courtship, marriage, and love - an achievement all the more stunning given that diamonds are in fact neither scarce nor imperishable. Zeroing in on how "the diamond empire" managed to convert something valueless into one of the most coveted commodities in history, the film provides a riveting look at how marketing and consumer culture shape not only global trade and economics, but also our very identities.
Reviews
"In all my years of teaching, this is the single most important video I have ever shown. No film has proven as successful in showing students how a major part of their identities has been constructed by a corporate, commercial culture. This movie changes the way we see the world." - Sut Jhally, Department of Communications, Umass Amherst
Three generations of the extended Roychowdury family have resided for decades at 160 Bakul Bagan Road, Calcutta. Every now and then one of it's members has to leave the landscape of their childhood - a large sprawling house built around a courtyard and all the affection that dozens of relatives surround them with, to relocate for a job or to start a family elsewhere. In Leaving Bakul Bagan, Saborna, a 20 year-old girl prepares to leave for higher studies in the United States. The film is an intimate portrayal of her interactions with her family during her last few days at home. It is full of casual conversational humor and vignettes from typical familial interactions. Incidental to the time and woven into the film are the effects of race riots throughout India in the aftermath of the destruction of a Mosque by Hindu fanatics. This incident precipitates an already brewing political debate about the ethics of leaving for America, especially on the eve of such a tragic political disaster. The very last scene, rendered in slow motion to heighten it's sensibility, effectively creates a sense of deep loss and the feeling that the need for familial roots are indeed pan-ethnic and trans-cultural. Even though shot in cinema-verite style, Leaving Bakul Bagan has the grace and the flow of a dramatic narrative.
Festivals
Best of Category, New England Film and Video Festival, 1994
Special Invitation, 40th Flaherty Film Seminar, 1994
RAI, University of Kent Festival of Ethnographic Films, 1994
Whitney Museum Tour, New York, Bombay, New Delhi, 1994
The ecological footprint - this is the mark on the earth left behind by each person based on the amount of resources they have consumed. If the strain we put on natural resources continues at the present rate, the earth will no longer be able to support its inhabitants. This program examines possible solutions and asks the question: is it too late?
This program examines evidence of global change from the aspect of what has been induced by human activities and what is a result of natural process. An explanation of how each of the earth's ecosystems is tied together reveals why changes in one affect the others. The program also uses evidence of past global change to predict what we can expect in the future.
This program looks at atmospheric and biodiversity change and the global warming phenomenon. We investigate the effects of pollution on various ecosystems and why the Arctic has been affected by pollution from Southeast Asia, helping us understand how our local activities may be affecting people on the other side of the world for years to come.