Cane Fire directed by Anthony Banua-Simon tells the story of how the « Big Five » or the five largest sugar and pineapple industries took over the island of Kauai in Hawaii. And how they created a myth of paradise while their workers struggled for better working conditions.
Two worlds clash: the bosses and their wealth on one side, the workers and their poverty on the other. Kauai is a denunciation of the darker sides of capitalism. Big sugar and pineapple industries stop at nothing to make money, not even to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom, with the help of the US Navy, and set up their own government. At the time, tensions were rising between the Hawaiians who maintained their autonomy through a complicated system of land management and the newly formed companies who were diverting water for cane cultivation. With their own government in place, laws leaving their hands free while shackling the natives, who are forced to meet certain conditions if they want to stay on their land, this annexation allows them to do business as usual. Then the flourishing sugar and pineapple economies declined, and the companies turned to tourism. The first Hollywood films were shot in Kauai, promoting it as a paradise on earth, while at the same time the plantation workers, now the hotel and resort workers, struggled for better working conditions and to try to afford housing. The « Big Five », as the five major sugar and pineapple companies have been dubbed, still own the majority of Kauai’s habitable land. « In Kauai, the cost of living is now the highest in the United States. For those who can afford it, it’s still paradise, but for residents, the island is on the verge of collapse. »
It was while working on a sugar company in the United States that Anthony Banua-Simon came up with the idea for his film, now in competition at the FIFO. While working on this first documentary, he found the traces of his family, who left Puerto Rico to work in the sugar and pineapple plantations in Hawaii. Some, like his grandfather, even worked as extras in Hollywood films shot on the plantations. « They employed a lot of locals, but never for lead roles, just as wallflowers in the background, » laughs his great-uncle, Henry, who will be his guide to visit the old, abandoned sites and tell him about the union struggles of the time. His cousins will be the link to today: how do you find housing when everything is so expensive? How do you work in dignity without union protection and with the constant fear of being fired at the drop of a hat? The story of the Hawaiians is chilling. Faced with reality, the myth does not hold up for long, but it is still the myth that is sold to the public. Moreover, we see a lawless real estate developer, playing the big game in front of the camera, but his cynicism shows in his crocodile tears. « Cane Fire« , the title of the film, is the unseen ending of the first melodrama filmed on these plantations and censored for its explicit images. That film ended with a plantation being set on fire by a young girl angry at being pushed aside by her lover: we were afraid that this would give the workers ideas… But the director finds all sorts of B-movie imagery: bombs, fires, shoot-outs to quell all our fury.
Written by Lucie Rabreaud
French