Nick Broomfield presents Free Screening of “Ghosts”

bristol | miscellaneous | event notice Thursday November 26, 2009 11:20 by Nick Thomas - The Pierian Centre info at pieriancentre dot com The Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA 0117 924 4512

Award-winning director Nick Broomfield is presenting a free screening of Ghosts, his film about the Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay, at 4.30pm on Friday 27th November. Nick is the patron of Unchosen’s season of films about human trafficking – and he will be answering questions after the screening.

Although human trafficking is now the second largest illegal industry in the world, it’s a crime that’s usually hidden from view. Trafficked workers are invisible “ghosts” who keep our economy going in condition we would rather not know about. But trafficking was caterpulted into the headlines in February 2004 when 23 Chinese cockle pickers were stranded and drowned in the treacherous shallows of Morecambe Bay. Nick Broomfield’s film dramatizes these awful events, focusing on the life and death of one young Chinese mother, Ai Qin. Her attempt to escape poverty involves borrowing $25,000 to pay gangsters to smuggle her into the UK – a debt that her family inherits even after the film’s tragic denouement.

The Independent wrote that Ghosts is “shot so sparely, and with agonisingly aesthetic dexterity. I am awed by the accomplishment” – and the film won the Solidarity Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Using non-professional actors, many of whom have personal experience of trafficking, Nick Broomfield constructs “a compelling drama” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “worth seeing, not just for its message, but also for the intriguing way it uses documentary tools to tell a true story.” The Times observed that “the film points the finger at the powerful corporations constantly driving down the cost of food production.”

This free screening on Friday 27th November is preceded by a performance by Chinese composer Wei Dai – and is followed by Nick Broomfield discussing issues from the film. The event starts at 4.30pm, and takes place at St Stephens Church in central Bristol. St Stephens Church is just off the City Centre, at 21 St. Stephens Street, Bristol BS1 1EQ. Later on Friday evening, at 7.30pm, there is a free screening of Rough Aunties, a documentary about a group of South African women’s fight against child abuse. Full details are at www.unchosen.org.uk. Unchosen’s season of films has the support of the police, the Fairtrade Network, Unseen, Stop The Traffik, Amnesty International, and the Bristol Legacy Commission. Nick Broomfield is Unchosen’s patron.