SHIPBREAKERS
Price: $265.00 Code: 2141 |
Directed by: Michael Kot
2004, 42 minutes
Purchase: $265 Classroom Rental: $125
Closed Captioned
Welcome to Alang, India, the site of a gargantuan scrap yard where oceangoing ships come to die. Forty thousand Indians live and work here, dismembering and scavenging the hulks of 400 vessels every year. Shipbreakers is an extraordinary documentary that chronicles the lives of the people who work here, from the men who take apart these giant ships with their bare hands to the bosses, who ignore environmental and health concerns for fear of losing the business to other developing nations. It may be the world's most dangerous job. One worker a day, on average, dies on the job, evaporated in explosions, crushed by falling steel, cut in half by cables or broken up from falls. Of the remainder, one in four will contract cancers caused by asbestos, PCBs and other toxic substances. Vividly capturing both the haunting beauty of the ships and the deplorable conditions of the workers, Shipbreakers is an international story of greed, survival, Third World labor, and environmental neglect.
* Deborah Fletcher Award, Canadian International Development Agency
"Shipbreakers is a mesmerizing film as compelling for its visuals as it is for its insights. At times what it reveals is shocking and almost surreal yet it never loses sight of the humanity at the core of the film." - Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
"Highly recommended for Asian, environmental and labor relation studies." Educational Media Reviews Online
2004, 42 minutes
Purchase: $265 Classroom Rental: $125
Closed Captioned
Welcome to Alang, India, the site of a gargantuan scrap yard where oceangoing ships come to die. Forty thousand Indians live and work here, dismembering and scavenging the hulks of 400 vessels every year. Shipbreakers is an extraordinary documentary that chronicles the lives of the people who work here, from the men who take apart these giant ships with their bare hands to the bosses, who ignore environmental and health concerns for fear of losing the business to other developing nations. It may be the world's most dangerous job. One worker a day, on average, dies on the job, evaporated in explosions, crushed by falling steel, cut in half by cables or broken up from falls. Of the remainder, one in four will contract cancers caused by asbestos, PCBs and other toxic substances. Vividly capturing both the haunting beauty of the ships and the deplorable conditions of the workers, Shipbreakers is an international story of greed, survival, Third World labor, and environmental neglect.
Subjects & Collections
Festivals & Awards
* American Library Association, 2006 Notable Video for Adults* Deborah Fletcher Award, Canadian International Development Agency
Reviews
“A spectacle of exploitation the scale of which calls for viewing on a large screen… Shipbreakers lays out these issues clearly, in an unhurried and somber fashion.” - New Labor Forum"Shipbreakers is a mesmerizing film as compelling for its visuals as it is for its insights. At times what it reveals is shocking and almost surreal yet it never loses sight of the humanity at the core of the film." - Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun
"Highly recommended for Asian, environmental and labor relation studies." Educational Media Reviews Online