Event Includes: A panel discussion featuring Director Ralph Vituccio, Pittsburgh Post- Gazette Assistant Managing Editor Mark Roth, and University of Pittsburgh Political Science Professor Michael Goodhart will be moderated by Roger Rouse, professor of Global Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Plus CMU Opening Night Reception featuring delicious food from Pittsburgh's best Indian restaurant, Coriander India Grill!

"We originally wanted to make a film on the process of shipbreaking only, but we soon realized that we could not ignore the human rights and the environmental issues." —Directors Ralph Vituccio and Tom Clancey

Shipbreakers immerses us into a trade brutally tedious yet widely unknown. At an industrial port in India, laborers of different regions, dialects and religions come together to work and dwell amongst chaotic conditions—all in the name of making a living. Dynamic teamwork plays a crucial role in the success of any day at the shipbreaking yard. Amongst extreme heat, toxic waste, pollution, loud noise, poor sanitation and a constant threat of falling metal, underpaid laborers still maintain a unique air of optimism. Cutting apart a ship is "like an art," one worker claims, and artistry extends to the filmmakers' unique aesthetic approach to urban decay—natural lighting renders even massive piles of rubble as visually stunning. The camera meditates on sunsets, low tides, and beautifully polluted pink horizons, but such picturesque appeal does not distract from critical questions surrounding globalization and exploitative labor. Produced by and dedicated to the legendary Paul Goodman, Shipbreakers is as artistic as it is eye opening.