The Department of African and African-American Studies teamed up with the Department of East Asian Studies to bring documentary filmmaker Erica Marcus and her film “Guangzhou Dream Factory” to campus Friday.

“Guangzhou Dream Factory” tells the story of African immigrants to China who go in search of the jobs and money China’s manufacturing industry brings.

“These are the Africans who believe that China is the new land of opportunity,” the narrator says. “They’re all here, chasing their ‘made in China’ dreams.”

The film opens with the image of a Ghanaian market, filled to the brim with cheap Chinese merchandise. That merchandise comes from the countless Africans who travel to China, especially Guangzhou. There, they set up or work in factories or in small stores crowded into bustling marketplaces.

As the film progresses, more hazards of this African migration are revealed. Money and jobs are hard to come by. Con men promise job security but leave hopeful migrants in debt and jobless.

Many of the Guangzhou dreamers are forced to overstay their visas after the Chinese government refuses to renew their visas, and they cannot afford to travel home. The industry promised is, for many, a mirage, trapping opportunity seekers.

The film closes with an unanswered question: “When will the factories, the jobs, the dreams come back to Africa?”

“Guangzhou Dream Factory,” filmed during the summers of 2011-2013, took Marcus into a different part of China than she had ever seen. After the film, she spoke about getting to know the African communities in Guangzhou.

“I think in the film originally, we were just really impressed with the dynamism of the community. Most films that are shown in the U.S., that are about Africa, maybe they will touch on what is seen as the resource curse or the legacy of colonialism…Here was this positive spirit of entrepreneurialism,” Marcus said.

After diving deep into that community, she discovered that not all was as promising as it seemed.

“The footage you shoot tells you what the film is going to be,” Marcus said.

For them, that ended up being a much less optimistic view than they had originally held.

Since the film was made, Marcus brought it to screens across the world. Their first showing was at a pan-African film festival; and afterwards, it has traveled through China, the United States and Africa.

“When we first started screening, we had people coming up to us saying, ‘This is the story of my family; this is the story of my people,’” Marcus said.

Marcus hopes to take the film to more places and continue making it accessible to more people. One thing she remembers from the first screening that has stayed with the film through the years has been the audience reaction.

“There was incredible excitement from people,” Marcus said. “It was really fascinating to see that kind of excitement.”