UID:
kobvindex_ZLB13313938
Format:
1 DVD Video (ca. 70 Min)
Content:
Nigel Noble's bluntly downbeat documentary "The Charcoal People" presents a hard-headed picture of how the laws of supply and demand in Brazil are contributing to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. "Charcoal people" is the nickname for thousands of migrant workers across the country who earn a meager living making the charcoal that is an ingredient of the pig iron used in Brazil's steel industry... The film documents the process by which whole forests are reduced to blocks of charred timber. The timber is shipped by truck to work camps, where it is fed into rows of giant kilns (it takes a day to build one) that resemble brick-and-mortar igloos. High among the hazards the workers must contend with are the infernal heat and choking smoke generated by the kilns. As the workers tell their stories, the struggles they describe aren't all that different from those of exploited laborers all over the world, be they coal miners or sweat-shop employees. Those who ask for raises are often considered troublemakers and fired. One worker recalls a boss who kept the workers in debt by forcing them to buy their supplies from the company store. Not all the testimony is meant to appall. More than one person interviewed actually finds some satisfaction in the work. The cost to the environment, of course, is steep. Just how steep is suggested late in the film by aerial shots of a hideously scarred, smoky section of rain forest. But the movie leaves little doubt that as long as there is an industry hungry for their labor, the charcoal people and the destruction they wreak will continue. (New York Times)
Note:
Portug. mit engl. Untertiteln
Language:
Portuguese
Keywords:
Amazonas-Gebiet
;
Köhlerei
;
Alltag
;
DVD-Video
;
Amazonas-Gebiet
;
Rodung
;
Umweltschaden
;
DVD-Video
;
DVD-Video
