DREAM FACTORY (Kim Sung-kyun, Korea). 80 minutes. Subtitled. Friday (June 17), 5:30 pm, NFB. Rating: NN
In 2007, the workers at the Cort guitar factory in Incheon, Korea, were laid off en masse when the company shifted its production to China. Furious, they reached out to musicians who loved their product. Concerts were held, and fired workers travelled to conventions and conferences around the world to raise awareness about the situation.
There’s a great documentary to be made out of that story, but sadly Dream Factory isn’t it. Director Kim Sung-kyun’s draggy, muddled take on the ongoing situation plays like clumsy agitprop rather than a coherent look at Cort’s record of shoddy labour relations, which is considerable. At 80 minutes, it feels at least twice as long as the footage merits.
