Film Screening of Secondhand (Pepe) @ Dollar-a-Pound/Garment District

This is a FREE event with refreshments!! Is there anything better?

This Sunday, December 9th, 8 pm (doors @ 7:30)

The Garment District Inc., 200 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139

Cambridge, MA, December 9, 2007 — Ever wonder what happens to your old clothes after you give them away? Where do the clothes you find at the thrift store come from? A new indie film about
secondhand clothing and immigrant communities, made by duo Shell & Bertozzi, answers these questions, and more. On December 9th at 8pm, the filmmakers are screening "Secondhand (Pepe)" as part of a special free event at Dollar-a-Pound (downstairs at the famous Garment
District vintage clothing mecca in Kendall Square). In the movie, a historical memoir intertwines with the present-day story of 'pepe' —secondhand clothing that flows from the United States to Haiti.  Plus great music, archival footage of old-time ragpickers and behind-the-scenes shots of
Cambridge's Dollar-a-Pound.

"We followed the trail of secondhand American clothes all the way from Dollar-a-Pound to Haiti to film for our movie," say Vanessa Bertozzi and Hanna Rose Shell, the movie's co-directors. "We hope some of the same people who were there when we started shooting will  come to the screening. This screening brings it full-circle. What a great atmosphere to show our movie —people wearing their favorite pieces of secondhand clothing and sitting in the mountains of clothes at
Dollar-a-Pound!"

 The used clothing business has grown to be an enormous industry over the course of the 20th-century. Today billions of pounds of used American clothing make its way to developing
countries, and Haiti —with its particular political/economic relationship to the United States — serves as a remarkable example. Interestingly, the industry in the US has its roots in earlier waves of
immigrant communities, notably Eastern European Jews who became ragpickers upon arrival.  The
impact of this business — both economically and culturally — and its history are little understood by the average America.

Secondhand (Pepe) serves as a conversation starter for Americans, people of Jewish descent, Haitian-Americans and Haitians. Everyone has a voice in the movie and the imagery, music and
language of these cultures inter-mix in the flow of the film.

For more information :
Contact: Vanessa Bertozzi vanbertozzi@gmail.com 917-692-4564 or Hanna Rose Shell shell@fas.harvard.edu 617-230-6900