COTTONOCENE by Kate Sandlin
"I believe that the current climate, and corresponding ethical, crisis was caused by the rise of systems of exploitation, particularly capitalism, chattel slavery, racism, and sexism. I wanted my “alter-cene” to address the history of these suppressive systems of violence, their roles in contemporary global society, and the new forms of oppression that are quintessential to the epoch, chiefly materialism, consumerism, and neoliberalism (Yusoff 61). The Cottonocene represents the devastation wrought by these systems, but also the perceived expendability of the people and places that suffer the burden of Western greed. I chose film as my creative medium because I wanted to show the depth of deception and erasure in cotton marketing, particularly in the cotton of our lives commercials. The cotton propaganda that years to cater to the needs of the average consumer is the antithesis of the reality of cotton production in the past and present. This commercial series, which often features wealthy white women prancing in fields or singing in the rain, neglects to mention the history of expropriation, and brutality that characterizes cotton production, and instead encourages women to purchase sweat-proof dresses for their dinner dates with handsome business executives. In the film I alternate between clips from the cotton of our lives commercial series and those from news programs, documentaries, and interviews with experts. I chose this sequencing because I wanted to emphasize the insensitivity and outrageous indifference of cotton manufacturers whose commercials feature celebrities whose jogging outfits are worth more than the annual salary of a textile worker, who is forced to do dangerous, often life-threatening, work in untenable conditions. I deliberately left the transitions between the commercial clips and the news or documentary clips abrupt so that there would be a stark and noticeable contrast between the two."
Due to size restrictions, Kate's video cannot be embedded onto this page. The images to the left are screenshots. FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SEE THE VIDEO: COTTONOCENE.