Stephanie Black's documentary reveals that the plantation mentality is still alive and well in Florida, where the serene beauty of the cane fields belies a life of near-peonage for the field workers. Americans won't do it (for five dollars an hour, minus transportation and housing), so each year, some 10,000 Jamaican workers are flown in on seasonal (H-2) visas to do the grueling work of cutting down the tall cane. Floridians and tourists who have become used to seeing the barracks that dot the roadside may not know that the men who live there are not allowed to leave for more than 24 hours at a stretch, and cannot travel more than 30 miles from the site. Still, they return, year after year, with scant profit to show for their labors. Clandestinely shot interviews with the workers and letters home provide the film's text. "Black poignantly illustrates the dramatic difference between promise and reality. A bitter film about sugar." (MOMA, New Directors/New Films, 1990)