Useless

A documentary about clothing. It is in three parts, and the parts are not joined; the viewer makes the connection. The first part is a factory in Guangdong. Thousands work there, the line runs without stopping, and the camera stays on faces. Nobody speaks; there is the sound of the work. The second follows a designer. Ma Ke is preparing a collection she calls Wuyong. She buries the fabric in the earth, leaves it there, and when she takes it out it carries the mark of time. Her aim is the opposite of the factory: clothing made by hand, bearing traces, not produced in series. The collection is shown in Paris. The third part goes to the director's home region, a mining town in Shanxi. There are small tailors there; they repair trousers that have come apart, take measurements, and the work keeps shrinking because ready-made clothing is cheap. What the film is interested in is not fashion but labour: three states of the same work are set side by side and the question of which is held more valuable is left open. Jia Zhangke directed. It won the documentary prize at the Venice Film Festival. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow documentaries and cinema that thinks about labour. Who it is not for: anyone expecting narration or explanation; the film comments almost not at all and leaves the connection to the viewer.