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Clip description
Sudanese workers in a large ginning factory separate the cotton seed from the fibre so it can be processed. Others flatten the cotton manually into a press. After ginning, the cotton is fed into large presses, which shape it into bales. The bales are then loaded for transportation to spinning mills where the cotton is woven into fabric.
Curator’s notes
The percussive African music, the colonial-style narration and the images of black bodies working in the hot factories all combine to exoticise the Sudanese people depicted in the clip. Earlier in the film, Hurley says that the Sudanese make ‘hot rhythm’ of their work teasing out the cotton, and this sets the tone for the whole scene. Jovial workers (most probably instructed to emphasise the physicality of their work) appear to throw the cotton in the air in time to the music. The two men stamping on the cotton do so with ‘light feet’ and ‘done to rhythm’, which presents them in a sensual and exotic way.
