Nothing like chocolate. Social Sciences Movie Review

Nothing Like Chocolate
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Nothing Like Chocolate
Filmmakers must explore the best techniques and avenues to make their portrayals reach their intended outcomes. Such a task is challenging and has explained why multiple films fail even though they have some of the best stories. In the filmmaking industry, one must ask him/herself about what they intend to portray and the ingredients that they must instill to reach such objectives. Superficially, filmmakers rely on aspects of screenwriting, directing, producing, editing, and cinematography. Still, one requires techniques to synchronize those elements and deliver exemplary works. Kum-Kum Bhavnani’s documentary film Nothing Like Chocolate is one of the highly-rated artistic works of this decade bearing its exploration of multiple aspects. Bhavnani combines unique aspects of modern filmmaking in production, editing, cinematography, and directing to cement his position as a formidable filmmaker. This paper analyzes Nothing Like Chocolate through its multiple key aspects. The analysis herein is integral to unearthing the film’s key components, using the Nelice Stewart’s scene, which culminates in exposing some of its strengths and weaknesses as well as showcasing the genius in how documentary was produced and directed.
Brief Overview
Nothing Like Chocolate is a feature documentary that intends to expose a revival of an otherwise inhumane chocolate-making industry. The setting of the film is the deep rain forests of Grenada, a newly emerging area for cocoa production. The documentary’s principal objective is to showcase the motivation of anarchist chocolate-maker, Mott Green, who intends to use his startup organization to instill the need to produce socially conscious, organic, and delicious chocolate. That motivation stems from the historical association of chocolate with child labor and human trafficking. Close to 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa. Specifically, Ivory Coast remains a major producer of cocoa. As evident in the film, most manufacturers of chocolate prefer West Africa’s cocoa citing its richness in nutrients and natural chemicals. The mass production in Ivory Coast has, however, come as a curse as children are trafficked and forced into harvesting cocoa seeds. Children are trafficked from neighboring countries including Ghana to participate in coffee harvesting in Ivory Coast. Even amidst the child trafficking and child labor ills, the preference for the Ivory Coast coffee has not waded in the market. Green comes as a savior with a more humane and futuristic cocoa and chocolate production. According to him, involving the immediate community in financially viable cocoa production is an avenue of using cocoa and producing chocolate in the right way. In the long-term, Green intends to impact the worlds of cocoa production and chocolate manufacturing to a more humane avenue of operations. That sad story that marks the onset of chocolate production is what motivated Green to sway the world into producing chocolate through other avenues.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Nothing Like Chocolate is characterized by multiple strengths amidst some weaknesses. First among the strengths is the narrative. One aspect that instantaneously glues an individual into the film is the subtle and simple manner in which the narrator exploits her job. In the introductory scene, the narrator gives the audience a gist of what they should expect. Instantly, one is indulged in a mixture of sadness and excitement. It is sad because the narrator highlights the source of chocolate that most people enjoy so much. The vast majority of chocolate consumed in the world comes from Ivory Coast. Behind those sweet bars of chocolate stands a dark story of human slavery. Children from countries around Ivory Coast are trafficked and indulged into the hard labor of coffee harvesting. This is a story that people intentionally avoid for the love of their chocolate bars. The film Nothing Like Chocolate defies the norm and defines the exclusive mystery surrounding chocolate production. The content is also pleasurable because it gives hope to a future with chocolate anchored on humane production channels. Immediately, a viewer wants to know how the narrator and the entirety of the film combine the prospects to deliver the ultimate documentary. Some of the notable characteristics of the narration include simplicity and emphasis on detail. At least each character, aspect of production, and output is accorded a remarkable coverage. The other notable strength that Nothing Like Chocolate boasts is its exploration and attachment to ethnographic content. The film combines the various socio-economic factors of people from multiple demographic segments to deliver the outcomes. The suffering from cocoa producers in Grenada is intertwined with the suffering children placed under forced labor in Ivory Coast. Then comes Green who intends to relieve both sets of characters. Nothing Like Chocolate is a manifestation of social and economic classes in the society are intertwined. As a group of people enjoy chocolate bars, barely do they know the actual sources of such bars are rooted in the suffering and social delineation of innocent children.
The last notable strength of the film is embedded in its tightly-contained and well-constructed plot. That success is rooted in the film’s exemplary applicatio...