Customer Reviews

Life and Debt

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Narrated by Jamaica Kincaid based on her non-fiction book, "A Small Place," her familiar honey-toned voice captures the cadence of the islands. "If you come to Jamaica as a tourist, this is what you will see..." The camera then focuses on well-fed and happy tourists. They eat sumptuous meals. ("You'd be surprised to find out that every bite of food you eat comes off a plane from Miami.") They enjoy the view from their rooms ("You probably don't know that the sewage from the hotel is going straight into the ocean")

Basically though, this film is about economics and the changes that have occurred in the years since the British left in the 1960s and Jamaica had to borrow money from international lending institutions. Former Prime Minister Michael Manley describes how the interest is so high that it keeps the economy constantly in a debt that keeps growing. And Jamaican money is so devalued that it is cheaper to buy imports rather than produce them itself.

Just a few years ago, farmers got good prices from raising chickens and there was large plant to process them, giving people jobs. The factories are closed now and the farmers can't sell their chickens because of cheaper imports. Also, there is a special free trade zone where garments are put together for such companies such as Hanes. Everything is delivered to the factory pre-cut and ready to sew and the workers toil long hours for no more than $30 per week. During the course of the filming, even that factory closed to reopen in another third-world country where the labor might be even cheaper.

All this is contrasted with constant cuts to the tourists who are frolicking at the hotels and enjoying themselves in such silly games as beer drinking contests.

The film is done well, and the cinematography and direction are excellent. I was able to follow the points being made about the economic issues and, although I know I don't have enough background in the subject to really understand it completely, there was no doubt about how the economy is collapsing. Even their banana exports are being threatened. This film is definitely worth seeing.

If you care about the effects of US-dominated economic policies upon so-called developing nations ("developing" a euphemism for economically terrorized, left-to-bleed-to-death, etc.)... if it matters to you what is being done to them in our name (for the benefit of citizens of US & the rich nations) you MUST HAVE THIS. Don't even think about it. Don't even read any other reviews... let the raw power of the film hit you straight up. Mere words don't get it. See the faces of the oppressed. Hear their stories. Then get involved. Send copies to everybody, legislators, business leaders, libaries. Get creative. Get on the internet (global exchange, democracy now, etc). Otherwise the terror will continue... in our name.

Life and Debt is an amazing documentary that should have gotten more publicity than it did. This documentary is about Jamaica, the Caribbean island that Americans usually have a stereotypical idea about being just a beautiful tourist island for vacations. However after watching this movie you become more aware about the negative effects of globalization on Jamaica. This documentary was very engaging and interesting, because there was a variety of topics and interviews with many important people such as the former president of Jamaica. The different interviews are from many perspectives, from farmers and laymen to an authority figure in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From this documentary, you learn how Jamaica has been trapped into a cycle of debt and hardship because of the loans with high interest rates that the World Bank and IMF have provided them. You learn about the insidious trade policies that cause a surplus of imports from overseas to destroy Jamaica's native farmer's chances of succeeding. You learn about how this former British colony is invaded by McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and big corporations looking for cheap labor that exploits poor Jamaicans. The narration is excellent, the background music features great reggae music, and the cinematography was skillfully employed.

I definitely would suggest watching this documentary to learn more about how America and the IMF's policy's towards Jamaica and other "developing countries" have caused them to become mired into economic and social problems. This was an excellent and beautiful movie that taught me more about the situation in Jamaica and how it arose.

My wife Chris and I saw a screening of this movie one frigid winter night in the Alaskan Arctic, with temps about 20 below zero.
For a few minutes, we envied the residents of sunny Jamaica, but as Stephanie Black's film moved along, we felt pity for the Jamaicans, struck so hard and cruelly by globalization and the international money interests.
So devoid of hope that they cannot even dream of travel away from their island, at the same time as they see air conditioned buses full of good-time tournists buzzing by their slums.
The scenes of corporations beefing up their security forces were especially chilling. We are seeing the same kind of private police emerging in Iraq.
Could that be what the War in Iraq is about -- protecting corporate interests in prime overseas markets?
See this movie when you can, and then go out for a nice glass of reconstituted milk. The globalized interests say it is the best thing for you. Don't disappoint them,

I was born in Jamaica; however, found this production very enlightening. The usual non-publicized under-the-surface protocol which is implemented to keep a targeted country's economy on it's knees I found apalling but not surprising. The exhorbitant interest rates (dictated by the IMF) for borrowers which makes their products non competitive with subsidized ones imported from the US is elementary financial bamboozling designed to kill entrepreneurial initiative. This story can serve as educational for those of us who have no idea what measures conribute to devaluation of Jamaica's currency.

Good production.

This is an excellent film about the realities of coming of age - independence - in a world dominated by the self-interests of the super powers. What makes this film so powerful is the juxtaposition of hard-nosed economic and political analyses by politicians, academics, local farmers and business people, with the homespun spirituality and wisdom of the rastafarians; all set against the brittle, relentlessly hedonistic backdrop of the tourist industry ... "welcome to my island home." Superb.

I just rented this DVD for the second time, and now I have to buy it, so I can pass it around to friends ... everyone I've seen it with is shaken to the core.

It's a beautiful, and superbly edited, widescreen production. The pacing starts out very casually, and then it describes reality, deeper and deeper ... and then things become worse, and worse ...

They say that an optimist is simply a badly-informed pessimist. But if everyone in the US bought this DVD, and watched it with friends ... becoming well-informed might actually have a positive impact. If people understood that our tax money is used to destroy almost everything and everyone on earth, to profit the rich & the powerful, I think they would tear apart the World Bank, the WTO, the IMF, and the Department of Commerce, brick-by-brick, with their bare hands ...

LIFE AND DEBT is amazing documentary about the pitfalls of globalization and "free market" capitalism. Utilizing excerpts from the award-winning non-fiction text "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid, the film focuses on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival are determined by foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary narration with the stories of local workers, local politicians, and local business owners, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade are elucided through the lives of the people who they impact. A solid documentary, particularly pertinent for those of us who enjoy the fruits of cheap Third World resources and labor.

Life and Debt is brilliant expose of how the institutions of economic power (the IMF, World Bank, and Regional financial institutions) continue policies that exploit the third world, in this case, Jamaica.

The movie intersperses some of the technical economic policies with the effects in the every day lives of Jamaicans that have to suffer these decisions. Watching Stanley Fischer from the IMF talk about what is supposed to happen in theory and listening to farmers and regular Jamaicans explain how it really works is priceless.

Other highlights of the film for me: showing women working under modern day slave conditions sewing designer clothing for large corporations, only to be tossed aside when they raise their heads to power. This is exactly how workers around the world are pitted against one another in a race to the bottom where corporations seek the lowest wages.

For anyone who is wondering why the third world is erupting in protest and violence, watch this film. You may be shocked at what you didn't know.

LIFE & DEBT, a brilliant documentary by Stephanie Black, takes a cautionary look at the bleak state of the small island nation of Jamaica. Based on a piece written by Antigua-bred writer, Jamaica Kincaid, this film is beautifully narrated by Belinda Becker. What's more, it is greatly benefited by an evocative musical score that includes such musicians as Ziggy Marley, along with an original score by Mutabaruka. The story juxtaposes news reels, candid interview with farmers, former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, Deputy Director of the IMF Stanley Fisher, and President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide (among others), as well as very graphic and honest footage of Jamaican slum life. You can almost smell the rot coming from the garbage dumps children and families must live close to, on a daily basis, because they simply have no other choice.

LIFE & DEBT takes a very sobering look at the effect of twenty-five years of assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), what resulted from this relationship (including the increasing weakening of Jamaican currency, in favor of the American dollar and an increasing struggle for local farmers, as more and more imported produce found its way onto the shelves and into the bellies of Jamaicans and tourists to Jamaica). Throughout the story, we hear "If you come to Jamaica as a tourist, this is what you will see..." LIFE & DEBT makes an especially strong appeal to anyone who arrives in the island nation, and the way in which people tend to appropriate the beauty of a culture (beaches, corn-rowed hairstyles and local food), while turning a blind eye to the stark reality of those who must survive from day to day. The narrator paints the picture of a "typical" tourist. This person is a wealthy American who has the means to come and go from Jamaica, sees the rolling beaches, delicious local cuisine and warm weather. They also see the Jamaican natives, and imagine their life to be quite laid back and worry free. However, the reality is quite the opposite, since most of the poor subsist on less than the equivalent of one American dollar (once numerous taxes take a considerable bite out of their paycheck).

This film is beautiful, on so many levels. Stephanie Black made a bold and beautiful choice in the direction she took with her cinematography. The combination of beautiful and colorful footage of sunsets, and gorgeous flora and fauna, along with black and white montages (to depict the colonialized "past" in contrast with present day Jamaica) was really powerful. What's more, this is the first time I have seen someone respectfully acknowledging the great detrimental effect the WTO (World Trade Organization) and IMF (International Monetary Fund) has had on smaller, greatly disadvantaged nations that have been wrongfully exploited. I commend Stephanie Black for having the guts to bring LIFE & DEBT to the screen. It is as powerful today as it was when it was originally released in 2001.