Documenting Labor in MAQUILÁPOLIS [city of factories]

The 2006 film MAQUILÁPOLIS [city of factories] is a piercing look at globalization, through the eyes of women workers in Tijuana’s assembly factories, the maquiladoras. The film was created through a collaborative production process involving the filmmakers, a group of factory workers in Tijuana, and NGOs on both sides of the US-Mexico border. MAQUILÁPOLIS stands out both for its collaborative process and for its visual iconography. Filmmaker Vicky Funari will discuss how the team developed both the film’s process and its visual style through a consideration of multiple dimensions of globalized labor: the transformation of Tijuana’s urban and natural geography by the maquiladora industry, the impact of the assembly plant system on human bodies and minds, and the dynamics that emerge as workers respond to their place in the 21^st century global economy.