Nothing Like Chocolate (Kum-Kum Bhavnani 2012):US

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Reviewed by Natanya Maskart, Santa Barbara.

What is personally funny about seeing this movie is that most everyone in the world is obsessed with chocolate and is one of there favorite candies except for me. I have always hated chocolate since I was a young child and now I am happy I have been.  Most people would never think that having a sweet little candy bar could cause any harm to someone, but that’s wrong. Most of the chocolate which everyone has such a craze over causes just that. People don’t realize that some of these chocolate companies such as Hershey’s which is one of the biggest distributers not only of chocolate but to many other candies uses enslaved children to help produce these products. In this film we learned about a man named Mot Green who started his own chocolate company in the rain forest of Grenada and is the founder of The Grenada Chocolate Company.

After finding out so much about the problems and negatives that surround the global chocolate industry Mott decides to make his own chocolate company and help raise awareness about this big issue which many people are not even familiar with. He built his own chocolate company with solar power materials, old antique equipment and employee shareholding. He wants to help out the farmers and people involved in his business just as much as he wants to make good tasting chocolate.

We learn in this film that the big companies like Hershey’s used enslaved children who their parents sold to work in the fields picking the cocoa from the plants in order to supply such high demand these big businesses are producing. Not only do we learn about this but also how the farmers are being shortage on their pay and barely given enough money for their goods to survive on. Mott makes in a big deal that his workers get the values that are fair and that they can make a living off of.

Through this documentary we get to see and hear the story of how the Grenada Chocolate Company grew into what it has become today and shown first hand how he makes his chocolate. The Images of Grenada and the lush land or so Beautiful and to see where the cocoa comes from on the plant is very interesting. As a viewer we get to see the step by step process that Mott makes his chocolate starting with the pickings of the tree and ending with the selling of the products. Mott lives by the modow “I don’t believe in god but I believe in chocolate”. He is trying to do the everything opposite of the big industries and make the workers who he does business with on the same level as him, working hand in hand and doing things right. Many statistics show that there are hundreds of thousands of kids who work for the big time industries and are not treated properly and being forced into doing things against there will but have to in order to stay alive. Mott fights to get his voice out there and teach people about this big issue which so many including myself barely new about. Only one other time in my life had I ever heard about this issue and it was years ago and didn’t even remember about it until watching this film.

It is unfortunate that news stations don’t make this big issue a bigger deal and shed light on these corrupt factories. In this film there are many interviews with different farmers and some children who were once enslaved under these big companies and telling the story of what they had to do and what hardships they went through. I think this is a must see documentary for almost everyone to watch because it relates to pretty much everyone in the world who buys these big name products. People need to become aware of what is happening and what that little treat of chocolate or candy represents and the harm it causes. If everyone who just watches this documentary and starts making a change to buy fair trade chocolate and different companies like Grenada then we can slowly make a difference and help Mott in his vision to make a change.