Anna Burton of http://neontetrafilms.com/ writes…
We are delighted to have been asked to write a blog for The Equality Trust about our film festival in London next weekend 25-26th November 2017. The festival is entering its fifth year and to mark this we have a new format built around an impressive film competition. Running alongside this we are screening a series of films and discussion around the theme of Modern Slavery, in particular two films from acclaimed documentary maker, Nick Broomfield.
The first of Broomfield’s films is a revealing documentary, and the second is a fictional feature. Each film focusses on an aspect of one of the most disturbing issues of our time – modern slavery.
In Ghosts (2006), cockle pickers are forced to live crowded together, bound to their smugglers as indentured slaves, with no freedom to leave their low paying, dangerous jobs.
In Sex My British Job (2013), “illegal” women from China are bound to their employers as prostitutes or household servants.
Our special guest speaker at the festival, Hsaio Hung-Pai, worked undercover as a maid and cook in Chinese brothels, and the resulting documentary, Sex: My British Job, validated her exposés of exploited undocumented immigrants, especially women, who become prisoners of loan sharks and ‘snakeheads’ (smugglers). Broomfield’s feature film, Ghosts, was based on her research into the Morecambe Bay cockle-gatherers tragedy, where twenty-three Chinese born workers were drowned by the incoming tide on the extensive mud-flats of Morecambe Bay, having received no directions and no supervision before being sent to work in this dangerous location.
Hsai-Hung Pai, a courageous and determined journalist, has investigated and exposed the widespread human trafficking that led to the deaths at Morecombe Bay, portrayed in Ghosts, and was responsible for highlighting the ‘massage parlor’ scandals documented in Sex: My British Job. She has published a number of books, including Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain’s Hidden Army of Labour (2008) and Invisible: Britain’s Migrant Sex Workers (2013), which were the source books for Ghosts and Sex: My British Job, respectively.
TICKETS FOR GHOSTS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH 13:00, PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA, LEICESTER PLACE
https://princecharlescinema.com/PrinceCharlesCinema.dll/WhatsOn?f=4029519
TICKETS FOR SEX MY BRITISH JOB – SOLD OUT
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL HERE: http://londonlabourfilmfest.com/
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This is a guest blog and the views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of The Equality Trust.