I originally sent this as a private message to Jim, but Henry's comments may make these observations pertinent to the overall discussion of 1) the political effect of documentary and 2) the status of migrant labor thirty years after HARVEST OF SHAME. CBS may have hyped the story (so, what else is new?). All of the follow-ups may have hyped their story. Yet migrant labor are still being exploited. The exploitation by documentarians and tv journalists is just one more indignity. Higher status people have always made films about lower status people. It is rarely the other way 'round. Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM> ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The work of the Farmworkers Union and the effect of Vietnam coverage (and associated political organizing) are precisely to the point of the value of documentary as political instrument. Becoming "aware" can go in several directions; one is what was called "narcotizing dysfunction" in the early effects literature. Numerous news junkies get their daily fix and think they've done something. I'm no expert in migrant labor, but with regularity I see news reports of what's happening in Belle Glade (not good) and in neighboring Delaware and New Jersey whose farmers use migrant labor in tomato and mushroom cultivation. Again not real good. The political problem is that migrants have no constituency; they are situated at the bottom most rung of our society. It is far from accidental that most of the people in HARVEST OF SHAME were African-American and that the current migrant pool includes large numbers of immigrants, workers imported for the task (Mexicans in California; West Indians on the East Coast) and undocumented workers. On the streets of North Philadelphia (where Temple University is located) there are parked rickety buses marked "farm labor" that appear to be left over from HARVEST OF SHAME. Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>