When Communication professor Seyram Avle first watched "Made in Ethiopia," it blew her away. The documentary follows three incredible women as they navigate the launch of a massive industrial park, with 30,000 new jobs, built by a Chinese firm in rural Ethiopia. The film connects directly to Avle’s research and classes that explore transnational collaborations.
“On the one hand, it’s a story of globalization and industrialization; on another, a story of cross-cultural communication and human connection in a world that keeps changing rapidly,” Avle said.
Now, thanks to the GloTech Lab, you get to experience it too:
When: Thursday, October 3
Time: 1:00 PM
Where: Integrative Learning Center, Room S350
Please RSVP: here
After the screening, stick around for an exclusive Q&A with the directors, Max Duncan and Xinyan Yu — your chance to hear firsthand how they were able to build trust and gain access to tell this incredible story.
“It’s a really good example of storytelling outside of academic papers. You can get the same impact or even more through just sensitive and complex storytelling,” Avle said.
Avle recently discussed why she wanted to bring “Made In Ethiopia” to the UMass Department of Communication. She started by explaining the primary focus of the film:
The film tells the story of three somewhat different women as they try to make sense of what is a really large-scale shift in their places of work and in their lives: an Ethiopian farmer who may be forced to relocate, a young woman who wants a job in the new factory and the Chinese businesswoman who is pushing the project through.
So, we get to see how they live this out, about their families, their hopes and aspirations, and a bit of the conflict that they have to navigate for all this to work out.
How is this film instructive to Communication students?
We get to see both the human cost and the possibilities of globalization, and we see intercultural communication; different people from different cultures trying to all get to the same place. They’re all searching for prosperity.
We get to see real lives, played out as industrialization happens. So, it’s not just machines or factories, it’s people who have to figure out how to live a better life.
What impressed you most about the way the film was made?
The filmmakers followed people in the film for four years. They had access to the Chinese company. They had access to the village where the land is. They had access to the Ethiopian workers.
That access demonstrates a lot of trust.
What can Communication students learn about building trust with subjects from this film?
There is a history in academic research of just kind of parachuting into communities and spending very little time with them and then producing things that end up being reductive.
It takes time to build trust and to treat subjects with respect.
If you’re patient and you spend time with people, you are able to respect the humanity and show people with dignity.
This film is not trying to show people as heroes. It’s not trying to show people as villains.
It’s just showing that this is messy. And that’s the best you can do when representing people, is to show all the messy aspects of the humanity. And I think this film does a good job of that.
Seyram Avle is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research focuses on digital technology cultures and innovation across parts of Africa, China, and the United States. This work primarily takes a critical approach towards understanding how digital technologies are made and used, as well as their implications for issues of labor, identity, and futures.