Mississippi Chicken

Revealing documentary on immigrant workers
Filmed over the course of a single summer, there is nonetheless rather a lot that takes place in a relatively short time when you're working with the problems endured by the population of Mexican immigrant workers on a poultry plant in Mississippi. John Fiege's fascinating documentary captures the experience through two young volunteers, a Worker's Rights Advocate from Texas and a Catholic monk, who are trying to set up a Workers Centre to help the immigrant population in Canton near Jackson - many of them with no legal status, no English and therefore no other recourse to basic human rights - advising and protecting them from employer abuse, mistreatment, poor living conditions and low pay.

The documentary is wonderfully put together, showing the expectations of the work that the young people intend to do exceeded by the reality of the widespread abuse of the Mexican population, balancing the joy of the winning of battles for basic justice and equality with the shocking...

Educational, unique, a little slow in parts. Very timely
This documentary effectively depicts the exploitation of undocumented Mexican and other Central American workers in U.S. agribusiness in the South. The documentary is not preachy, and lays out ugly facts in an artistic visual format that lets intelligent viewers make up our minds. The subjects were well chosen, heroic Anglo-American middle class social workers, hard working undocumented Mexican immigrants in a really undeniably oppressive situation, and a fair depiction of some of the characters who are doing the exploiting.