Tampa Film Fan

Ravic is passing the torch for this film club to others who share his vision for a socially-conscious community through film and discussion. The new name, Indy Film Café, was coined to emphasize our desire to encourage informal discussion about the issues raised by the films shown.

There will be food and drink to stimulate your appetite for discourse. We hope you will join us by coming to the screenings and contributing your own ideas about the subjects presented.

This month’s film, Mardi Gras: Made in China, is described below, preceded by a few questions we’d like you to consider on your way to the Studio(at)620:

How much of what you own was made in China?
What do you think should be the minimum global salary?
Do you know the origins of the tradition of Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras:Made in China by David Redmon (73 minutes) — Beads are the coin of the realm at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, where thousands of the ubiquitous baubles are worn, shared and tossed to lovely breast-baring young women who collect them as trophies in a night of wild partying. But where do these trinket treasures come from? Who actually makes them? Director David Redmon follows the bead trail to the Tai Kuen factory in the Fuzhou province of China where young teenagers work
long hours for low pay in prison-like compounds far from their homes. Redmon obtained remarkable footage in China before he was asked to leave by authorities, resulting in stunning contrasts between the young party-goers of Carnivale and the even younger factory workers in Tai Kuen. This sly, engrossing and thought-provoking film gives us an up-close and personal view of the realities of globalization, and the interviews with the factory owner, workers, Mardi Gras revelers and others offer a disturbing and illuminating juxtaposition of cultures and values.