Threads of Passage

Across shifting geographies and timescales, the films in this collection explore the entanglements of labour with ritual and storytelling, showing how marginalised communities navigate work and build resistance through collective organisation. The textile industry and its globalised networks of labour and migration provide an entry point to examine how lives are shaped by work and material economies. Queerness functions as a lens to read relationships between bodies, materials, and power, highlighting experiences often erased in dominant narratives. The programme reveals how myth and imagination offer tools for rethinking these histories.

Curated by Elena Wise.

Invisible Seams Eight Asian seamstresses and pattern-makers in New York share their stories in an ode to the city’s unseen garment industry. dir. Jia Li | US | 2022 | 17 min

The Weavers of Nishijin A portrait of textile production in a Kyoto neighborhood captures a moment of transition from handweaving to mechanized industry.

dir. Toshio Matsumoto | Japan | 1961 | 25 min

Shuttle A woman’s body becomes a weaving tool, exposing the labour and endurance behind textile production. dir. Kawita Vatanajyankur | Thailand | 2018 | 3 min

Calabai will Always Dance A transgender woman traces a traditional dance and its place within a community across generations. dir. Eman Memay Harundja| Indonesia | 2024 | 22 min

Samurai and Deer Tracing the 17th-century deerskin trade across Asia, the movement of a single material reveals enduring power structures. dir. Chia-Wei Hsu | Taiwan\, Netherlands\, Cambodia\, Japan | 2019 | 9 min

China, Beijing, I Love You! Follow nickel and cobalt on their journey from extraction sites along global trade networks. dir. Köken Ergun | Indonesia\, Turkey | 2023 | 35 min