Sweatshops: The Reel World of Globalization

Documentary Films to Understand Corporate Globalization and Sweatshops

Activists keep the corporate agenda of globalization in check and the frontline battle is often waged at the gates of sweatshop factories. There have been a few films that capture this movement, all coming from different angles, but with the same goal in mind - exposing the corporate machine. While film as an educational resource conjures up old-school 1950 documentary instructional film reels - "Say Billy, just what is a sweatshop anyway? Gee Susan, that's a tough one, lets go ask the factory owner...", the documentary is a powerful tool. Whether to see the faces behind the labels and goods we consume or to see the bigger picture of corporate globalization, the documentaries reviewed here will inspire, scare, make you laugh and induce tears of anger.

If you had no distrust of corporations before or were only just skeptical, be prepared for the scales to tip once you see The Corporation. Based on the book by Joel Bakan, who had a revelation in college that a corporation, if having the same rights as a person, could be diagnosed as a psychopath. That's just the surface of the problem, not to mention just what these psychopaths have been doing all over the world. With haunting interviews from the Howard Zinn, Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Naomi Klien, Vandana Shiva and a cadre of other voices that all culminate into the chorus of something is wrong in the world today. While the film engages a dark and sinister perception of corporatized chaos, we are left with some shining examples of humanity's triumphs.