AsiaLENS: "Journey of a Red Fridge" (Lucian Muntean and Natasa Stankovic, 2007, 52 min.)

• Event Date: Tuesday, September 7, 2010
• Time: 7:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Film

The journey of a young boy, hired to carry a red Coca-Cola fridge across the Himalayan Mountains, is an acute portrait of child labor in the developing world.

Hari is a student who lives in a small village in Nepal. To support his education, he works as a porter, carrying heavy loads up and down the mountains. Occasionally the loads consist of machinery or building materials, furniture or bags of food or medicine; most of the time it’s a tourist’s backpack, sometimes it’s the tourists themselves. At 17, he already has three years experience in this grueling profession.

Journey of a Red Fridge is an unusually beautiful and moving documentary that allows us to accompany Hari on one of his jobs – a four-day trek carrying a large red fridge through Nepal’s stunning mountainous landscape, past lush riverside hot springs, Buddhist temples and small thatched hut villages. Along the way, we hear Hari’s innermost thoughts, his fears and hopes for the future. We discover the local culture and gain insight into the economic and social conditions that have allowed child labor to make up 25% of the country’s workforce. We also get to know the people that Hari meets on this journey, such as other porters carrying their loads or families who offer Hari a meal or bed for the night (in exchange for adding an item to his cargo).

AsiaLENS is organized by the Asian Educational Media Service in collaboration with the Spurlock Museum to present recent documentary films on issues in contemporary life in Asia. Guest scholars and members of the campus and local communities will introduce the films and lead post-screening audience discussions.

For further information, contact AEMS at 333-9597 or visit the AEMS website at AEMS(external link).