It's "an oldie but a goodie": THE GLOBAL ASSEMBLY LINE.
The film was made by (or at least is distributed by) an outfit called
New Day Films in New York. Sociologist Maria Patricia Fernandez Kelly
helped produce it. You should be able to get it from some major
university film libraries. It came out in the 1980s so some of the stuff
in it is starting to get a little dated. But I think it's still the BEST
film overview of contemporary global restructuring. It helps undergrads
see the HUMAN dimensions of world-system structures. I wish they'd
considered doing a version that updates things into the 1990s.
The "blurb" from their brochure:
"Travelling from Tennessee to Mexico's northern border, from Silicon
Valley to the Philippines, THE GLOBAL ASSEMBLY LINE takes viewers inside
our new global economy. A vivid portrayal of the lives of working women
and men in the "free trade zones" of developing countries and North
America, as US industries close their factories to search the globe for
lower-wage workforces. We take a rare look at the people whoi are making
the clothing we wear and the electronic goods we use -- as well as the
business decisions behind manufacturing -- on the global assemblyline."
David A. Smith
Associate Professor & Acting Chair
Department of Sociology
University of California
Irvine, CA 92717