City of Women

Summary

The decline of the clothing industry in Nottingham. An increasing amount of work is being given to low paid outworkers to work in their own homes. Even with these cost cutting methods many manufacturers are turning to factories in the Far East

Year:

1987

Duration:

0:24:33

Film type:

Colour / Sound

Genre:

Documentary

Company:

Central Television

Master format:

16mm

Description

The film opens with archive stills of women working in the Nottingham lace industry. A quarter of all British clothes being made in or around Nottingham but this traditional industry is under threat from cheap foreign imports. The film concentrates on the role of women who make up the majority of the workforce. We see women machinists at work and a group celebrating the 21st birthday of Tracey, a worker who is leaving to have a baby. There are vox pops with the women about their job, camaraderie and future prospects for the industry. We see a group of women on a night out in Nottingham, taking part in a workplace weightwatchers class, a fantasy sequence where the women dream of winning the pools and throw textiles from the window of their factory and a sequence showing Tracey and her friend Sharon shopping for new clothes. We also see representatives of the textile industry visiting a school during a careers lesson and a van delivering garments for home based workers. Barbara Bagilhole, who has written a report highlighting the low pay of home workers, is interviewed and appears on a radio show phone-in. We also see the exterior of the closed Martin Emprex factory in Nottingham as well as their thriving plant in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan workers are interviewed (not subtitled on film print). There are brief views of derelict factories in the Nottingham Lace Market and women attending a course to retrain to become motor mechanics.


Credits

No credits specified


Notes

Film copy does not contain credits. According to press release the film's director was Stephen Engelhard.