The Forgotten Space

“If you think of Wall Street as capitalism’s symbolic headquarters…The Forgotten Space [shows] how the sea is capitalism’s global trading floor writ large.”—Slate

Ninety percent of the world’s cargo now travels across “the forgotten space” of the oceans. This modern documentary masterpiece follows a cargo container across this expanse and through the international supply chain, connecting the economic puzzle pieces that corporations and governments would prefer remain scattered. Along the way, we meet people who have been reduced to cogs in this increasingly automated machine and others marginalized or displaced by its systematic “efficiencies.” Employing a wide range of sources and styles, The Forgotten Space provides a panoramic portrait of the new global economy—and a compelling argument about why it must change. (112 mins., HDCAM)

The late Allan Sekula is one of the most renowned photographers of our time, and both he and the great film theoretician Noël Burch taught in Ohio State’s Department of Photography and Cinema in the 1980s. Their colleague Professor Emeritus J. Ronald Green introduces the screening with memories of their time and work on campus.

This screening is presented in conjunction with the Columbus Museum of Art’s exhibition Allan Sekula: Aerospace Folktales and Other Stories (on view through July 2).