Directed and Produced
by Andrew Vial.
From the earliest days of slave trading came the songs of the Caribbean, and the film 'Banana Boat' draws on the Harry Belafonte version of the traditional Jamaican Banana Loaders Song.
Bananas from the plantations were shipped to American markets and the workers on night shifts, who sometimes 'worked all night on a drink of rum' were allowed to stop work only after daylight arrived, and they had had their loads checked 'by the Tally Man'.
Andrew Vial and Jan Carroll sing the song
while the montage of images show the hardship and deprivation suffered by slaves and early banana plantation workers.
