God bless the Asian American International Film Festival for bringing some of the most vital documentaries to New York. The programmers this year have had the good luck to find and the good sense to program some truly important films. Among them is INVISIBLE HANDS about child labor abuses across the globe.
One of the strengths of the film is that it doesn’t shy away from naming names. Dow Chemicals is mentioned as a source of danger since often the insecticides and herbicides it manufactures but can’t sell in developed countries which are used in places with no regulation thus posing a poisoning danger to the kids who use them. Apple’s checkered history is mentioned, as it their change in corporate policy which now requires those companies caught using child labor to pay their salary until they are old enough to legally work. And Nike is singled out as being one of the good companies, taking steps to assure no children are used and safe work places.
A vital and important film and a must see at AAIFF.
INVISIBLE HANDS plays July 27th. For more information and tickets go here.