Films About Indentureship

Blackbird (2016), 13 mins, Director: Amie Batalibasi. Drama about the kidnapping of Solomon Islanders to work on sugarcane plantations in Queensland, Australia.

Brown Sugar (2013), 120mins, Director: Mahadeo Shivraj. Tale of love, devotion and social injustice on a sugar plantation in Guyana.

Brown Sugar Too Bitter for Me 2 – The Oil Dream (2020), 149mins, Director: Mahadeo Shivraj. Drama of raw greed and power confronting the pathos and humanity of the poor.

Chutney in Yuh Soca: A Multicultural Mix 1996, 21 mins, Director: Karen Martinez. Arts documentary examining the phenomenon of Chutney Soca.

City on the Hill (2015), Director: Perry Polar. Film about cultural heritage in East Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Coconut/Cane and Cutlass (1998), 32 mins, Director: Michelle Mohabeer. Hybrid documentary  shot on location in Guyana, communicating a complex, lyrical and touching rumination on exile and displacement. Narrated from the point-of view of a mixed race Indo-Caribbean lesbian.

Coolie Pink and Green (2009), 25 mins, Directors: Patricia Mohammed & Michael Mooleedhar. A girl of Indo-Caribbean descent in Trinidad is torn between the ancient culture of her ancestors and the multicultural world in which is growing up.

Coolies: How Britain Re-Invented Slavery (2002), 58 mins, Producers: Michael Poole & David Olusoga. BBC Four documentary about Indian Indentureship.

Dal Puri Diaspora, (2012), 81 mins, Director: Richard Fung. Documentary about a culinary quest to discover how this spicy flat bread was born.

Des Chinois en Guyane et en Martinique and Des Guyanais et des Martiniquais en Chine (2009), 52 mins, Director : Jill Servant. Two-part documentary about Chinese indentured labourers in the Caribbean.

Doubles with Slight Pepper (2011), 16 mins, Director: Ian Harnarine. Short drama about a young street food vendor in Trinidad.

Enslaved (1999), 60 mins, Director: William G. Wagner. Drama tracing the origins of slavery from indentured servants onwards.

Festival of Lights (2010), 120 mins, Director: Shundell Prasad. Drama of girl who journeys from New York to Guyana to discover the truth about her family’s mysterious past.

Guiana 1838 (2004), 120 mins, Director: Rohib Jagessar. Drama about indentured immigrants in the Caribbean.

I, Coolie (2019), 15 mins, Director: Arnica E. Miakista. Documentary about Indian Indentured Women in South Africa.

Jahaji Bhai  (2012?), 50 mins, Director: Suresh Pillai. Documentary about the journey from colonisation to Afro-Indian conflicts in Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana.

Kala Pani, la maledictions des eaux noires, (2004a), 52mins, Directors: Cesar, G.,  Thorabully, K. & Bauer, B. Documentary about  Indian indentureship.

Kalimaï Mariamam, la traverse des 7 mers, (2004b), 52 mins, Directors: Cesar, G.,  Thorabully, K. & Bauer, B. Documentary about  Indian indentureship.

Kavi (2009), 19 mins, Director: Gregg Helvey. Drama about a young boy whose father is indentured to a brickworks in Maharashtra.

L’immigration chinoise en Guyane et en Martinique, (2009), 109 mins, Director : J. Servant. Documentary that asks why there are Chinese in French Guiana and Martinique.

Mighter dan de Sun (2020), 37 mins, Director: Trevor C. Jugmohan.  Drama about an Indo-Caribbean couple battling mental illness and supernatural forces.

Offrande aux dieux exiles (1961), 20 mins, Director: J. Benoist. 16 millimetre documentary about Indians in Martinique.

Once More Removed (2006), 52mins, Director: Shundell Prasad. Documentary about the journey back to India.

Prisoners of Paradise (2021), 96 mins, Director: Mitch Jenkins. Period romance set in Mauritius in 1925 between English orphan Lucy and Krishna who works as a labourer on a plantation.

Pukiki: The Portuguese Americans of Hawai’i, (2003), 44 mins, Director: L. Proença. Documentary about indentured Portuguese who came to Hawaii between 1878-1913.

Queer Coolie-tudes, (2019), 87 mins, Director: Michelle Mohabeer. Documentary and queer ethnography which traces the lives of diverse subjects from the Indo-Caribbean in Canada.

Sangaree (1953), 94 mins, Director: Edward Ludwig. Period costume drama about the son of an indentured servant in the USA.

Servant or Slave (2016), 58 mins, Director: Steven McGregor. Drama about aboriginal women forced into indentured labour in Australia.

Seventeen Colours and a Sitar (2010), 38 mins, Directors: Patricia Mohammed & Michael Mooleedhar.  Documentary about collaboration between painter Rex Dixon and Trinidadian musician Mungal Pastasar.

Sugar Slaves (1995), 56 mins, Director: Trevor Graham. Documentary on ‘blackbirding’ to Queensland, Australia.

Sweet Tassa (2019), 58 mins, Director: Christopher L. Ballangee. Documentary on musical and socio-poliitical elements of tassa performance, focusing on the life and family of noted drummer Lenny Kumar.

Tanty Feminisms: Archives of Caribbean (Post-) Indenture and Coolieween, 2021, 32 mins, Director: Ryan Persadie. Reflections on the director’s artistic practice as a drag artist in an annual photography series produced over the last two years entitled ‘Coolieween’.

The Cost of Sugar (2019), 17 mins, Director: Daniyal Harris-Vajda. Documentary about Wells Estate, Guyana.

The Man from El Dorado (2018), Directors Arlen Harris & Daniyal Harris-Vajda. Documentary about Yesu Persaud, descendant of indentured labourers.

Wiren (2018), 105 mins, Director: Iran Tai-Apin. A small deaf boy of Indian descent leaves behind rural life in Suriname and goes to school in Paramaribo.