USA / 1990 / 90mins / Documentary / English

A fascinating exposé of Florida’s sugar cane industry guest worker program Winner of the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, H-2 Worker reveals the systematic exploitation of Caribbean laborers by the Florida sugar industry from World War II through the 1990s. Each year more than 10,000 foreign workers were granted temporary guest worker (“H-2”) visas to spend six brutal months cutting sugar cane near Lake Okeechobee. They were housed in overcrowded barracks, denied adequate treatment for frequent on-the-job injuries, and paid less than minimum wage. Faced with deportation and soaring unemployment in their home countries, workers had little recourse but to silently accept these deplorable conditions.

Stephanie Black

Stephanie Black is an American award-winning American documentary film director and producer. She produced and directed H-2 Worker (1990) which documents the 10,000+ Caribbean men brought to Florida each year under a temporary guest-worker "H-2" visa to harvest sugar cane for American sugar corporations. H-2 Worker won Best Documentary Award and Best Cinematography Awards at Sundance Film Festival in 1990. H-2 Worker was the US representative in the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes International Film Festival in 1990. In addition the film was the winner of the John Grierson Award at the American Film and Video Festival in 1991 and Special Gold Jury Award at the Houston Film Festival 1991. Life and Debt won numerous awards including Los Angeles Critics Jury Awards; Best Film of the Festival-Audience Award, Prague, Czech 2002; Winner Best Film Teen Jury, Torino, Italy; Winner One World Media Awards, UK; Winner Jury Prize, Human Rights Festival Paris, France 2004; Winner Best Documentary, Jamerican Film Festival 2001. In 2008, she produced and directed Africa Unite, a feature-length musical documentary on Bob Marley's 60th birthday celebration in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia for the Marley family. Learn More