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10/18/08
Life and Debt (2001)
90
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:42
Fresh:38
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.3/10
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: LIFE AND DEBT is a searing documentary from director Stephanie Black that examines the ways that policies of the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.), the World Bank, and other aid organizations... [More]
Director: Stephanie Black
Reviews for Life and Debt
Top CriticPowerfully illustrates what globalization has been doing to underdeveloped countries around the world.
08/20/07
It is an instructive story of exploitation.
08/20/07
This case study of globalization's effects on Jamaica is a timely, never dull piece of agitprop that comes off as a cross between Godard's social protest docs and The Harder They Come.
08/20/07
Top CriticStephanie Black puts into context the differences between the Jamaica seen by tourists and the country inhabited by its oppressed people.
10/05/06
Talking heads are intercut to synthesise theory and practice, but as an economic diatribe this is a bit patronising and not wholly persuasive.
06/24/06
As documentaries about economics go, this one is way, way up at the top.
02/25/04
Its potent message deserves to be heard.
08/06/03
Try to imagine the most boring lecture you've ever sat through, and you might have a vague conception of what it's like watching Life and Debt.
08/01/03
Here is a documentary that should be mandatory viewing for anyone interested in globalisation that, war or no war, remains one of the most contentious issues of our times.
03/25/03
Top CriticPuts a human face — many human faces — on the debt crisis and the effects of open trade on a Third World country.
03/11/03
A powerful, intelligently-assembled documentary from American director Stephanie Black, which explores the devastating impact of globalisation upon the Caribbean island of Jamaica.
03/04/03
As an expose of such international carpetbagging, Life + Debt is brilliant stuff.
02/26/03
However attractive the axe to grind, the haphazard lacework of narration, filmed television screen, disconnected scenes and endless headshots do not make for cinema, documentary or otherwise.
12/08/02
A must-see for everyone who wants to understand the human cost of globalization.
10/21/02
It is provocative and highly resonant, and informative without being dry or terminally academic.
10/10/02
Fairly harsh, sobering stuff.
07/12/02
I found myself daydreaming, looking at my watch, dozing off.
04/14/02
An eye-opener and a primer on why the IMF and the World Bank are not to be trusted by emerging third-world countries.
03/10/02
Black's tactics are heavy-handed, but her ability to efficiently organize the complex material at hand and capture telling imagery makes Life and Debt an equally elegant and vitriolic diatribe.
03/03/02
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