Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary focuses on real people and tells the powerful story of anarchist chocolate maker, Mott Green and the Grenada Chocolate Company he began. This farmers' and workers' cooperative is a tree-to-bar factory on the Caribbean island of Grenada and turns out organic and ethical chocolate creations. Our world is saturated with industrial chocolate often made with cocoa harvested by exploited child labor. This film also features Nelice Stewart, an independent cocoa farmer in Grenada, and it presents an intimate portrait of the parallel lives of Mott and Nelice. The factory draws on solar power, employee shareholding and small-scale antique equipment to make delicious, organic, and socially conscious chocolate. Each step in the production process, from cocoa pod to candy bar, involves sustainable methods aimed at empowering the community of farmers and the workers involved. We see globalization at its best and sustainability, which has the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being and which involves ecological, economic, political, and cultural dimensions.

The interview and video techniques and effects are interesting and add another dimension to Mott’s and Nelice’s stories. Editing of the scenes was effective. This DVDis suitable for high school and college students as well as all adults, and libraries will want to provide for interested viewers of all ages as well as students and researchers.