Mantis World is co-sponsoring a film screening of ‘The True Cost’
Programme:
6pm – Introductions
6.15pm – Film screening of The True Cost
7.45pm – Panel discussion chaired by Dr Alessandra Messadri (SOAS)
8.40pm – Reception
Synopsis:
A story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?
Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.
Panel Discussion
Chaired by Dr Alessandra Mezzadri (SOAS, University of London)
Livia Firth (Co-Executive Producer of The True Cost, Founder Eco-Age)
Thulsi Narayanasamy (Senior Programmes Officer (Sweatshops & Plantations) from War on Want )
Jessica Simor (QC)
Biographies:
Dr Alessandra Mezzadri‘s work focuses on labour and gender relations, labour standards and CSR norms in global commodity chains and production networks. She is an expert on the political economy of the global garment industry, with a special focus on India. She has investigated in depth the Indian export-oriented garment industry and its different regional labour regimes, illustrating the different ways in which sweatshops are formed and reproduced.
Livia Firth is the founder and creative director of Eco Age Ltd. As an Oxfam Global Ambassador, Livia travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Zambia, connecting with the people at the beginning of the supply chain. She is also a founding member of Annie Lennox’s ‘The Circle’, a powerful women’s advocacy group. Livia is a UN Leader of Change and has also been recognised with the UN Fashion 4 Development Award. In 2014. Livia was awarded the Rainforest Alliance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sustainability and the Honorary Award of the National German Sustainability Foundation.
Jessica Simor is recognised as one of the country’s leading specialists in human rights and public law, acting for a wide range of clients on a diverse number of issues. Jessica also has expertise in EU and commercial law, and issues concerning regulatory bodies, acting for organisations such as Ofgem, the ORR, Oftel and the OFT. Jessica has represented Government departments (such as the Department of Energy & Climate Change and the Ministry of Defence), NGOs including WWF, Refuge, Liberty, Environmental Justice Foundation and MDLI, as well as multinational corporations and private individuals.
Registration
The film screening is free with a suggested donation upon entry (£10 waged, £3 students and unwaged). To insure your seat please register here.
The London Asian Film Festival is an eclectic mix of films, stimulating interviews, outstanding lectures series, workshops, live performances, visual arts exhibitions, master classes and the annual short film competitions. The LAFF is hosted by Tongues on Fire, a not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to provide a platform for independent film and arts with a link to South Asia. We celebrate South Asian culture, its vibrancy and its many dimensions through story telling, live events, master classes and film.
This film screening and panel discussion is hosted in partnership with Tongues on Fire and Asian Circle, a network of UK-based Asian women who share a passion to support vulnerable women in India and South Asia.
