"Sugar Babies", the Fanjuls, Miami International Film Festival, and the Knight Foundation ... by gimleteye

The controversial film documentary, Sugar Babies, will never play at Casa de Campo-- the resort in the Dominican Republic built by the Fanjuls, Florida's sugar barons.

The subject of the documentary is the miserable working conditions and hopelessness of farm workers on Fanjul plantations in the DR.

The documentary had been scheduled to play at the Miami International Film Festival, but was yanked for some unaccounted for reason by Festival staff just days before the festival commencement.

Last week, the film garnered the award for best documentary by the Delray Beach Film Festival. In a press statement, Festival Director Dr. Michael Posner said, "The audience got to see the ongoing atrocities that still exist in the world today."


That would not be true for the audience in Miami, especially the audience inclined to rub shoulders with the politically influential Fanjuls like former Presidents, Senators and Congressmen who accept the friendship and contributions of Big Sugar and, sometimes, hospitality and courtesy at Casa de Campo.

I have argued that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, should terminate its funding of the Film Festival because of the censorship implicit in the cancelation of "Sugar Babies". Alberto Ibarguen, president of the Foundation, is the former publisher of The Miami Herald.

According to an online interview, since the 1950's the Knight Foundation has invested more than $300 million to advance quality and freedom of expression worldwide. It has a vital interest in seeing journalism survive in whatever form it takes."

So long, apparently, as it doesn't offend Big Sugar.


We will continue to raise the question, on Eyeonmiami. There are certain civic values that are destroyed when a film in the United States is suppressed in order to protect a cosseted and insulated economic elite. This should certainly rise to the threshold of Knight Foundation interest. At the very least, to continue its funding of the popular Miami event, the Knight Foundation should insist that the festival either account for the withdrawal of the film for the schedule or screen "Sugar Babies" as the opening documentary feature next year.