For Art Basel 2008 coverage, visit Buildings and Food.

 

Wednesday February 13, 2008

Is the Florida sugar industry suppressing documentaries about its labor practices? It would appear so. The Women’s Film Festival canceled a screening of Sugar Babies it “would create controversy and endanger [their] funding” and the Miami Film Festival has dropped the movie as well. See an older documentary here.

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  1. Ms Calabaza    Wed Feb 13, 02:02 PM #  

    Geez Alesh,

    are you implying that Big Sugar is corrupt? Please don’t burst my bubble. . .



  2. Carol R Hill    Thu Feb 14, 08:50 AM #  

    There isn’t a large company in the land that isn’t hiding something about their labor practices. Where my husband works they don’t believe in raises he has been working for three years there and because he didn’t go to a party celebrating the companies years in business they didn’t give him a raise. They find any reason not to give raises. He works hard to keep the job and that is it.



  3. alesh    Thu Feb 14, 10:49 AM #  

    Carol~

    True enough… And of course labor practices are worse in low-wage industries, of which farming is the prime example. In a limited sense you can’t blame the individual sugar companies, because they need to stay competitive — the responsibility should be on government, but of course our government is susceptible to lobbying, of which sugar is a master.

    None of which is to say that it’s not a sad day when a critical movie gets its screenings suppressed.