Made in L.A.

Three Latina immigrants work in sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer.

Film Signature Image
Series
POV, Global Voices
Premiere Date
September 4, 2007
Length
90 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2008 News and Documentary Emmy Awards-Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story
  • Nominated laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2008 Imagen Awards-Best Documentary
  • Nominated laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2008 ALMA Awards-Outstanding Made for Television Documentary
  • Award laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2009 The Sidney Hillman Foundation-Hillman Prize
  • Producer/Director

    Almudena Carracedo

    Almudena Carracedo along with Robert Bahar directed Made in L.A., a feature documentary that tells the story of three immigrant women’s transformation as they fight for their rights in Los Angeles garment factories. The film premiered on PBS’s P.O.V. series in a co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting and won numerous awards, including an Show more Emmy, the Henry Hampton Award and the Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. Made in L.A. screened internationally at 85 film festivals and was the subject of an innovative community engagement campaign that led to more than 600 community and faith-based screenings that reached 30,000 people directly, in addition to the nearly two million people who viewed it on television. Prior to Made in L.A., Almudena directed the short documentary Welcome, A Docu-Journey of Impressions, which won the Sterling Award at Silverdocs. Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, she is a 2012 Creative Capital Fellow, a 2012 Sundance Time Warner Documentary Fellow, a 2010 United States Artists Fellow and the recipient of the ESTELA Award from the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). She was recently honored by Illinois Wesleyan University with a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in recognition of her work. She has served on IFP’s Advisory Board and has been a mentor at NALIP’s “Doing Your Doc” series. In addition, she has served as a juror at several film festivals, including Silverdocs and Santiago's International Documentary Festival in Chile, and currently teaches documentary at NYU Madrid. Show less

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    Producer

    Robert Bahar

    Robert Bahar co-directed Made in L.A., a feature documentary that tells the story of three immigrant women’s transformation as they fight for their rights in Los Angeles garment factories. The film premiered on PBS’s P.O.V. series in a co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting and won numerous awards including an Emmy, the Henry Hampton Award and Show more the Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. Before Made in L.A., Robert directed and produced the documentary Laid to Waste, and line-produced and production managed several independent films including Diary of a City Priest which premiered at Sundance, and Pittsburgh, starring Jeff Goldblum, which premiered at Tribeca. Robert is a 2012 Creative Capital Fellow who has served on the Board of the International Documentary Association and he co-founded Doculink, an online community of 4,000 documentary-makers. Robert has guest lectured at USC, UCLA, Columbia, and the Jacob Burns Film Center, among others, and currently teaches documentary at NYU Madrid. He holds an M.F.A. from USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, which he attended on a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. Show less

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    The Silence of Others

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    The Film

    Made in L.A. is an Emmy Award-winning feature documentary that follows three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. In intimate observational style, Made in L.A. reveals the impact of the struggle on each woman’s life as they are gradually transformed by the experience. Made in L.A. is a story about immigration, the power of unity, and the courage it takes to find your voice.

    Lupe Hernandez, a five-foot tall dynamo who learned survival skills at an early age, has been working in Los Angeles garment factories for more than 15 years since she left Mexico City at age 17. Maura Colorado left her three children in the care of relatives in El Salvador while she sought work in L.A. to support them. María Pineda came to Southern California from Mexico in hopes of a better life at 18, with an equally young husband. They all suffer wretched conditions, low pay, and long hours.

    These three women, along with other immigrant workers, come together at L.A.’s Garment Worker Center to take a stand for their rights. Against all odds, these seemingly defenseless workers launch a very public challenge (a lawsuit and a boycott) to one of the city’s flagship clothiers, calling attention to the dark side of low-wage labor north of the U.S.-Mexico border and revealing the social fault lines of the new globalization.

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