Filmmakers Marie Maurisse, François Pilet, and Pierre Monnard’s documentary looks at the "new cannibalism," a European label attached to the ghoulish, multibillion dollar blood plasma industry. Blood Business claims that there is much the average person likely doesn’t know about the blood industry. For example, 80% of blood donations are sold to private pharmaceutical companies that use plasma to create new medications worth billions of dollars on the market. Additionally, those companies and others harvest plasma by paying people for their blood in the U.S., where it is legal (unlike Europe, where it’s not). The film hops around Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, and France, interviewing various CEOs, health officials, politicians, lab scientists, and patients who are all part of the blood and plasma supply-and-demand chain. But the strongest material is shot in Cleveland, OH, where people living below the poverty line sell their blood for $20 a pop, typically two or even three times a week. A hidden camera takes viewers inside one of the several for-profit blood-purchasing businesses conveniently located in the poorest sections of the city--here, people who were lined up outside the door at 7 a.m. are now seen seated in rows and rows of chairs, their blood flowing through tubes in a scene that is strongly reminiscent of an industrial dairy farm. Some of the regular donors speak of scams that are run by drug dealers with their clients’ blood, while others explain how easy it is to sell blood even if you have diseases that disqualify you. A disturbing film about an exploitive business unfamiliar to most, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Blood Business
(2017) 52 min. DVD: $59.95 ($250 w/PPR from edu.passionriver.com). Passion River (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 3
Blood Business
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