Winner of twenty-one national and international awards, Mardi Gras: Made in China follows the path of Mardi Gras beads from the naked streets of New Orleans during Carnival, where revelers party 24/7, to the disciplined factories in Fuzhou, China, where teenage laborers live and thread beads 24/7. Told with humor and curiosity, Mardi Gras: Made in China provides a global connection by introducing workers and revelers to each other through a disposable commodity: Mardi Gras beads.

Filmmaker Statement:
In 2002, David Redmon decided to make Mardi Gras: Made in China after reading articles about China’s rapid transformation into a capitalist, free market economy. Redmon wanted to follow one object from China to the United States in order to visually personalize globalization and illustrate how the commodity chain is connected to different people along the alienated and seemingly disconnected route. Out of curiosity and seduction, Redmon chose Mardi Gras beads as the object to analyze "from the factory to the festival."

Redmon followed his bead-trail of curiosity to the rural region of Fuzhou, China where the bead factory is located in a tax-free Special Economic Zone. After staying with the workers and documenting their everyday life inside a factory compound for two months, government officials in China requested that Redmon immediately leave the factory. Redmon left China and continued his bead-journey by following the bead trail to New Orleans during Carnival. Redmon’s purpose was to invite others to be part of a constructive debate about globalization by showing how the beads are transported, consumed, disposed, and recycled during their global journey.

Director: David Redmon
Running Times: 72 mins

This event is free.

The event generally occurs in following way:
- meet each other/ice breaking/intro;
- screening; and
- talk about documentary and related issues. Conversation is open to all.

As a personal friend of the filmmaker with unique insight into the making of the film, Doug Going will introduce the film and conducts a perceptive post-screening Q&A/discussion further exploring the issues raised in the film.