Sweatshop Documentary Reveals the Fashion Industry’s Deadliness
Earlier this year Afterposten, a Norwegian newspaper, sent three young and famous fashion bloggers, Frida, Ludvig and Anniken, to live and work with one of the sweatshop workers in Cambodia for a month.
The five-episode documentary starts with an interview with Anniken.
“You sit in your bed in Norway and hear about all those that suffer. You watch the news hear about all sorts of things. Then I have said to myself that there are so many that are born just to do one task in life and that’s it.”
In the beginning of the documentary, when the three wealthy fashion bloggers travel to Cambodia, they are dismissive about the working conditions of Cambodian factory workers, which is not so much different from the attitudes of average consumers of fashion. Even after staying in the house any average factory workers would live in, they were shocked but said, “they are used to it.” As the documentary progresses, Frida, Ludvig and Anniken start working at the factory, and shopping and cooking with the $3 that they earned from working all day. This helped them to realize the level of inhumane environment and poverty that the workers are facing everyday.
The documentary ends with the series of divided pictures, where two people wearing the same clothes, but one side shows the cost of labor of the clothing and the other shows the retail price of the same product. After airing the documentary, Ludvig said in an interview with Ecouterre, “What came as a shock, however, was really opening my eyes to it in a non-cynical way and realizing that these people are actually just that: people.” The documentary shared message that represented its own tag line throughout, which is the “Deadly Fashion.”
The documentary became viral globally and caused a pressure to fast fashion companies. Although the brand was not mentioned in the documentary at all, H&M announced a statement that distanced themselves from the sweatshops depicted in the documentary.
"H&M has been present in Cambodia for over ten years. This is one of our key countries of supply. Our commitment is strong there… Since 2005, H&M has been a member of the Better Factories Cambodia program of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which aims to improve working conditions in the textile industry in Cambodia."
According to the interview with Joakim Kleven, the director of the documentary, Afterposten faced difficulties in finding a factory to film.
"It was extremely difficult to come at all in any factory inside. The only factory that has let in us was one of the best in Cambodia, but that was not ok. It was very hot in there, there was no toilet paper in the toilets and the chairs on which the seamstresses and seamstresses had to sit were extremely uncomfortable. Some workers have told us that soldiers stood during her shift already behind them and they would have beaten for sewing, so much so that some of them were unconscious."
All 5 episodes are available for streaming on the official site of Afterposten. I must warn you that you might not be able to shop at your favorite fashion brands anymore after watching the documentary.
Watch full episodes of SWEATSHOP here.
