Blood, Sweat and Sugar

How sugar was built on a global system of slavery

October 7, 2025

1h 32m

Documentary

History

Overview

Sugar is sweet, seductive, addictive - but built on human suffering. This feature-length reveals how an enticing luxury became the engine of a global system powered by slavery, exploitation and environmental destruction, a legacy still shaping the world today. From the 19th-century slave plantations to modern refineries in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Reunion, India, South Africa and Europe, the series traces how sugar fuelled colonial empires, drove some of the worst aspects of international trade and commerce, and left deep social and ecological scars that are still present in labour abuses and exhausted landscapes today.

Directed by

Mathilde Damoisel