Shot clandestinely in China under difficult conditions, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retail companies don’t want us to see – how the clothes we buy are actually made. CHINA BLUE takes us inside a blue-jeans factory, where Jasmine and her friends Orchid and Li Ping are trying to survive the harsh working environment. Their lives intersect the one of another protagonist and factory owner, Mr. Lam. Providing perspectives from both the top and bottom levels of the factory’s hierarchy, this film brings complex issues of globalization to the human level. CHINA BLUE paints a nuanced, tender and ultimately moving portrait of the daily lives of the young workers who make our clothes. It also brings an updated and alarming report on the economic pressures applied by Western companies and their human consequences.

Screenplay Micha X. Peled
Photography (colour) Micha X. Peled
Editing Manuel A. Tsingaris
Music Miriam Cutler
Sound Song Chen
Production Micha X. Peled, Teddy Bear Films, ITVS
Year of production 2005
Running time 87’
Format Digital Betacam

Micha Peled

Born and raised in Israel, he emigrated to the US by hitchhiking. He had various jobs before starting as the executive director of Media Alliance of San Francisco, when he made his first television documentary in 1992 inspired by the life story of his own mother: Will My Mother Go Back to Berlin looks at relations between Jews and Germans after the Holocaust. It won awards on both sides of the Atlantic, and Peled decided to become a full-time filmmaker. You, Me, Jerusalem was the first Israeli-Palestinian co-directed film. Store Wars won a number of awards, including Best Documentary in San Francisco. His first feature doc China Blue won the Amnesty Human Rights Award in Amsterdam.