NEWFROM

NEW YORKER FILMS“A must-see film.”“Powerful.”-Michael M. Thomas, NY Observer-Stephen Holden, The New York Times
AWARDEDCRITICS JURY PRIZE
HONORABLE MENTIONLOS ANGELESFILM FESTIVAL
2001

A Film by STEPHANIE BLACK
Cinematography by
MALIK SAYEED, KYLE KIBBE,RICHARD LANNAMAN &ALEX NEPOMNIASCHY
Edited by
JOHN MULLEN
Assistant Producer
SARAH MANLEY
Narration Written by
JAMAICA KINCAID(based on “A Small Place”)
Original Music by
MUTABARUKA
A non-profit Tuff Gong Pictures Production funded by ITVS,Soros Documentary Fund, National Endowment for the Arts,John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Film Fellowship,
The Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts,
Samuel Rubin Foundation, The Paul Robeson Fund, Edelman Family
Fund, and The Solidago Foundation; ©2001

www.lifeanddebt.org

www.NewYorkerFilms.com

Director Stephanie Black is available for speaking engagements! Please inquire.
A real world look at how the policies of globalization and free trade devastate indigenous ways of life.
Director Stephanie Black focuses on Jamaica, which has been virtually destroyed by 25 years of “help”
from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.With a vibrant reggae soundtrackby Bob Marley and a narration written by Jamaica Kincaid.
UNITED STATES • 2001 • 86 mins • Color • In English

June 15, 2001

FILM REVIEW‘Life and Debt’: One Love, One
Heart, or a Sweatshop Economy?
STEPHEN HOLDEN
he term "globalization" is so tinged withrosy one-world optimism that it's easy toassume the essential benignity of an
economic philosophy whose name vaguelyconnotes unity, equality and freedom. But as
Stephanie Black's powerful documentary "Lifeand Debt" illustrates with an impressive (anddepressing) acuity, globalization can have adevastating impact on third world countries. The
movie offers the clearest analysis of globalizationand its negative effects that I've ever seen on amovie or television screen.
"Life and Debt," which opens the Human
Rights Watch Film Festival this evening at theWalter Reade Theater and continues its run on
Saturday at Cinema Village, focuses on the
deeply troubled economy of Jamaica and howthat country's long-term indebtedness tointernational lending organizations havecontributed to the erosion of local agriculture andindustry.
Far from being a dry exegesis crammed withgraphs, pie charts and talking heads spewing
abstract mumbo-jumbo, the film goes directly tothe farmers and factory workers whose
livelihoods have been undermined. In basic
everyday language, they explain how highinterest rates have helped devalue the local
currency, raising prices for their produce andpermitting wealthier countries to import the same
products and sell them more cheaply.
The hard-nosed lending policies oforganizations like the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank may not deliberately set out
to undermine fragile third world economies
dependent on their aid. But as the movie shows,the market forces that operate once theseorganizations become involved are an economic
form of Darwinism. The fittest economies
prosper while the weaker ones tend to be snaredin an endless and escalating cycle of debt
repayment that eventually erodes the debtor
country's economic base. The banks' lending
policies are, of course, determined by thewealthier countries, especially the United States
and those of Western Europe.
These dry economic realities are leavened by
the cool, ironic lyricism of a voice-over narration
by Jamaica Kincaid, who adapted the text fromher nonfiction book, "A Small Place." Adopting
the alluringly soothing tone of a subversive tour
guide, Ms. Kincaid informs potential tourists ofT

the things that will be hidden from sight should
they visit Jamaica.
"When you sit down to eat your delicious
meal, it's better that you don't know that most ofwhat you are eating came off a ship fromMiami," she says.
That's just one of a long list of things she
mentions — from primitive hotel sewage
systems that empty directly into the ocean to thedire poverty of Kingston's slums — that all but
the most intrepidly curious visitors to the country
will not see. Recurring through the film are
unsettling images of jolly, overfed American
tourists engaged in activities like beer-drinking
contests in Jamaica's luxury hotels.
One result of the country's crumbling
economy is the vulnerability to exploitation of
Jamaica's needy labor force. A segment about
Jamaica's free trade zones introduces us toworkers who toil five or six days a week in nearsweatshop conditions for the legal minimum
wage of $30 a week sewing garments for
American manufacturers. No unionization ispermitted in these foreign-owned garment
factories where shiploads of material arrive taxfree for assembly before being transported backto foreign markets. Those who dare to makewaves are fired.
The movie visits a plant that used to sell highquality chickens for Jamaican consumption but
whose business has been undermined by the
dumping of cheaper, low-grade chicken parts
from the United States under the guise of free
trade. And until recently, Jamaica's banana
industry flourished thanks to an agreement withBritain allowing a tax-free import quota. But
through the World Trade Organization, theUnited States has protested the agreement,
forcing Jamaica to compete with multinational
corporations based in Central and South America
where labor is cheaper.
These are just a few of the stories told in a filmthat despite all the bad news it delivers refuses toraise its voice. Among the prominent Jamaicans
interviewed the most eloquent voice belongs toMichael Manley, the former prime minister who
reluctantly signed some of the agreements thathave damaged the country's economy.
Speaking more in sorrow than in anger, heacknowledges that his country made mistakes
along the way. But the overall impression left bythis devastating film is of the global economy asa dog-eat-dog world where the usual culprits, theUnited States and its multinational corporateclients, have the advantage.

LIFE AND DEBT
Produced and directed by Stephanie Black;narration written by Jamaica Kincaid, based onher book "A Small Place"; directors ofphotography, Malik Sayeed, Kyle Kibbe, Richard
Lannaman and Alex Nepomniaschy; edited byJon Mullen; music by Ziggy Marley and theMelody Makers, Bob Marley, Dean Fraser, BujuBanton, Sizzla, Harry Belafonte, Mutabaruka,Rolando E. McLean, Peter Tosh and Anthony B.;
released by Tuff Gong Pictures. Running time: 86minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Belinda Becker (narrator).

Available for rental only in 16mm, 35mm and VHS public performance to universities, museums & other non-theatrical customers (all dates subject to theatrical approval)

CALL NEW YORKER FILMS TOLL FREE: 1-877-247-6200
16 W. 61st St. New York, NY 10023 • Tel. (212) 247-6110 • Fax (212) 307-7855 • non-theatrical@newyorkerfilms.com