Recife, Brazil: Film Analysis

1. The beginning of the documentary shows the victims of poverty in Recife, Brazil. A family of 6 has to struggle to even get by. The woman says, “My husband’s been unemployed for 5 years. Now to survive, he’s selling bottles of mineral water in the streets for 1 real each,” which is the equivalence of $0.50. The man recounts on his situation as a result of being laid off and says, “I used to have a job delivering gas but they started to cut and cut the personnel and staff. Now, I’m here making a living any way I can.” Their circumstances are incredibly sad and unfortunate. They used to live by the beach, but now they are forced to live in a one room basement without sanitation. It’s sad how they are confined and debilitated by poverty in which they have to live in inhumane conditions. To make the situation even worse, they sleep on the floor. They are so improvised that when their daughter passed away due to an accident at only 9 months, they had to beg for money to bury her body. The woman says, “We look forward to the time when we’re not struggling to bring food home.”
Jaime de Amorim from Brazil is the coordinator of Landless People Movement and he comments on the situation and says that the growers view the workers as nothing other than slaves. In addition, the workers do not rebel so it is much easier for growers to gain wealth compared to the period of slavery when “the boss was the slave’s owner.” He continues by saying, “He had to take care of the slave’s health and food; he had to take care of shelter even if it was the slave’s quarters.” Unlike today, the boss does not bother to involve himself in such and “he just has to drive the truck to the outskirts of the city; the truck loads up, he takes them back. No more worries. Once the cutting is done, the worker, who lives on the outskirts, has to find another way of surviving, selling popsicles or popcorn. Kids go into prostitution, into drugs; they go find other alternatives in the world of