The Dark Side of Chocolate
| The Dark Side of Chocolate | |
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| Directed by | |
| Produced by | Helle Faber |
| Music by | Jonas Colstrup |
| Edited by | Andreas Birch Eriksen |
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Production
company |
Bastard Film & TV
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Release date
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| Country | Denmark |
| Language | English German French |
The Dark Side of Chocolate is a 2010 documentary film about the exploitation and slavetrading of African children to harvest chocolate still occurring nearly ten years after the cocoa industry pledged to end it.
Cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast provide 80% of the world with chocolate, according to CorpWatch. Chocolate producers around the world have been pressured to “verify that their chocolate is not the product of child labor or slavery.”
In 2000, BBC aired Slavery: A Global Investigation which brought the issue of child labor in the cocoa industry to light.
In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and its members signed a document that prohibited child trafficking and labor in the cocoa industry after 2008. Despite this effort, numerous children are still forced to work on cocoa plantations in Africa.
In 2009, Mars and Cadbury joined the Rainforest Alliance to fight against child labor. By 2020, these major chocolate manufacturers hope to completely eradicate child labor on any plantations from which they purchase their cocoa.
The Dark Side of Chocolate was directed by Danish journalist Miki Mistrati who investigated the use of child labor and trafficked children in chocolate production. It was filmed by U. Roberto Romano and produced by Helle Faber.
The filming started in Germany, where Mistrati asked vendors where their chocolate comes from. They then flew to Mali, where many of the children are from. Next, they explored the Ivory Coast where the cocoa plantations are located. The film ends in Switzerland where both the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Nestle headquarters are located.
Much of the footage in this documentary is recorded using a secret camera.
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Wikipedia