There’s a point early on in Stephanie Black’s
powerful 2001 documentary "Life and Debt" when the
word "pure" is said instead of "poor." It’s
plainly a slip of the tongue, but it quite cleverly contrasts
the Third World with the Western World – as represented by the
International Monetary Fund.
Through a beautifully photographed film (with great music by
Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley and others), Black brings us closer
to the problems suffered by many of the world’s poorer countries
– using Jamaica as a case study – and how we become unwitting
accomplices in economic colonialism.
Black, a native Brooklynite from Ocean Parkway, received the
Sundance Film Festival’s best documentary award in 1990 for "H-2
Worker," about the government-sponsored labor program bringing
Jamaican laborers to Florida to harvest sugar cane.
While the premise of "Life and Debt" sounds equally
daunting – and it’s not a little like taking one’s medicine to
pay attention to this film – the facts are laid out in an easily
understood and non-condescending fashion. Black’s important film,
about how the world has to work together to eradicate poverty
(and that there is enough wealth in the world to do that), may
even move audiences to action. So impressive is this work that
it will screen at BAMcinematek for three days in commemoration
of Black History Month.
The film unfolds depicting two "bad guys." First there
are the governmental and economic institutions that seem dedicated
to keeping Third World countries in their place. Specifically
examined in "Life and Debt" are the above-mentioned
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Secondly,
there are the tourists in Jamaica, who perhaps represent all
of us in North America and western Europe who don’t really understand
the impact of a global economy on Third World countries.
Black doesn’t include too many shots of ugly, vacationing, beer-guzzling
Americans, but there are enough to make us feel uncomfortable
with ourselves – even if we aren’t those beer-swilling tourists.
Jamaica Kincaid’s haunting essay, "A Small Place" (Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2000), serves as an eloquent reminder of
the sorry state of affairs in Jamaica. Black uses Kincaid’s text
to put the audience in the position of naive, unaware tourist.
While "A Small Place" is never harsh – there’s a beautiful,
soothing quality to the voice of Belinda Becker, who reads Kincaid’s
words. She has a slightly maternal tone implying that we are
just ignorant because we have it so good. This lilting, calming
voiceover constantly reminds us that we do not really want to
know where the food in our luxury hotel comes from (the U.S.,
mainly), or where the waste in our deluxe rooms goes (into the
deep blue Caribbean). "Life and Debt" makes one think,
probably more deeply than ever before, of how one hand washes
the other.
Among other intriguing examinations in "Life and Debt"
is the whole concept of debt, which is explained to us by an
economics professor about 15 minutes into the film. (So if you
feel as though it’s going over your head, just hang on. It will
become frighteningly clear.) It is more than interesting to note
that Jamaica was kept down by the control of Great Britain before
independence, and after independence is held under by debt.
In 1977, the newly independent Jamaica needed to interact economically
with the rest of the world. (Isn’t that how a nation forges an
economy? And grows economically?) But they didn’t have the money
to invest in all the country needed, things like education and
health care.
They were then compelled to agree to an IMF loan. And while these
loans in theory are supposed to assist in a nation’s route to
economic stability, in practice the IMF loan agreements appear
to be indentured servitude on a grand scale. And the country’s
indebtedness creates vicious circles like free trade zone factories,
where jobs are low paying, and unionizing is forbidden. In these
zones, which are in effect the property of large multinational
and U.S. companies, workers are paid in Jamaican dollars, which
are constantly being devalued. Taxes are deducted that are never
paid.
When the Jamaican workers (virtually all women) complain, the
owners bring in Asian workers, give them more overtime and pay
them in U.S. dollars. (Is this to punish the Jamaican workers?).
Even with all of these problems, there are so few jobs that many
are happy just to have them – a lousy paycheck is better than
no paycheck.
Completing the circle is the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). One of the results of NAFTA is that much of this work
is now going to Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
So the Jamaican factory workers are damned if they do, damned
if they don’t.
The other main discussion is the free market system and the problems
it brings. Horst Kohler, the well-dressed, well-spoken, yet smarmy
IMF director talks "lovingly" about the people of Jamaica
– that if they work, they have a "right" to buy what
everyone else in the world has a "right" to buy – i.e.,
McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.
So he uses this supposed "right" as a way to explain
all of these huge conglomerates bringing their companies in,
putting Jamaican companies out of business. (Black relates the
tale of a small Jamaican restaurant called McDonald’s, named
after its owner, which was forced to close down when the "real"
McDonalds came to town.)
Throughout the film are portraits of the Jamaicans who are affected
by this – onion and potato farmers who are simply trying to earn
a living by feeding people; dairy workers who have had to throw
away thousands of gallons of milk because they are forced to
use milk solids imported from the U.S.; and banana growers who
make a much sweeter banana than, say, Dole or Chiquita, but whose
sole market is the United Kingdom. Apparently, food products
can come into Jamaica, but hardly any of theirs can go out –
or even into local markets.
The view is not encouraging. But Black’s film gets the word out
that what’s needed is a bigger economic and political move –
essentially, it would seem, changing voting on the IMF so that
small impoverished countries can be free to try to improve their
economy with World Bank loans. "Life and Debt" is that
rare film that can, if enough viewers pay attention, change the
world.
Marian Masone is the associate
director of programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center
and chief curator of the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center.
"Life and Debt" will screen
at BAMcinematek [30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place, (718) 636-4100]
Feb. 8 and Feb. 10 at 2, 4:30, 6:50 and 9:10 pm and Feb. 9 at
2, 4:30, 6:50 and 9:30 pm. Tickets are $9. A panel discussion
will follow the 6:50 pm screening on Feb. 9.
