Harvest of Loneliness (2010)

Hidden within the historical accounts of minorities, workers and immigrants in American society is the story of the millions of Mexico's men and women who experienced the temporary contract worker program known as the Bracero Program. Established to replace an alleged wartime labor shortage, research reveals that the Program intended to undermine farm worker unionization. Harvest shows how several million men, in one of the largest state managed migrations in history, were imported from 1942 to 1964 to work as cheap, controlled and disposable workers. The documentary features the men and women speaking of their experiences and addresses what to expect from a new temporary contract worker program. The politics of the Bracero Program laid the foundation for Mexican workers to follow the path to the US. NAFTA further impoverished the farmers of Mexico, and another generation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans demand a just immigration policy. The film is profoundly relevant to deconstructing anti-immigrant policies, lending a historical explanation to the contemporary issues of immigration in the US and global debates on migration.