The Price of Sugar

2007

Action / Documentary

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 74% · 19 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 77% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 212 212

Plot summary

On the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, tourists flock to pristine beaches, with little knowledge that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition. The Price of Sugar follows a charismatic Spanish priest, Father Christopher Hartley, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people, challenging the powerful interests profiting from their work. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate, at what human cost they are produced and ultimately, where our responsibility lies.

Director

Bill Haney Photo
Bill Haney

Top cast

Paul Newman Photo
Paul Newman as Narrator
Christopher Hartley Photo
Christopher Hartley as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
826.75 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 29 min
Seeds ...
1.5 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 29 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by xochristinaxo16

In regards to the previous comment.

I have worked in these sugarcane fields, helping the people working there. I have seen and been told things that "researching" will not tell you. Of course living in the Dominican and getting attached to the Haitians you are going to have a bias especially if you're making a documentary. These people at times are forced into going to the Dominican. There are Dominican officials that there job is to find Haitians and bring them over. They are told that they are getting a good paying, decent job and then they are brought to the fields and aren't allowed to leave. There are guards with guns or machetes stopping them from leaving. How is that not slavery? Maybe before you go after a film you should visit and live in the culture and situation that is being filmed.
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Reviewed by dmacias666 10 / 10

Microcosm Of Xenophobia

I recommend this film for all people who are fearful of immigrants. I am sure that you will find the absurdity in the fear the Dominicans feel for Haitians. These two groups resemble one another that it boggle the mind that they fail to see that they have many attributes in common. If you come away with this same observation then asked yourself what sets you apart from any immigrant group. They want what you want, and they have the same needs. The differences between them and US citizens will evaporate in a single generation.

The Haitian hate groups should be ashamed of their behavior, but no more than any American-first organization. We live in the same world, we breath the same air, and we share a common DNA. And like the Xenophobic Haitians, you benefit from the labor of immigrants.

The son of an immigrant woman

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