About
What does a rural town in South Carolina have to do with China?
Americans consume nearly twenty billion new items of clothing each year, and at least one billion of them are made in China. Cotton Road uncovers the transnational movement of cotton and tells the stories of workers lives in a conventional cotton supply chain. From rural farms in South Carolina to factory cities in China, we span the globe to encounter the industrial processes behind our rapacious consumption of cheap clothing and textile products.
Are we connected to one another through the things we consume? Cotton Road explores a contemporary landscape of globalized labor through human stories and provides an opportunity to reflect on the ways our consumption impacts others and drives a global economy.
Film Links
Cotton Road Film WebsiteCredits
Cotton Road
Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Editor
Laura Kissel
Producer in China
Li Zhen 李桢
Composer
Fang Man
Additional Camera
Mark Gamble
Li Zhen
Technical Support
Mark Gamble
Jimmy Henderson
Heidi Mehltretter
Wade Sellers
Production Assistants
Heather Bauer
Andrew Cline
Tracy Grant
Research Assistant
Tori Epspensen Sturges
Editing Assistant
Rebecca Brinson
Mandarin to English Translation
Li Zhen
With additional assistance from
Guo Jie
Michael Hill
Marco Moskowitz
Elizabeth Peng
Michelle Wang
Zhu Yun
Colorist and Sound Mix
Wade Sellers
Production support and logistics in the US and China
Georgia Ports Authority
Mark Troughton
Danica Grone
David Porter
Charleston Branch Pilots Association
Julia Winkler
John Cameron
Port of Charleston
Erin Pabst
Eastern Trading Company
Jordan Lea
Clemson University Cooperative Extension
Mike Jones
Supply Chain Management
Wynn Cowan
State of South Carolina Department of Commerce Gregory Guest
John Ling
Amy Thompson
Aaron Wood
Angela Chen
Chen Bin
Del Chen
David Cossack
Edward Gwinn
Crystal Hardesty
Peng Hong
Butch McLaren
Paul Morton
Sha Mei
Carl Thelin
Janet Upton
Ray Wall
J.R. Wang
Robin Wang
Xiaobo Lu
Cathie Xu
Yang Ji
K.J. Yang
Emma Zhang
Flora Zhang
Kenny Zheng