The screening on 2 Apriil will be introduced by Kiki Yu (Queen Mary).

The second film in Jia Zhangke’s documentary trilogy looking into arts and creative labour in China - alongside the Venice award-winning Dong (2006), about painter Liu Xiaodong, and Swimming Out till the Sea Turns Blue (2020), centred on writers - Useless is a documentary anchored by fashion designer Ma Ke. Through Ma Ke’s practice and philosophy, the film opens onto a broader reflection of China’s fashion and clothing industry.

Moving across three sharply contrasting locations—a garment factory near Guangzhou, an haute couture fashion show in Paris, and a small tailor’s shop in a mining town in Shanxi, the film examines how value is produced, erased, and reassigned in a globalized economy. Using clothing as both material object and social metaphor, Jia reflects on the tensions between mass production and craftsmanship, visibility and invisibility, usefulness and waste.

Cast:
Ma Ke