| Summary: | Soros Documentary Fund
A documentary exploring the lives of thousands of migrant laborers employed to cut down Brazilian forests and produce charcoal for the multi-national pig-iron industry. Like most indentured servants, charcoal workers are taught their trade at an early age by their parents. They live away from loved ones for the majority of the year, and visit them to pay off the local debts before returning to work, sometimes 1,000 miles away. There is little chance for an education. As elders become feeble, the new generations must pick up the slack. Every adult wants a better life for his children, but the pattern of a life of labor is a vicious cycle that can't be escaped unless you're willing to starve. Against this backdrop of hard living, a dichotomous situation arises: destroying the natural resources every day in the production of charcoal and yet if the environmentalists have their way, thousands of families will be ousted from the only livelihood they know. What is to be done?
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