I watched this film, along with Big Sonia, with my high school for a field trip. As a filmmaker, I found Farewell Ferris Wheel very sad, inspirational, and engaging, and I respect Jamie and Miguel for bringing awareness to the issue that the film addresses. While the carnivals and Ferris wheels are visually engaging, this insightful documentary film is about Mexicans working hard for a living and not getting payed enough. I highly recommend this documentary film to anyone who wants to learn more about the treatment of Mexicans and the economy in the US, since it speaks out about the issue that needs to be addressed.
2 Reviews
Very good documentary film indeed!
MovieIQTest19 April 2018
This is a very interesting report about the temporary workers for the traditional American Carnival business. We've seen some of the Mexican labors who were hired by the Americans to continue went back to work for the seasonal carnivals. The Mexican workers in this film were hard-working force that no regular Americans would and could do. One of the owner-operator said in this film, he tried to give more job opportunities to his American people, but almost every time they showed up with less people on the scheduled day, and every next day, these Americans showed up less and less, until nobody came. That's why he decided to hire Mexicans across the border with H-2B working visa, and they were not just good, they were great, he had only suffered a few problems caused by the hired Americans, so he thought his decision to hire Mexicans was a great one and never had regret since then.
We also saw those so-called human rights organizations tried very hard to lure the Mexican workers to file complaints and law suits against their employers for low wages, no insurance coverage, long working hours....all those complaints had caused lot of difficulties for this specific entertainment business. What made me to think negatively against these organizations was just like what one of the employers said, the decision to come back working for this industries by these Mexicans year after year was enough a proof that the Mexicans were coming back willingly by their own choices, because when they were in their Mexico hometowns, these experienced carnival operating workers actually got no jobs and no works at all. Even these kind of jobs in the eyes of those so-called self-righteous American human rights organizations were not good enough, the pays were too low by the American standard, they still came back year after year on a regular basis. Why? Because a job was far better than no job; low income in American dollars was far better than no income, no peso at all in Mexico. The job to those organizations might be not good enough, but to them, job was a job, this job gave them steady income to improve their living standard in Mexico. Most of them appreciated this regular seasonal works so they did the jobs so well without hesitation. Of course, there were always some bad apples among these workers, like that used-to-be good worker later turned thief, stealing tickets to sell cheap to the Americans for his personal gain; no wonder we've seen his house had become more and more luxurious after he became a thief, but then he lost his privilege to have a H-2B visa and never had been invited back to work for this industry. That's a true story, not make-up story.
One more thing just came up into mind: Those people working for those human rights or whatever self-righteous grandiose purposed organizations definitely are not 100% volunteers and doing their jobs for free. Even NGO non-profit organizations still have to hire people with pay and insurance coverage, nobody works for free even they have good heart to fight for human rights. These people do not work for minimum wages or without health insurance coverage, but their main jobs are crowned with big words such as "Human Rights" and are mainly targeting against the small business employers since they usually didn't win cases against the big corporates with big legal teams.
For all the American small business and their owners, those continuously churned out unpractical regulations by the Federal government are killing them.
We also saw those so-called human rights organizations tried very hard to lure the Mexican workers to file complaints and law suits against their employers for low wages, no insurance coverage, long working hours....all those complaints had caused lot of difficulties for this specific entertainment business. What made me to think negatively against these organizations was just like what one of the employers said, the decision to come back working for this industries by these Mexicans year after year was enough a proof that the Mexicans were coming back willingly by their own choices, because when they were in their Mexico hometowns, these experienced carnival operating workers actually got no jobs and no works at all. Even these kind of jobs in the eyes of those so-called self-righteous American human rights organizations were not good enough, the pays were too low by the American standard, they still came back year after year on a regular basis. Why? Because a job was far better than no job; low income in American dollars was far better than no income, no peso at all in Mexico. The job to those organizations might be not good enough, but to them, job was a job, this job gave them steady income to improve their living standard in Mexico. Most of them appreciated this regular seasonal works so they did the jobs so well without hesitation. Of course, there were always some bad apples among these workers, like that used-to-be good worker later turned thief, stealing tickets to sell cheap to the Americans for his personal gain; no wonder we've seen his house had become more and more luxurious after he became a thief, but then he lost his privilege to have a H-2B visa and never had been invited back to work for this industry. That's a true story, not make-up story.
One more thing just came up into mind: Those people working for those human rights or whatever self-righteous grandiose purposed organizations definitely are not 100% volunteers and doing their jobs for free. Even NGO non-profit organizations still have to hire people with pay and insurance coverage, nobody works for free even they have good heart to fight for human rights. These people do not work for minimum wages or without health insurance coverage, but their main jobs are crowned with big words such as "Human Rights" and are mainly targeting against the small business employers since they usually didn't win cases against the big corporates with big legal teams.
For all the American small business and their owners, those continuously churned out unpractical regulations by the Federal government are killing them.
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