REVIEW: ‘Farewell Ferris Wheel’ follows dramatic journeys of workers on H-2B visas

Farewell Ferris Wheel charts the realities and struggles of the carnival industry in the United States. However, rather than looking at the iconic rides, glittering lights and gleeful children with their cotton-candy highs, the documentary from directors Jamie Sisley and Miguel “M.i.G.” Martinez focuses on several of the workers who build the rides, maintain them, collect tickets and eventually break them down when the carnival fun has ended for the weekend.

In particular, the film looks at the controversial H-2B guest worker visa process. The men profiled in the film leave their families behind in Mexico and travel many miles to the carnival grounds throughout the United States. They are brought in through this legal visa process, but they have criticisms about their work conditions and pay.

What is probably the best aspect of the 70-minute film is the access that the filmmakers are able to achieve. They not only talk to the workers — some of whom are content, some of whom are upset. They also talk to numerous carnival administrators and industry leaders who are able to offer their take on the visa process. They also follow the issue to the halls of Congress and hear from several people with differing viewpoints.

The movie, which recently played the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York City, seems perfectly attuned to these political times when presidential candidates are talking about building walls, passing immigration reform and improving salaries for workers. The H-2B visa process, which is probably unknown to many voters, is one strain in this national conversation about the United States and its relationship to its southern neighbor.

Even though the H-2B visa process is a political issue and has a financial side to its legislation, Sisley and Martinez are more interested in putting a real face on these workers. This is not a film of labels and statistics. This is a film about families struggling to pay the bills, about fathers pulled away from their home life to work thousands of miles away, about the value and dignity of work.

Farewell Ferris Wheel is almost deceptively intelligent. It has the guise of an Americana story, one about the carnival industry and perhaps Americans’ viewpoints on the weekend ritual that continues to this day. However, the ferris wheels and carnivals are means of getting at much deeper and more poignant storylines. The setting is a way for the filmmakers to look at the irony of this American past time. The folks who enjoy their cotton candy and dizzying rides probably have no idea about the personal and professional journeys of the workers collecting their tickets and providing their entertainment.

I am ignorant no more.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Farewell Ferris Wheel (2016), directed by Jamie Sisley and Miguel “M.i.G.” Martinez, recently played the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Rating: Click here for more information.