Waiting for the Carnival

In north-eastern Brazil, the town of Toritama has declared itself the capital of jeans. Hundreds of thousands of pairs are sewn every day in some eight thousand small workshops. The workers own their workshops and are therefore their own bosses; they work from morning to midnight, take no holidays, and nobody makes them. Once a year, in carnival week, everything stops: they sell their possessions, go to the coast, spend the money, come back and start again. Marcelo Gomes's documentary shows how self-exploitation gets lived as a form of freedom. Nobody complains; everybody says it is their own choice. He offers no commentary from outside, only records the rhythm: machine noise, cutting, sewing, packing. A voice-over about coming to the region with his father as a child adds a personal line to the film. Who it's for: Viewers who like documentaries about labour and production, Brazilian cinema, and observational method. Who it's not for: There is no plot and the repetition is deliberate. No conclusion or resolution is offered.