ASHFIELD – This year’s Ashfield Film Festival will run for two nights, opening with a showing of “COMPLICIT,” a documentary filmed in China that shows the heavy health toll on workers who are exploited by the global electronics industry.
On Friday night, Sept. 15, the filmmaker and the screenwriter will be in Ashfield to discuss this film. The film begins at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall and will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by civil liberty and human rights lawyer Buz Eisenberg.
The documentary explores the stories of workers who left the rural poverty of home for manufacturing jobs in which they were exposed to dangerous chemicals used in making cell phones and other electronics. One former worker, Yi Yeting, developed leukemia at the age of 24 and undergoes dozens of chemo therapies to stay alive. Co-opting the tools that have caused so much worker illness, he uses the internet, phone and other media to create a platform for workers’ rights, and to take on the Chinese government, Foxconn and even Apple.
Screenwriter/Film Editor Christopher Seward, best known for “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Academy Award nominee for “Sicko,” “Fire in the Blood,” and “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead,” will be present for the panel discussion. Also present will be Heather White, a first-time documentary director and the founder/former head of www.verite.org, an award-winning non-profit organization that monitors labor and human rights abuses in corporate supply chains.
Saturday night, Sept. 16, represents the “classic” festival night, in which Baby Cecil shines and some participants glam-up for a kind of local Academy Awards night. (For those who don’t know, Cecil B. DeMille of Hollywood fame was born in Ashfield in 1881). This is the 11th annual Ashfield Film Festival, and it features several short films, each made with a local tie to the community. On Saturday night, the audience will vote for their favorite film for a number of categories, including youth prize, best actor, best narrative, grand prize and audience choice award. Saturday night’s festivities begin at 6 p.m., when the Ashfield Town Band will perform outside the Town Hall. The films start at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $6 for each night, and they may be purchased online with a credit card at www.ashfieldfilmfest.org. A limited number of tickets can be bought in person at Elmer’s, Ashfield Hardware or Nolan’s Neighbors store. They will also be sold at the door, if any are still available.