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Chuck Koplinski was born and raised in Kankakee before setting out for the windy city where he studied film at Columbia College and earned an education degree at University of Illinois-Chicago. Having moved to Champaign-Urbana 17 years ago, Koplinski has been spouting off about film in the area's various local independent newspapers for the last 12 years. Completely confused as to why Caddyshack and Fargo are held in high regard but confident that Judge Dredd and Big Trouble in Little China are films that time will reveal to be classics, he's forever in his father's debt for having introduced him to the cinema of the 1930s and '40s.
As busy as we are, it’s easy to take things for granted. For instance, take those blue jeans you’re wearing. You go to the mall, find a pair that makes your ass look good and pay for them with your credit card. It never crosses your mind that they might have been made by a 15-year-old Chinese girl who works 20-hour shifts and earns six cents an hour, that is, if she ever gets a paycheck.
After seeing Micha Peled’s China Blue, you won’t be able to look at those prized denims in the same way again. This chronicle of one blue jeans factory in Shaxi, China pulls no punches in portraying the inhumane labor practices that occur in one such operation run by a former police chief who refers to his workers as “uneducated” and “low-caliber.” Peled’s camera captures the seemingly endless shifts these workers are forced to endure, while focusing on one teen, Jasmine, an excess-thread cutter whose naiveté will break your heart. While this film puts forth a sobering look at the downside of globalization, what proves to be truly shocking is that the dire conditions present in this plant are considered among the best in China.
China Blue airs tonight at 7 p.m. as part of the Asian Education Media Service’s film screenings at the Armory, Room 386, 505 E. Armory Ave., UIUC campus for no charge.
Comments (2)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:21 PM
in case anyone missed this (like me) and would like to see it in ultra-pixelated form, it is on google video.
Monday, February 4, 2008 1:18 PM
China Blue is available for loan from the library at the Asian Educational Media Service.