FILM
REVIEW
Turbulent Waters
A documentary
dedicated to Filipino migrant workers
Many are lured by the
promise of high pay for seafarers. But the film
Turbulent Waters takes
us back to reality by showing how this supposed lucrative
profession produced the galley slaves of the 21st
century.
BY
AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Many
are lured by the promise of high pay for seafarers. But the film
Turbulent Waters takes
us back to reality by showing how this supposed lucrative
profession produced the galley slaves of the 21st
century.
Seafarers look over the
sea from ship’s dock in a scene from Turbulent Waters |
The
72-munite film is a half-feature documentary on
seafarers’ lives completed
in five years, from 1999-2004. It has been shown in several film festivals
in Europe, North and South America, Africa and some countries in Asia.
“Festivals are like a
window, you’re not making money on it but are getting more people to see
the film,” said Canadian producer-director
Malcolm Guy. Guy is a Montreal-based
director/producer of documentaries and fiction films and is president of
Productions Multi-Monde, a
production house which he co-founded in 1987 with filmmaker Marie Boti.
|
The
film was dedicated to four Filipino migrants workers ─ whom Guy met in mid
90’s while doing his award-winning documentary Modern Heroes Modern
Slaves ─ but it was only this year that Turbulent Waters was
shown in the country.
The
making of the film
The
film Turbulent Waters was done on turbulent waters too much like
the lives and conditions of its subject, the seafarers, said Guy. Unlike
an ordinary film where artists are hired and venues are perfectly chosen,
the footages in the film are actual events unfolding and caught by
cameras.
Sept.
11, 2001 was their official first day of filming. But the 9-11 attacks on
the United States prevented them from doing so.
In an
interview with Bulatlat, Guy recalled the methods they tried to get
actual footages of distressed seafarers.
“They didn’t allow
them (seafarers) to get off the ship. They didn’t allow them to use the
phone. These had an impact on seafarers, of not being allowed to do these
things after months of being on the sea,” said Guy.
“We tried several
methods like going with a priest who goes on board. We tried to get on
board with vendors selling a whole bunch of everything. We tried going
with women who go onboard the ship,” he said. “What we realized after a
while was that the best way was to go with inspectors of the International
Transport Workers’ Foundation (ITF).”
They followed three
ITF inspectors ─ Myles Parsons, Sprite Zungu and Pascual Pouille ─ who
boarded ships in ports to investigate complaints they received.
Most of the footages
were shot in South Africa, France, and the Philippines.
Guy and
his production team were already staying for a month and were just about
to leave South Africa when Zungu received a call from the crew of the Cape
Lord, a huge Greek-owned bulk carrier transporting coal from Richard's
Bay, South Africa to Rotterdam. The Ukrainian crew members were
complaining of insufficient provisions and unpaid salaries for five
months.
“We thought it might
be a good one so we actually delayed our departure,” Guy said.
“Loads”
Turbulent Waters
tells the story of some of 1.2 million seafarers - equivalent to 21st
century galley-slaves - and of the turbulent seas they inhabit in the
world of corporate globalization
The
film begins with the loud horn of the ship’s engine, showing heavy cargos
transported from one end of the globe to another, with heavy machines
helping human resources run the trade.
“They are essential
cogs in the globalization machine, ensuring that billions of dollars worth
of cars, oranges, sugar and oil get delivered to your workplace and home,”
said Guy. “Yet they are invisible cogs - over 1 million from the
Philippines, India, Ukraine and China, on board for nine month contracts
(or longer) far from family and loved ones, often working months without
pay, sailing unsafe aging ships, and facing the possibility of injury and
even death.”
“That’s why we wanted
to show the quiet moments. There’s a lot of thinking and silence and
lonely times onboard the ship. As well as very exciting and hard work,”
said Guy.
Aside
from the material cargos, the ship also bears the seafarers’ “loads.”
These personal loads may be in the form of confinement onboard the ship,
overwork, non-payment of salaries, unfair labor practices, and even
inhumane treatment
The
film showed tension among crew members in two ships, the Cape Lord and the
MV Paul Rickmers.
Crew
members, mostly Ukrainians, in Cape Lord complained of unpaid salaries and
insufficient provisions. Seafarers on board the MV Paul Rickmers, who are
mostly Filipinos, complained of abuse of power and inhumane treatment by
Romanian officers.
Blacklisting and FOC
The
confrontation between ITF inspector Zungu and the ship’s superintendent
inside Cape Lord was tense. At first, ship officials questioned why they
were filming the discussions but the captain permitted them to continue
documenting. The representative of the ship’s owner later revealed that
they had the money for the salaries inside the ship. Some of the crew
members demanded that they be paid then left the ship. Others continued
working on the ship and were not paid until they docked at Algreciras in
Spain.
The ITF
can arrest the ship, like what happened to Cape Lord, while at the port
for unresolved complaints filed by the crew. Delays in loading or
unloading, caused by the arrest of the ship, cost the owners thousands of
dollars.
But the
ITF could not guarantee that complainants would not be blacklisted. The
practice of blacklisting is an underground policy among recruitment
agencies and ship owners. Manning
agencies blacklist seafarers for speaking out against their employers
thereby preventing them from being hired in the industry again.
Blacklisted seafarers' files and photos are distributed to all manning
agencies.
Another
cause of seafarers’ woes, said Guy, is the practice of using flags of
convenience (FOC).
A flag of convenience
is a flag of one country flown by a ship owned by a citizen of another
country. The ITF maintains a list of countries that use their flag for
this purpose.
Based on the PMM
website, one fifth of the total number of vessels are FOC ships. FOC
ships account for over half of worldwide ship losses. The annual death
rate among seafarers is almost twice as high on FOC ships as on legally
registered ships, it said..Generally, FOCs enable ship owners to avoid
taxes, practice transfer pricing, avoid trade unions, recruit
non-domiciled seafarers and passport holders at very low wage rates, avoid
payment of welfare and social security contributions for their crews, and
avoid strictly applied safety and environmental standards.
Filipino seafarers
In the case of MV
Paul Rickmers, it was chief cook John de Guzman who called the ITF to air
their complaints. They expressed their plan to go on strike. ITF inspector
Parsons encouraged them to go on with their plan but reminded them of the
need to stay united and told them that they could get outside support.
The strike was staged
at the port of Montoir, East coast of France. Fifteen Filipinos protested
onboard the ship. They were happy when they saw that dock workers and
stevedores supported their cause.
“They decided to make
a stand. The conditions were not good, the food had been their problem.
The food is really important. It takes much courage because you know the
consequences. That is the challenge of struggles,” said Guy.
Despite the initial
victory of the protest, De Guzman and his fellow seafarers have been
blacklisted back in the Philippines. Luckily, de Guzman was rehired by
another shipping company and has earned his employer’s respect, the film
said.
“There are other
nationalities who went on strike but the Filipinos, they were brave. They
stopped working. It has an impact on the owner,” he added. “And
considering it was their first (time to protest).”
Guy
said that Filipinos comprise 30 percent, and often the youngest, of ships’
crew. Aside from their numbers and being good in the English language, Guy
said that the Philippine government’s labor export policy has forced many
Filipinos to seek jobs abroad.
In
fact, the film showed thousand of applicants lining up at agencies in
Manila everyday. Despite the agencies’ membership with the
Associated Marine Officers' and Seamen's
Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), the film showed recruiters prohibiting
applicants from joining unions and threatening
them with blacklisting.
Money making
Guy
said that the ITF had its temporary office in Manila because “it (AMOSUP)
does nothing.” But it was “forcibly shut down,” he said.
“With AMOSUP
defending the Filipino seafarers, they are not going to get justice,” Guy
said.
Meanwhile, as the
film drew to a close, Myles Parsons sets off on a harbor craft to rescue
desperate crew members from the Maldives who have been trapped on their
ship for over 18 months.
“We are
making the film to give a voice to an invisible community (they rarely
disembark on our shores) that ensures the transport of the 90% of the
products we consume daily. They are at the centre of globalization, yet
they are also confronting one of the driving forces of globalization - the
shipping industry - in their struggles for better working conditions and
just treatment,” the PMM website said.
Guy said that migrant
workers are the heart of the global economy and are being used as “huge
money-making machines.” If united, he said “it’s a powerful force to
mobilize.” Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
