Stephanie Black's documentary on Jamaican H-2 visa farm workers in Florida is one of the better labor documentaries around. The film provides an intimate portrait of the daily lives of farm workers - and moves seamlessly from the hot, overcrowded barracks of the hands themselves to the offices of government officials in Washington to Jamaica's political leaders. The film leaves you without a clear idea of how to solve the problems of saving American farms while not destroying agricultural life in the Third World which then must send countless of its citizens to work in hellish, underpaid positions on American farms. Though, thirteen years later, the film itself might have the feel of being dated - the social, economic, and trade problems it highlights unfortunately persist today. It's well worth your time to see this unsettling and moving documentary. And while you're at it, check out the more recent documentary called "Life and Debt" - which returns to Jamaica to examine how trade and the economic prescriptions of the World Bank and IMF have affected that island nation. Together, "Life and Debt" and "H-2 Worker" are a great introduction to trade issues, helping to show how all the esoteric policy-talk actually affects human lives.
3 Reviews
How the US exploits Caribbean nations!
80SKID19 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Black when she visited my University in 2004, any who both of her movies show the relationship between the US and the Caribbean if you are of West Indian Decent or an activist this is the movie for you!!!!!! When it was shown people where moved to tears, most people didn't know that US Capitalism was affecting the Caribbean. These are no holds bars films, so for those people who think America is perfect and great this isn't the film for you, because the film shows the shady parts of US diplomacy!H-2 worker shows how people are misguided struggling to come to the US for a few months, just to realize that the conditions they are living in are worse than what they left. Ms. Black's Film was so visually compelling to the point where she lived like the people in the movie. "She even stated that she had to sneak to get her footage some nights"
Well a little Trivia STEPHANIE BLACK Isn't BLACK!! shes white American but the film feels like she was a west Indian telling this most compelling tale.
Well a little Trivia STEPHANIE BLACK Isn't BLACK!! shes white American but the film feels like she was a west Indian telling this most compelling tale.
Strong documentary
lor_9 May 2023
My review was written in March 1990 after a New Directors/New Films screening at MoMA.
This to-the-point documentary exposes the problems of underpaid Jamaican workers who rek for six months to toil in the Florida sugar cane fields. It should arouse some action on a long-dormant issue.
Tourists take for granted the dormitory-style barracks and company stores for field workers that dot the Florida roadside. There's virtually no interaction with the guest workers, who visit the U. S. for 6-month stretches under the H-2 work program. It's hardly a topic for the nightly newscasts in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale.
Debuting director Stephanie Black lays the issues on the table in clearcut fashion: poverty in Jamaica makes the chance to earn U. S. bucks nearly irresistible, yet the heavily subsidized farm employers chisel the Jamaicans' wages.
Smug U. S. and Jamaican officials repeatedly assert there is no problem, though the Jamaican prime minister admits things could be improved and that poverty is the root cause here for supporting the program.
Pic's weakest segment presents a thorny issue, namel trade and international economics, in glib fashion. Black counterpoints (on the side of the angels) New York and New Jersey politicians arguing for cutting farm subsidies and quotas to help the sugar economies of other countries, with Floridians naturally supporting the status quo. Her cross-cutting between the sad-eyed workers and shots of whites enjoying a sugar festival shifts the film into the realm of propaganda.
Black uses hidden-camera techniques to gather footage of the workers' cramped living conditions. There's nothing spectacular about what she shows, but the testimony of the workers points up injustice. Old black & white newsreels drive home the racism behind this phenomenon.
Pic would benefit from pruning as the images of lonely workers become repetitive and a subplot involving a '40s field hand who now has to collect cans for subsistence is off the mark. Thick accents of the Jamaican interviewees should be subtitled for clarity.
This to-the-point documentary exposes the problems of underpaid Jamaican workers who rek for six months to toil in the Florida sugar cane fields. It should arouse some action on a long-dormant issue.
Tourists take for granted the dormitory-style barracks and company stores for field workers that dot the Florida roadside. There's virtually no interaction with the guest workers, who visit the U. S. for 6-month stretches under the H-2 work program. It's hardly a topic for the nightly newscasts in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale.
Debuting director Stephanie Black lays the issues on the table in clearcut fashion: poverty in Jamaica makes the chance to earn U. S. bucks nearly irresistible, yet the heavily subsidized farm employers chisel the Jamaicans' wages.
Smug U. S. and Jamaican officials repeatedly assert there is no problem, though the Jamaican prime minister admits things could be improved and that poverty is the root cause here for supporting the program.
Pic's weakest segment presents a thorny issue, namel trade and international economics, in glib fashion. Black counterpoints (on the side of the angels) New York and New Jersey politicians arguing for cutting farm subsidies and quotas to help the sugar economies of other countries, with Floridians naturally supporting the status quo. Her cross-cutting between the sad-eyed workers and shots of whites enjoying a sugar festival shifts the film into the realm of propaganda.
Black uses hidden-camera techniques to gather footage of the workers' cramped living conditions. There's nothing spectacular about what she shows, but the testimony of the workers points up injustice. Old black & white newsreels drive home the racism behind this phenomenon.
Pic would benefit from pruning as the images of lonely workers become repetitive and a subplot involving a '40s field hand who now has to collect cans for subsistence is off the mark. Thick accents of the Jamaican interviewees should be subtitled for clarity.
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