Screened at this year’s Durban International Film Festival, the documentary Semisweet: Life in Chocolate shows that not everything about chocolate is sugary and delicious.
Neither the producer nor the director of Semisweet: Life in Chocolate is a chocoholic. In fact, the idea for the film was spawned years ago when Canadian producer Lalita Krishna began to research child labour on cocoa farms.
Says Krishna: “All my films deal with children’s rights so in 2007 when someone mentioned to me that 65% of the world’s cocoa comes from Cote d’Ivoire in Africa, I looked at how cocoa is farmed. I discovered that hundreds of thousands of children, some as young as six, run away from countries like Burkina Faso and Mali to work on cacao plantations in Cote d’Ivoire in the hopes of making their fortune. Other children are abducted and sold as plantation workers.
“The conditions on the plantations are brutal and inhumane. Some children never return to their countries and those that do come home virtually empty-handed.
“There is a whole mystery around the supply of cocoa and many of the big chocolate manufacturers in the world are in denial about it. I wanted someone who could tell this story in a truthful but quirky way because, given that chocolate is such a universal and loved product, the film had to be palatable.’
For this reason Krishna chose fellow Canadian Michael Allcock to direct. Most of Allcock’s previous work was scripting docu-dramas on a range of complex and layered subject matter. Krishna felt Allcock would be able to compress her two years of research into a compelling film.
Semisweet has four threads running through it, linking three continents – Africa, Europe and North America.
The un-fair trade
During the film’s development phase Krishna and Allcock went to Burkina Faso to speak to children and youths who’d worked on cacao plantations. Heart-breaking stories emerged.
“It’s almost like a rite of passage for these kids; they think if they run away and work on cacao plantations they will be able to buy a new shirt or dress. Kids on cacao plantations work in horrific conditions – they’re beaten and forced to handle banned toxic pesticides which can cause paralysis of the limbs. Some of these kids even die.
“We sourced two young girls, Awa and Mia, who at age nine fell prey to plantation recruiters. Luckily their father rescued them just before they crossed the border into Cote d’Ivoire. Now the girls are 12 years old and employed as domestic workers, but all they actually want to do is go to school,’ explains Krishna.
In the film brick maker Noufou and fisherman Mamoutou recount their hazardous experiences on cacao plantations in their youth. Ironically, neither of them knew at the time what cacao beans are used for or what chocolate tastes like.
Artistry in chocolate
In Paris, Patrick Roger, voted the top chocolatier in France, is so passionate about chocolate that he even makes giant sculptures from chocolate, usually to create awareness around issues of sustainability.
One such sculpture is a giant orangutan, constructed to highlight the fact that this species faces extinction due to the rampant destruction of forests.
Patrick talks about his addiction to his chosen craft and how chocolate is all about temperature and temperament. He jokes that when he dies, his coffin will probably be made from chocolate.
Chocolate Aztec-style
Even more quirky than Patrick are Ron and Nadine, a couple living in a remote area of Ontario, Canada who hand make chocolate with organic, fair trade cacao beans.
They make the chocolate in the same way as the ancient Mayans and Aztecs; Ron even sings a Mayan chant as he demonstrates the production process.
The film shows Ron trying to offer his chocolate to astronauts, punting it as a nutrient-rich food full of anti-oxidants and ideal for space travel.
Disneyworld of chocolate
In complete contrast to the poverty and misery of plantation workers in Cote d’Ivoire is the town of Hershey in Pennsylvania, US. This is home of arguably America’s most famous chocolate, the Hershey Bar.
“Everything in Hershey is artificial, it’s a bit like The Stepford Wives,’ notes Krishna. They even have a Hershey amusement park, dubbed “The sweetest place on earth’.
“My film is not critical of Hershey neither is it investigative. Hershey did have some concerns about the film but only because they were in the process of shutting down a factory and laying off 500 workers.’
Dealing with the guilt
Semisweet is one aspect of a larger transmedia project as Krishna explains: “I’ve had people tell me I shouldn’t eat chocolate because of how cocoa is farmed. So, because I’m a filmmaker and not an NGO I had to find a way to consume chocolate without feeling guilty about it. We all want to eat more chocolate but there should be a responsibility attached to it.’
Krishna’s solution was to convene a focus group and start a website where people can tell their stories about chocolate – www.choco-locate.com.
The website, which also encompasses a geo-locating app, includes a listing of stores, the ingredients of their chocolate and how to pair chocolate with different food and drink.
By Joanna Sterkowicz
screen africa magazine – october 2012
