The Back-breaking Leaf

Transient workers descend on southwestern Ontario's tobacco fields for a brief, gruelling harvest season, observed up close in the fields and the boom towns around them.

A landmark of Canadian direct cinema that captures hard physical labour with raw, candid immediacy.

Here is a graphic picture of the tobacco harvest in southwestern Ontario. At the end of July, transient field workers move in for a brief bonanza when the plant is ripe. The tobacco harvesters call it "the back-breaking

Plays in YouTube's player · Watch on YouTube