Best Documentary of 2007: The Price of Sugar

So far this year at least. We saw it at SIFF last week. It's about the slavery-like conditions the Haitian immigrants live in on the plantations in the Dominican Republic. A Spanish-British Catholic priest named Christopher Hartley is trying to make the workers' lives better by organizing them and fighting for their rights with the Vicinis (a SIFF representative told the audience that their lawyers tried to stop the screening), the most powerful family in the country which owns the sugar plantations within the Father's parish.

The conditions under which the worker's live and work is quite simply terrifying. Many of them (and their children) have malnutrition and have little if any money for anything else (one of them was shown working in the field without shoes; he said he didn't make enough to buy any). The priest and the Church (and not the company) set up food centers just so that the workers are fed better! The owners could easily pay them a little bit more, but they choose not to. Worse of all, the immigrants are undocumented workers who have nothing left in Haiti (which is a poorer country than the Dominican Country) but also have no rights in their adopted country. One of the producers of the film was at the screening in Seattle and before the start of the movie asked the audience to consider the immigration situation in America (incidentally, most of the exported sugar is bought by America!). The similiarities are eerie and one hopes that it will never be as bad here. Nevertheless, after seeing this movie, one becomes aware of how important immigrants are to our economy; how hard they work; and how badly they are treated and perceived. I am now a bigger supporter of immigrant rights than ever before.