In the years 2001-2003 I had the priviledge of working with David Redmon on the award winning film Mardi Gras: Made In China. The following is a tribute to the film, the filmmakers who are my friends, and the importance of placing our gifts in the service of Love.Mardi Gras: Made in China is currently available to institutions, non-profits, schools & universities. Click here to order.
In the fall of 2000, I had the blessing of meeting David Redmon, who would become one of the single most influential people of my life. He was only about 27 at that time, teaching sociology at my university. I never took his classes, however, but met him over coffee one day when I learned he was showing films to his students about corporate globalization, and the rising tide of protest against it. He and I quickly became friends and had endless discussions about the destructive expansion of capitalism around the world, with sweatshops and leveled rainforests alike left in its wake. We knew that we were unhappy about the destruction of lives and cultures around the world, including in our own country, but figuring out how exactly to contribute to positive change was a long, difficult and at times dangerous process.
Soon after I met David he travelled to China to visit a factory where the majority of the Mardi Gras beads one sees in New Orleans are made. David's graduate dissertation had been on Mardi Gras, and the use of beads as a sexual currency was a much-discussed theme. It wasn't until he had finished his thesis, however, that he began wondering about this one aspect he had not considered: where did the beads come from? The search for an answer to this question led him on a long journey that ultimately resulted in this internationally award winning film: Mardi Gras: Made in China.
I had the honor of working with David on this project at various stages, and had the even more unexpected (and perhaps undeserved!) one of being named an "advisor and assistant editor." While I certainly did my best to contribute as much as I could in the way of ideas and (especially at the beginning) technical assistance, David's personal drive and determination was something I could hardly fathom at the time. As the years passed and the film's renown grew, I was impressed beyond measure at David's success in placing his personal talents in full service of the vision of equality that he and I shared.
Now, David and I live hundreds of miles apart--he in Brooklyn, New York with his talented partner Ashley Sabin, producing films under the now actualized Carnivalesque Films, while I am living and working with my wife Brianne in Lafayette, Louisiana on our own labor of love. It is only now with the creation of our website, Organic Fair Trade, that I am beginning to understand where the drive that I so admired in David comes from. I fully believe that the world can best be changed when all of us, who have the vision, also find the courage to put the full force of our talents in service of what we truly believe. It is a sacrifice that is its own reward.
Peace and Love,
Aaron Lozier
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