Sweet and Sour

You associate sugar with purity, childhood, and most importantly, dessert. What doesn’t enter your consciousness when pawing through the baking aisle is how the crystalline sweet stuff can be grown and refined, packaged, and shipped, and then sold for $1.15 a bag here in the U.S. (A hint: Unlike the source of most of life’s problems, robots are not the responsible parties.)

In the new documentary Sugar Babies, the inner workings of this tumultuous industry are exposed, revealing a horrific view of the lives of thousands of slave workers. Smuggled into the Dominican Republic from Haiti under the promise of a more prosperous future, the displaced laborers cut cane at wages that make luxuries like food unattainable. The children of these workers are reared in the work camps with little access to medication, education, and often nutrition — aside from the sugar cane their family has cut. Get the full story today when Sugar Babies screens at Cinema Paradiso (503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale). Call 954-525-FILM, or visit www.fliff.com. Tickets range $5 to $8.
Sun., July 6, 2008