The Non Violence International Film Festival 2008

As tourists flock to the pristine beaches of the Dominican Republic, little do they know that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Cutting cane by machete, they work 14 hour days, 7 days a week, frequently without access to decent housing, electricity, clean water, education, healthcare or adequate nutrition. The Price of Sugar follows a charismatic Spanish priest, Father Christopher Hartley, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people, challenging the powerful interests profiting from their work. Narrated by Paul Newman, the film is a disturbing, emotionally riveting, and a yet-optimistic look at this human rights atrocity and the human cost of what we put sugar on our cereal.