NA CHINA
A film by Marie Voignier
2020, 70 minutes
2020, 70 minutes
No. 290
Documentary
Documentary
Description
The implantation of African traders in Guangzhou is a recent phenomenon, on which Marie Voignier reports through her interlinking portraits of Jackie, Julie, and Shanny, who have come to set up their business on site. Amidst the monstrous accumulation of merchandise on the endless markets of the megacity, the film follows these African businesswomen grappling with the globalised Chinese economy.
These women face challenges and are more or less legally, tolerated and sometimes harassed by the authorities. They spend their time negotiating the fabrication of “original” clothes with local traders or searching the piles of merchandise that accumulate in the labyrinthine markets of the Chinese megacity, “original copies” also intended to be sent in entire container loads to the ports of the African continent.
NA China records a series of exchanges between “equals” that temper the cliché of a dominated and neo-colonised Africa through the portrait of these strong women operating in the heart of economic globalisation.
Festivals
Official Selection, Visions du Réel
Reviews
"Given the insights into markets and proliferation of goods illustrated in NA China, the film would be an asset to courses exploring globalization and economics as well as an excellent resource for a documentary class exploring verité film.The seamless use of different languages to communicate by the women in the film could also provide an effective tool to examine culture and linguistics. Recommended."- EMRO
