Arquivo

A full-length documentary that dissects the hard lives of the itinerant harvesters who eke out a living cutting sugar cane in the midwest of the state of São Paulo. Together with other information, the film includes the fact that, of the almost 230 million tons of sugar cane Brazil produces yearly, manually, one single worker can actually cut 20 tons of cane a day. Moreso: the average payment is R$ 0,10 per square meter cut. In Cane for Life investigates what may be the last generation of sugar-cane cutters in the history of Brazil in that, by determination of the federal government, all of the harvest must be mechanical by the year 2010. The director and his team spent four months in plantations in the region of Dois Córregos, holding interviews and following along closely with the day-to-day life of the laborers for whom illiteracy, the absence of access to health, and exploiting of non-qualified labor are a common denominator. Among the statements, two women laborers call attention in that they fulfilled a dream - to go to McDonald’ in Bauru.