The film starts of as two filmmakers go to the sahara and meet and interview a little girl and her family, and discuss life and how they live down there. Little did the two filmmakers know that she was a slave and so was everyone else in the the sahara and morocco. The little girl and other slaves where not aloud to tell anyone about this, or there would be dyer consequences with them or there families. This has also been going on for some time generations after generations, and nothings being done about it. There where some brave men who stood up and spoke about it with the two filmmakers. They speak about the slaves having to cook for the master which they address them as there own family. They are some times beaten and punished if they do not follow orders. The rebel slaves also talk about how many of them have papers that says they are officially free, but in reality they are not really free. They cannot escape or flee because they are in fear that the government will hurt there family, making them trapped.
The government down there starts to find out about the secret being spoken out on video tape and started threatening the people in the "camp" they call it. The government tries to get ahold of the video tapes, which were buried underground. The government over there pretty much tries to deny everything about slaves down there, but the evidence is there but its just not being presented to the public, until now. The government later on the film gets ahold of the video tapes, and only leave a few left for them to put a documentary together. Which I thought was kinda odd, why didn't they just take all of the tapes? I was thinking maybe the producers have the film, but didn't want to start too much trouble by putting it out there for everyone because it could come back on the people of sahara and harm them and others.
Overall the film was a clear wake up call that racism and slavery is going on in the world. Most likely its going on in other parts of the world as well, which hurts to say. I wish everyone could watch this film and talk about it, and hopefully will stir up the public and some thing will be done. Stuff like this should never be tolerated at all, and makes me sick.
Oh wow, this movie sounds really good. I knew there were factories where people were paid extremely low wages but I had no idea that there was still any trace of slavery left in the world. And I completely agree with you about everybody needing to see this movie, it's really true that people now-a-days need to be informed because who knows if the next eneration will even be well educated on the past role slavery had in the US. Without that education could then cause a circle in events or at least a circle of racism and in tune bring slavery back in some way shape or form. I wish that wasn't the truth but sadly it is. This movie sounds really interesting, I'm gonna look it up and see if its playing anymore.
ReplyDeleteThis does sound like a good movie. It's a shame how we as humans go through our daily routines and don't give the rest of the world a thought. I had no idea there was any slavery still going on. I agree with Nick that I have heard about slave labor, but not to the extent of this review. I know for a fact that racism is still alive and kicking, see my blog from April about a small town in Texas.http://taketwo-beckerginn.blogspot.com/2010/04/paris-texas-trapped-in-time.html I was totally blown away by this and it has really made me more aware of whats going on. Thank goodness for this class! I would still be walking around and not paying attention, had I not gotten this gentle slap of reality.
ReplyDeleteYes, the sad part about this is that the only step we can take as far as doing any thing about it is being aware and telling others about it and what's going on. There is so little that can be done about stuff like this, one would not have a clue what to do by him or her self. If anything serious is to be do, it is to be done by a group effort with authority.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes becky, thank heavens for this class and for the insight that it gives us on everything around us. It like being unplugged from "The Matrix" hah.
it is really shocking for me to hear that there is slavery around (and I am sure that I am not the only one). Like Nick said, I know there are still many work places that pay their employees very low wages (especially in China). Some of the amount of these wages are even lower than my monthly allowence>< But often with a low wage like this the employees are often offered a place to stay with free food. I am not quite sure if this could be considered as a form of slavery. But it would definitely be an important topic for discussion and improvements
ReplyDeleteGood job. I would like to see some more discussion of connections to the class. The government's effort to cover this up reminds me of "Birth of a Nation." DW Griffiths portrayed slavery as a good thing and the freedom of slaves as dangerous and chaotic. Although that wasn't a government film, it was a dominant culture effort to justify slavery.
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