H-2 Worker
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name = H-2 Worker
| image =
| caption =
| director = Stephanie Black
| producer = Stephanie Black
| writer =
| narrator =
| starring =
| music = Various, including "H-2 Worka" by Mutabaruka
| cinematography = Maryse Alberti
| editing = John Mullen
| studio =
| distributor = New Video
| released = {{Film date|1990}}
| runtime = 67 min
| country = United States
| language = English
| gross =
}}
H-2 Worker is a 1990 documentary film about the exploitation of Jamaican guest workers in Florida's sugar cane industry. It was directed by Stephanie Black, and won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for documentaries in the 1990 festival.{{cite web|url=http://festival.sundance.org/2009/history/ |title=Sundance Festival: History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227154305/http://festival.sundance.org/2009/history |archive-date=February 27, 2009 }} It was shot in Belle Glade, Clewiston, and Okeelanta, Florida, as well as Jamaica and includes cane fields and worker camps (Ritta Village, Prewitt Village) owned by US Sugar Corporation and the Okeelanta Corporation.
The cane harvesters were brought in to perform the autumn harvest of sugar cane under the H-2A visa program. The Jamaicans replaced earlier generations of Bahamian seasonal workers who in turn replaced migrant labor recruited from the Cotton Belt in the first half of the 20th century. A documentary short that accompanies the DVD version of the film states that human labor was abandoned for mechanical harvesters in 1992.
The film features interviews with a United States Department of Labor official, a Florida Sugar Cane League official, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, local merchants, and a dozen or so field workers. It also includes footage of César Chávez, US Representative Thomas Downey, and US Senator Bill Bradley.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0123097}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-ach|aw}}
{{succession box
| title=Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
| years=1990
| before=For All Mankind
| after=American Dream}}
{{end}}
{{Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary}}
Category:1990 documentary films
Category:American documentary films
Category:Documentary films about agriculture in the United States
Category:Documentary films about the labor movement
Category:Films shot in Florida
Category:Documentary films about Florida
Category:1990s English-language films
Category:Sundance Film Festival award–winning films
Category:English-language documentary films
Category:Sugar industry of Florida
Category:Jamaican diaspora in the United States
Category:Documentary films about sugar
{{environment-documentary-film-stub}}