karild CHINA BLUE, which examines the harsh reality of mass production of blue jeans in China's garment factories - jeans that are ultimately sold in America - is an amazing, insightful and profoundly moving film. It follows some of the young girls who find their way to the factories to get menial, slave labor jobs, then struggle to survive in the terribly harsh conditions that would be criminal in this country. The use of something very close to a dramatic structure, more typical of feature films, which weaves seamlessly with the documentary exploration, creates a new approach that tells the story with amazing power and involves the viewer completely. The surprise ending was so human, so unexpected, and so filled with hope. I kept thinking that someone or something might come to rescue the factory girls as a result. My mind constructed various possible scenarios of what might happen, but the truth is that the film itself may be what saves them, by bringing their plight to the attention of Western consumers who, it is hoped, will be outraged by the indentured servitude forced upon these young girls, and be unable to ignore the fact that their clothing purchases contribute to such misery and injustice. Shot over a 3-year period, often with an undercover camera smuggled into the Chinese factory, the terrible slave labor conditions endured by a small army of teenage girls is revealed. Through an accident of birth these young workers were born into abject poverty in rural Chinese villages. To try for a chance at a better life and to be able to send a little money back home to their starving families, they make the long and arduous journey to the factory towns, where they work under impossible conditions for a few cents an hour. If they had been born in America they would be attending school, listening to music, partying with their friends, attending sports events, thinking about their hair, makeup and boyfriends - just being normal teenage girls. But as Chinese factory workers with not even enough time to sleep well between excruciatingly long shifts, their lives are an endless drudgery and their teen years are stolen from them. When evaluating a film I want to see how long it stays with me, and this film and the situation that these young girls live in, with no chance of escape, has stayed with me ever since I saw it. I just can't get them out of my head. Their youth is being stolen from them and they are forced into a brutal and inhuman system that rejects their rights and their humanity. Hopefully the spotlight that CHINA BLUE shines on these injustices will lead to real changes. There is plenty of blame to go around for this outrage. In addition to the manufacturers who out-source the clothing production to China and call for ever-lower prices and ever faster delivery, the big stores who retail these jeans are guilty too. If only the labels and the retailers in the western world who contract with the Chinese factories would insist on dealing solely with factories that guarantee fair pay and humane working conditions, this form of slavery would be eliminated in short order. All they would have to do is be just a tiny bit less greedy, and give up just a little of their considerable profit. -- Review by Karil DanielsMicha X. Peled - Producer/Director/CameraSong Chen - Associate Producer/Translation Supervisor/Sound/Hidden Camera

eytanshaham China Blue brings us what a powerhouse reality is all about. Think about the jeans you are wearing and how much effort, sweat and lack of sleep went into making it. How many times have you thought about that? So for people who say that they will not buy Chinese made Jeans as this industry weakens American made Jeans (if any left) or exploits people then think about the benefits (as little as they may be) the people that put effort into making this Jeans get. What can we say? this is the world that we are living at regardless of which country it is. It is the nature of growing economies - people have to make choices and sometimes do not have choices to make, are being exploited, working around the clock so the future generations will fair better. Sounds familiar? This is where our grand-parents and sometimes great-uncles and aunties had to go through to get us the kind of life we now take for granted in the western society will live in.Micha Peled manages to convey the story about the people behind this economic power in a fascinating way. It is told mostly from the view point of a girl, 16 years old factory worker Jasmine. But from my point of view, everyone, even the factory manager gets to be humane. On one hand the tension the managers go through of whether they'll succeed in delivering the goods and the impact it has on all the workers, and on the other hand the grim sacrifice Jasmine had to make in order for her sister to get a better education, one which has been denied from her. We witness that similar sacrifices by most of the workers.However, this is the price of modernity and in essence it can not be avoided. After all, quite a few factories in China went bankrupt as they were not able to compete. But, like Nike sweatshops in Indonesia we have to voice our concerns about the working conditions of the people who make the products we consume. Not to stop this powerhouse but to provide the right support for workers rights. After all, without these kind of jobs they would fair much worse.Anecdote - the girl's goldfish that "can choose when to sleep", unlike the girl. The goldfish is a symbol of prosperity (in the ancient times common people were not allowed to own it).Watched the movie on Australia's SBS.

Susan Jackson I am surprised that a "documentary" like China Blue can pass as a documentary and actually get funding (and then play on PBS). It is obvious that so many scenes in this fabricated and set up film are contrived, forged, and faked. The filmmaker Micha Peled ought to feel ridicule for telling the characters what to do and what to say. Furthermore, I watched a previous cut of this film a few years ago at Columbia University. What I noticed is that the story is the same, but one character is different: Jasmine has replaced a previous character, yet the script and narration is the same. What this means is that Peled extracted the dialogue from the original character (who was fired from the factory and he therefore lost his main subject), but imposed her dialogue on the new character named Jasmine. If Peled wanted to convey his ideological point of view, then he should have made a fictional film (and in many ways he did). His film lowers the standards of documentary film and also puts China's unfair labor abuses into a positive light because no one will trust him or his film. Therefore his film is dangerous to workers and activists who are trying everyday to organize. Instead, Peled paints a fake portrait. The editing is also contrived and made to seem like a strike happens. His film has so many flaws that I'm surprised none of the festival organizers have seen through it's obvious fabricated scenes. Don't trust this film, but still know that workers are exploited. A better title for this film is Contrived in China. Good luck, Peled, with your reputation as a documentary filmmaker.

gucci-7 Danish TV has tonight shown the prize winning documentary CHINA BLUE. I was shocked even though all of us know the little texture MADE IN CHINA.. It is just not human behavior to make these teenage girls and boys work under such conditions and the manager does not even appreciate one single worker - for him it is a question only about money.. Unfortunately we know that this particular jeans factory is far from an exception but who will not be influenced in some way on some level by this story.. It should not be humans in this world who managed such slavery in these times. The manager at the factory is to my understanding a former police chief, how can he not care about human rights and decent treatment and human circumstances for his employees...