Educational Media Reviews Online

The opening scene of Turbulent Waters, a collage of roiling ocean, sea birds, ship gauges, turbines and cargo containers, sets the stage for the filmmakers’ exploration of working conditions in the global merchant marine fleet. The film reveals the dark side of global shipping, where over one million seafarers from places such as the Philippines, Ukraine and China work on cargo ships, many of them flying under flags of convenience that limit the taxes, regulations and liabilities of the shipping companies. The filmmakers argue that the people who work on the ships have become the modern equivalent of galley slaves, kept powerless because of their own desperation for work, racial and language differences between crews and officers on board, ignorance of rights, company policies that blacklist those who complain, and company manipulation of contracts. These seafarers are not without allies, however, and the film shows the efforts of the International Transport Federation to inspect conditions, answer complaints, and negotiate with crews and company representatives.

The film’s strength is its ability to demonstrate the negotiations of the IFT on behalf of the seafarers—a phone call from Vancouver to the French port of Brest concerning complaints by a Filipino crew about abuse by the Romanian captain, or a Russian crew meeting with a company spokesperson and an IFT representative in South Africa over lack of pay—the appearance and demeanor of the crewmembers making their desperation palpable. Filmed at sea and ports of call on four continents, Turbulent Waters is an important film because it brings to light and makes visual a world too few people are familiar with; yet, in our global era of international shipping, are inseparable from.