Wednesday, April 1, 2020
5:00pm – 7:00pm
Joukowksy Forum, 111 Thayer Street
For up-to-date, campus-wide information, please visit the University’s COVID-19 Updates website.
Join us after the screening for a discussion with producer Erica Marcus.
About the film:
Guangzhou, a.k.a. Canton, is southern China’s centuries-old trading port. Today the booming metropolis of 14 million is a mecca of mass consumption, its vast international trading centers crammed with every “Made in China” good imaginable. Every year more than half a million Africans travel to Guangzhou where they buy goods to sell back in Africa. Over time, some have chosen to stay, and for these Africans China looks like the new land of opportunity, a place where anything is possible. But is it?
Featuring a dynamic cast of men and women from Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, Guangzhou Dream Factory weaves the stories of Africans chasing alluring, yet elusive, “Made in China” dreams into a compelling critique of 21st century global capitalism. Following a filmmaker’s journey from Ghana to China and back to Africa, Guangzhou Dream Factory provides a rare glimpse of African aspirations in an age of endless outsourcing.
About Erica Marcus:
Erica Marcus was one of the first Americans to study and work in China after normalization of relations between the United States and China (1979). She began her film career in the early 1980s working in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she assisted the Cannes award-winning filmmaker Hu Jin Quan (胡金铨 or King Hu). Films that Erica has produced and directed, including China: Ancient Rhythms and Modern Currents, Alive in Limbo and My Home, My Prison, have been invited to numerous film festivals including Sundance, Berlinale and Locarno, and have been broadcast on PBS and European TV networks.