"The Charcoal People"
1999
Directed by Nigel Noble

Academy Award-winning director Nigel Noble's devastating documentary about the peasant workers who make charcoal for Brazil's steel industry documents the injustices of economics in the world as well as any film in recent memory. Plagued by lung disease and poor nutrition, these workers still barely make a living from their backbreaking labor. The film addresses the dual exploitation of their occupation--the workers are cut down almost as severely as the rain forests their work destroys. Portuguese with English subtitles. 70 minutes.