To the Last Drop

In Latin America there are ten thousand commercial blood banks, where the forty million who are unable to sell their labour sell their blood, often in such large quantities that they die of anaemia. The blood and its by-products are resold at enormous profit, mostly to wealthier countries, via multi-national corporations. This blood traffic is both the documentary subject of the film, and a metaphor for the bleeding dry of Third World countries by the West, of the poor by the rich: a metaphor worked through in the commentary, with a passion often lacking from 'committed' documentaries. The wider resonances of the commentary are anchored by precise, pointed images; the uninhibited use of camera and editing to draw attention to things is refreshing rather than heavy-handed, and looks positively subtle by comparison with the crude and exploitative view of the world which sanctions profiteering in human blood.