If you are interested in learning more about Peru’s complexities consider coming to the screening of The Devil Operation followed by discussion and Q&A with the film-makers. Everyone is welcome to this free event.
The Devil Operation (free film screening)
March 30, 2015, 5-7pm
UBC’s Buchanan A, Room 102
followed by discussion and Q&A with the film-makers
as part of the Social Justice Centre Conference 2015 (facebook event page)
Father Marco, a humble priest from the mountains of Peru, is being followed. A private security firm is filming and photographing the priest’s every move; their meticulous reports are code-named ‘The Devil Operation.’
Marco’s allies are murdered and tortured, but he and his disciples refuse to be victims. They turn their cameras on the spies and develop a counter-espionage plan that leads to South America’s largest gold mine.
For the past two decades, Father Marco has defended farming communities against the Yanacocha mine’s abuses, earning him the nickname ‘The Devil’.
Peru is one of the world’s top gold producers and the state has ceded power to transnational corporations who guard their territory like outlaws from the Wild West.
This real-life political thriller exposes the new wave of corporate terrorism faced by Latin America’s human rights defenders.
followed by discussion and Q&A with film-makers
Stephanie Boyd + Miguel Araoz
stoptheinstitute.ca and the UBC Social Justice Centre
Miguel Araoz Cartagena is a Peruvian visual artist and film maker who was born and raised in the mountains of Cusco. In 2009 he helped found Quisca productions, a non-profit association of film makers in Cusco, and serves as the group’s president. He was artistic director and associate producer of the award-winning film ‘The Devil Operation’ and his paintings have been exhibited in galleries in Switzerland, France, Brazil, Lima and his native Cusco. Miguel is currently working on a new film with Quisca about indigenous Kukama communities in Peru’s Amazon struggling to save their rivers from oil drilling and a massive, commercial water-way project.
Stephanie Boyd was born and raised in Canada and has lived in Peru since 1997, working as a film maker and journalist. The Devil Operation (2010) is the first film she has directed and produced alone and she spent 10 years filming the protagonists and following their stories. Stephanie’s films have been broadcast on the Sundance Channel, CBC Country Canada, PBS affiliates, Al Jazeera, TeleSur and broadcasters in Peru, Cuba, Burma, Hungary and dozens of other countries. She has also worked as a journalist in eastern Africa, and has published articles in various publications including NOW magazine, The Toronto Star and Salon.com.