The aptly named Vanishing Pearls is a documentary about modern day American capitalism at its worst.  A small town community of fishermen make their living catching oysters in the Gulf of Mexico.  Then the BP oil spill happens.  Ecosystem destroyed.  After a little government intervention (ha!), BP does the right thing and offers business reparations to the fisherman who’ve they’ve effectively put out of business.  Then that gets a little messy so they hire a law firm to make sure the payments are made.  The broad strokes you may guess; what Nailah Jefferson does extremely well here is show, how, in every possible way, the corporation has destroyed the culture, the ecology, the whole way of life of people who at best are a line number on some Excel sheet in corporate America.  My own Louisiana roots got to me at times watching this, but unless you’re in the 1 percent, I don’t think it will be too hard to have sympathy for the people here.

Vanishing Pearls is now streaming on Netflix.