Micro-Activity #13: Drafting the Annotations

Altan, Daffodil, et al. “COVID’S Hidden Toll.” PBS, 21 July 2020, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/covids-hidden-toll/. Accessed 15 October 2020.

“COVID’s Hidden Toll” is an almost hour-long Documentary which was Produced by Daffodil, Andrés Cediel, and Maria José Calderón and was released on July 21, 2020. This Documentary speaks on the treatment of not only farmworkers but also meat packaging workers during the global COVID pandemic the world is currently facing. Most of these farmworkers are undocumented and are considered essential workers, they harvest and pick out the vegetables that the majority of the people in the nation use to feed themselves and their families. I believe the main point of this documentary was to shine a light on the undocumented workers who risk their lives to provide not only for their families but for families all over the nation and how they are not being as protected as they should be. Without these workers, the agriculture industry would have a downfall, nobody would be working in these fields and the food supply would come to a drastic cut. Companies and contractors hiring these workers need to take the correct measures to make sure their employees are not only safe but to make sure that the fruit and vegetables they are harvesting are safe to consume.  What the Producers did to gain perspective of how bad things really are in these fields, was they decided to interview actual workers, some decided to put themselves out there and others remained anonymous because they feared what the consequences may be. Not only did they interview the workers they also had doctors explain the risk of having so many people working so close together and how that could start a chain reaction which will make the cases of COVID increase, but these workers are also the ones that should be protected the most during these tough and dangerous times.

I personally agree with the issues this documentary points out because it becomes difficult for these workers to not contract the virus. They are working in unsanitary conditions, they work in groups of at least 30 people, and they run the risk of getting their family sick, and they work long hours just to barely get enough money to survive.  One of the anonymous workers says“ It doesn’t feel like we’re essential workers, it feels like we’re slaves” this comes from a young man who is just trying to make some money so he could help his family and this is the reality for most of these worker’s. One of the companies that had the most cases for COVID was Tanimura & Antle the producer Daffodil Altan says “… we wanted to talk to the company about the infections and what they were doing to protect workers, but they did not respond.” With such a serious virus going around and infecting these workers you would expect companies like these to have something to say. This made me question, why these companies don’t speak up on the treatment of their workers? Are they afraid of the problems it may cause or do they just not care enough? After watching this documentary what I want to look more in-depth to better understand is why most of these workers are undocumented and also what kind of lawsuits or boycotts have happened. If I could say anything to the producers of this documentary it would be why field workers? What made you decide to expose the life of undocumented workers in fields to the world? 

What this documentary tells me about my question is that if these fields were to close down due to the number of workers getting infected by COVID  where would we all get our food? How would we survive? But at the same time how different would it be if companies and contractors actually took care of their workers and made sure they got proper treatment on time. For me the style of the documentary was interesting because of how it was put together it goes back and forth between the worker’s point of view to the point of view of the people trying to help these workers, there is a narrator that explains to the audience the issues which makes it easier for the audience to catch up with what’s happening, they also include subtitles in English because the interviews of the workers are in Spanish. The Producers audience would be  anyone that isn’t a field worker and the purpose would be to expose an issue that may be considered modern day slavery, just becuase these workers are undocumented they get exploited and payed below minum wage, not only that but thier human rights aren’t respected and they fear to speak up due to their legal status. This genre is effective because instead of reading the audince gets to see first hand how badly undocumented field workers get treated, you get to see the brutal truth of the lives of people that are considered “invisible” in this country. One quote that I feel is important and useful is “ This essential worker, a lot of them do in fact live in fear they don’t want people to know that they are here undocumented. There’s that fear that “I could be gone tomorrow if I’m taken away, and what’s going to happen to my family?” It’s a horrible kind of fear the people learn to live with.” which is said by Dr Max Cuevas minute 8:48. This quote seemed important to me because it points out what the documentary is mainly about. The fear these workers have to live with knowing they are replaceable, that no matter how badly they get treated they can’t say nothing because they can’t afford to either get deported or lose their jobs all they are trying to do is provide for their families.