Documentary Cotton Road examines the vast industry that is responsible for putting clothes on our back. Its director Laura Kissel will be at The Athena Cinema for a panel discussion.
The film Cotton Road seeks to bring every person on this planet together through one of the few shared elements — clothing.
From South Carolina all the way to China, Cotton Road follows the journey clothes take around the world and back. The film’s director, Laura Kissel, is stopping by The Athena Cinema on Wednesday for a screening of the film as a part of The Athena’s Fall Sustainability Series.
Kissel, coming from a substantial farming region of Kansas, was spurred by her upbringing to pursue this film, as she said most Americans are “alienated” from the supply component of manufacturing. Kissel currently resides in South Carolina.
“I live in a state that grows cotton, and even here it became pretty clear that everybody forgets about (cotton) when it leaves the state,” Kissel said. “I was very interested in this unseen supply chain and making it more visible, because when it isn’t, we tend to forget about it and all the people involved.”
A large majority of Cotton Road takes place in China, where the cotton picked in South Carolina is sent to be processed into clothes.
“I didn’t speak Mandarin, so my first priority when I got off the plane was to find a Chinese producer to help me,” Kissel said. “I was fortunate enough to find Li Zhen, a brilliant graduate student at Shanghai’s Fudan University.”
The other dominating theme of Cotton Road revolves around American waste, specifically all the clothes thrown away every year.
“Americans consume nearly 20 billion new items of clothing every year,” according to the film’s trailer.
What also prompted Kissel to direct this film was what she called “the terrible waste that rose with cheap fashion.”
“People don’t realize how many new small labels are constantly emerging on the Internet that produce clothes ethically and humanely — American companies too,” she said.
Kissel and the film are being brought to campus by The Common Experience Project on Sustainability in Ohio University’s Office of Sustainability.
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“Our goal is to create a common learning experience for Ohio University students emphasizing a deep understanding of the principle concepts related to sustainability and ecological literacy,” Lorianne McCosker, coordinator of the project, said in an email.
Topics explored in the films range from food systems to biodiversity, McCosker said.
“Audiences are offered recently released, engaging environmental films exploring problems and solutions,” McCosker said in an email. “Emphasis is placed on showing a global perspective representing diverse cultural and economic perspectives.”
The Common Experience Project on Sustainability is coordinating the Fall Sustainability Series at the Athena, showing four more films through the end of November. Screenings are free and will be followed by a panel discussion featuring a mix of faculty, students, residents and the respective filmmaker to encourage audience engagement.
Some students, like Drew Trutza, are excited about the upcoming documentaries.
“Free movies, live directors and interesting topics is enough to get me in a seat,” Trutza, a freshman studying economics, said.
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