A documentary film screened at the Berlin Film Festival raised the question of Marcelo Gomez when he visited the hills in northeastern Brazil in Toritama, where he noticed the sound of knitting machines in the capital of jeans where people worked all day to produce denim shorts, In that quiet town where you could hear the sound of the fall of the needle, not the hustle and bustle of cottage industries today in the town of 40,000.
Gomez analyzed the way people lived and wondered whether they were working for money or for fun.
When I got there, I said, "My God, this looks like England during the Industrial Revolution!" However, the inhabitants of the town are always rejoice in the film, touching the fasteners or hundreds of pockets.
Successive Brazilian governments have undermined labor protection laws against exploitation and forced many to work long hours for less pay. Toritama's torturers, however, feel no problems because they are self-employed.
"They have their own factories, they are owners and workers," Gomez said.
The filmmakers happily tell about the cents they receive for each piece.
But Gomez, who is also the narrator in the film, does not hide his skepticism and wonders whether these people have the time to wonder if they are happy.
"It takes about 15 or 16 hours to work. what about your life? What about your children? I asked them all the time but they were very happy because they were the angel ... Is greed a good thing? "
At the end of the film comes Carnival ..
Families sell all their belongings from refrigerators and knitting machines to raise money for a beach break. For eight days, the town is as empty as Gomez remembers it from childhood.