The Film
The Charcoal People
The Story
This deeply human documentary examines the subject of environmental destruction, highlighting the impoverished migrant workers who are chopping down the Amazon rainforest to create charcoal for pig iron production used primarily in the automobile industry. The film examines the children and elders and their daily lives and work as they burn timber in igloo-looking huts, their bodies charred gray for $2 a day, struggling to survive.
melodramatic gloomy ghoulish familiar cruel complicated celebratory bold bewildered baffled ambivalent critical wistful clinical complex philosophical zealous hopeless migrant worker environmental destruction nostalgic burlesque child labor environment ecology poverty automobile industry amazon rainforest melancholy iron
Runtime
64 min
Released Jan 2000
