Many thanks to Peter Jordens for sending additional information related to our previous post Documentary: Mathilde Damoisel’s LE SUCRE. See links below, but keep in mind that the film is not available in all countries. Here is a 43-minute discussion on the film — Le Sucre, pour la douceur et pour le pire — with its director, Mathilde Damoisel. In “Mathilde Damoisel et son documentaire ‘Le Sucre, pour la douceur et pour le pire’ [Entretien]” Radio France (7 October 2025) introduces the podcast.
Sugar is one of the greatest health scourges of our contemporary societies. Mathilde Damoisel’s documentary, broadcast on October 7, 2025, also explains to what extent the history of its exploitation is closely linked to that of slavery.
Fueled by archival material and interviews, the documentary broadcast on Arte explores the history of sugarcane, from the first plantations of settlers during slavery to the production of bioethanol on large-scale modern farms. More than painting a portrait of a commodity harmful to human health, Mathilde Damoisel’s film reveals the inextricable links between sugar and capitalism, the early developments of which implicate sugarcane in a logic of overconsumption. From the slavery established by Portuguese settlers to the modern-day slavery of Haitian workers, the history of sugar offers us a new perspective on this modern-day scourge, both a health and social bomb. [. . .]
What Mathilde Damoisel wanted to show in this film is that we are obsessed with the hold sugar has on our bodies, on our health, but that this history originally had a hold on the bodies of the men who were forced to produce it. The history of sugar is inseparable from the history of the brutalization of this work. “It was slavery in the first place, and it ultimately shaped five centuries of abuse in the world of labor.” [. . .]
Listen to the podcast about the film at https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/zoom-zoom-zen/zoom-zoom-zen-du-mardi-07-octobre-2025-8864658
Le Sucre, pour la douceur et pour le pire
France | 2025 | 54 min | Documentary film
2 episodes, 55 minutes each
Written and directed by Mathilde DamoiselHere are links for Part 1 and 2 of the documentary film: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/118256-001-A/le-sucre-pour-la-douceur-et-pour-le-pire-1-2
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/118256-002-A/le-sucre-pour-la-douceur-et-pour-le-pire-2-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-7fNnMvFs (1/2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT1RQ7ChORk (2/2)
See more on the director at https://www.folamour.fr/en/2019/04/24/mathilde-damoisel/#:~:text=Bornin1974MathildeDamoisel,Bristol(UK)in1999
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