SERVITUDE

Feature-length documentary on contemporary slave labor, with a focus on the Brazilian Amazon. Rural workers who were enslaved on deforestation fronts in northern Brazil and contemporary abolitionists of different strands relate their experiences and opinions in this film. Although working conditions analogous to slavery are considered a crime under the Brazilian Penal Code, the regime of servitude has been practiced in Brazil for five centuries. The Áurea Law might have formally abolished slavery, though it did not transform labor relations in Brazil, many of which have endured as modern forms of enslavement. Narrated by Negra Li, SERVITUDE is a hard-hitting record of one of Brazil’s most serious issues.