Censorship News: Documentary China Blue Banned in China

Documentary China Blue Banned in China

‘The challenge … is to sneak in and do

it by any means possible and sneak it out.’

By Joshua B. Good

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007

China Blue Director Micha X. Peled films Jasmine, 17, and Li Ping, 14.

Director Micha X. Peled films blue jean factory workers Jasmine, 17, and Li Ping, 14, who starred in the documentary. The girls sometimes worked 20 hours a day. Police scared away local production crews and Peled taped much of the movie himself. (Photo courtesy China Blue)

China Blue is a movie about a Chinese blue jean factory where some workers are paid as little as 6-cents an hour. It was banned in China. Director Micha X. Peled talked with www.bannedmagazine.com Editor Joshua B. Good about how he got around Chinese censors. Peled also discussed the similarities and differences between Chinese censorship and the attempts at censorship Wal-Mart made over his previous documentary film, Store Wars. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Good: Tell me about the difficulties of getting to film in a Chinese blue jean factory.

Peled: Well, china is a totalitarian country. To make the film in China you need to get a permit ... A person from the propaganda department is with you from the time you land in china until you leave … I decided not to got that route at all … I went to China as a tourist. The big camera, you could not claim to be tourist with such a camera. We smuggled it in. We took it apart, into smaller pieces …

Originally, the protagonist of the film was called

Chinese blue jean factory workers holding up giant blue jeans. From documentary China Blue

Jasmine, 17, and her coworkers wondered how Westerners could be so big and fat. (Photo courtesy China Blue)

Little Fish. Based on the demo real, based on Little Fish, PBS bought the film. During the outbreak of SARS we couldn't get into China for eight months. Little Fish broke down and went back to her village. This time the locals thought this was a local TV station doing a story on corruption … One crew member was born in Taiwan. They thought she was a big spy. The next day they went to this family of Little Fish and told them they were in big trouble for cooperating with foreign media …

We had to start all over again with a new main character…

We were filming a strike in the factory. ... I was filming it from private property of the hair salon...that didn't stop the police from coming in and wanting to arrest me...we had to sweet talk me out of it.

Good: Tell me about the censorship of your exposé about Wal-Mart, the documentary called Store Wars.

Peled: … You know anytime you make a film about a big corporation they are powerful enough to try to control you as much as they can ... They were very careful about what they could shoot.

I was told that I had to clear all the questions in advance. There was somebody from the PR department all the time …

Yes, we did have a minder all the time.

Wal-Mart is the fifth largest trader with China.They are controlling more of what we see and what we know in the world ... But there is a difference between corporations blocking what we do and governments. They [corporations] are not doing it for general good of the public …

We live in a world where we have less and less access to information than we should. We think we have more access to stuff, but more and more information is blocked by corporations …

The challenge for filmmakers and journalists like myself is to sneak in and do it by any means possible and sneak it out.

Peled’s production company web site: www.teddybearfilms.com

For upcoming screening dates: www.argotpictures.com

Joshua B. Good can be reached at editor@bannedmagazine.com