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Poto Mitan Haitian Women: Pillars of the Global Economy. 50 minutes. 2009. Mary Becker, executive producer. Documentary Educational Resources. Center for Black Studies. 101 Morse Street Watertown, MA 02472. http://potomltan.net/. $195.00 (purchase).
Now as never before, Poto Mitán Haitian Women: Pillars of the Global Economy is needed in the classroom. An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. The immense devastation and its aftermath still capture the popular imagination. Many American households have donated to Haiti; students and campus organizations have also contributed to this impetus. Yet despite extensive reports, there is little information about the women of Haiti, the pillars of the global economy as the film illuminates. Raw but not crude, stark yet not simplistic, this film illustrates how, even prior to the earthquake, global and national factors impact the everyday lives of low-income Haitian women, intensifying their struggle against poverty.
In one poignant scene, we see a mother who lives in a single room with her child, ironing his school uniform on the bed and polishing his shoes so that he can go to school despite the squalor of the urban neighborhood in which they live. Another scene depicts a woman wading through a garbage-ridden pool to get scraps. Scavenging is, in fact, a major occupation of the poor all over...