Made in China (2009 film)
Made in China is a comedic feature film produced, co-written and directed by Judi Krant that was released in 2010. The title of the film is a reference to the Made in China label on many manufactured goods. The film was nominated for and won many independent film festival awards: winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature 2009, Winner of SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Woman Director 2009, Winner of Oldenburg International Film Festival Audience Award 2009, Winner of the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival 2009, and Winner of the Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking award at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival 2009.
| Made in China | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Judi Krant |
| Produced by | James Choi Bronwyn Cornelius Judi Krant Monnie Wills |
| Written by | Judi Krant Dan Sumpter |
| Starring | Jackson Kuehn Dan Sumpter Syna Zhang |
| Cinematography | Petter Eldin |
| Edited by | Victoria Mauch Bart Rachmil Dan Sumpter |
Production company | Beachwood Pictures |
| Distributed by | IFC Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
The film focuses on a novelty inventor named "Johnson", a 20-something from Texas who has designed what he believes will be the next great novelty item. He makes contact with a Chinese manufacturer in Shanghai via Craigslist and decides to fly to China with his life savings to create his dream product. Upon arrival, his contact fails to show up or answer his phone. Johnson decides to negotiate the manufacturing contract himself, without knowledge of Chinese.
Johnson explains, "every object has a story, and in that story is an inventor." Throughout Johnson's adventure, the history of iconic novelty inventors is revealed, including joy buzzer's Soren Sorensen Adams, pet rock's Gary Dahl, slinky's Richard T. James, and the ant farms' Milton Levine.