If you're fond of sand dunes and salt sea air, Jamaica is undoubtedly the place for you. Yet, after watching Stephanie Black's rousing documentary, you might think twice before booking a flight to the Caribbean.
Opening with shots of beaches, sunrises, and the surf crashing onto the golden sand of Jamaica's shore, the idyll is quickly shattered as Black cuts to civil unrest, helicopter gunships, and an angry indictment of the forces of globalisation.
Black's argument is eminently simple. Since Jamaica was granted independence in the 60s, the island has been pillaged by the blatant injustices of the global economy.
Caught between economic ruin and the cruel reality of asking the International Monetary Fund for assistance, Jamaica's potentially fertile soil has been ravaged by a veritable locust swarm of corporate greed and international trade rulings.
Interviewing farmers, politicians, and IMF spokesmen, this documentary lays the bare facts out in stark terms. Since the 60s Jamaica has spiralled into the red as the national debt has risen from $800 million at the end of the 70s to $7 billion at the time of filming.
With the local currency devalued, the national export trade squeezed dry by (mainly) American corporations, and 48 cents of every government tax dollar used to pay off the nation's staggering interest loans, it's pretty obvious that Jamaica's been sold down the river by the international community. It has left the country - as one farmer puts it - "at the will of the monster".
As an expose of such international carpetbagging, "Life + Debt" is brilliant stuff.
But by failing to get tough with her interviewees, taking dubious swipes at the tourist industry, and never offering a single plan for resistance (however pragmatic), Black's angry, partisan style of filmmaking misses the opportunity to ask us to do anything more than shake our heads in despair.
Life + Debt (2003)
