MACHINES + THE REMNANT (F/F) (2017) 

Synopsis

Juxtaposing the beastly beauty of, intricate, deafening machinery and their subordinate human operators, Jain welcomes you to the Dark Heart of the clothing industry. Though frank and withering interviews with workers and owners - both mortally dependent on productivity and profit - may be revealing, global demand for cheap clothing ergo cheap labour, is not mentioned. Nonetheless, our own participation in exploitation reverberates long after the closing credits. Masterful and poetic, the immersive, full-sensory, no-holds barred looks at conditions in a textile factory in Gujarat that is closer to a Victorian work-house than a 21st century working environment. From the mouth of the Salt River through Rondebosch to Kirstenbosch, are the remnants of a an indiginous almond tree hedge planted by Jan van Riebeeck in 1659. The Remnant weaves the voices of a botonist, a tour guide, and Jan van Riebeeck himself into a multilayered documentary depicting the rise of segregation in the Cape.