The Stop the Institute campaign is co-presenting (with the Mining Justice Alliance) the Guarango film Daughter of the Lake (Hija de la Laguna) [87 minutes] and the Carla Molina short film Ashes (Cenizas/Cha) [14 minutes] at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Sunday September 6, 2015, 5pm
The Cinematheque, 1130 Howe Street (Between Davie & Helmcken)
Daughter of the Lake
Nélida, a young Indigenous Andean woman, has the ability to speak with spirits of the water, and thus she feels a deep responsibility to defend the pristine lakes that surround her home. She is studying to be a lawyer in Lima so that she can help her community. However before she can finish, a gold deposit valued in the millions is found under her village; the extraction will surely threaten the surrounding waters of her community and she must summon up all her powers to stop the mining. Paired with other stories in the gold mining trade, from the Dutch jewellery designer Bibi van der Velden to stories from communities in Bolivia, this stunning documentary makes a powerful statement on the human cost of gold and what people are doing to raise awareness about its impacts. (adapted from notes by Heather Haynes, Hot Docs)
Ashes
In 2007, a Guatemalan subsidiary of HudBay Minerals (a Canadian company) ordered the eviction of the Lote Ocho community. Houses and crops were burned by the mine’s private security, the National Civil Police, and the Army of Guatemala. Despite the abuses experienced, seven years later Margarita and a group of families return in order to reclaim their lives and the land of their ancestors. Eleven women from Lote Ocho – and two others from nearby El Estor – are now suing HudBay Minerals in the Ontario Supreme Court, to hold the parent company accountable for the violence and abhorrent behaviour of the subsidiary.
Purchase tickets for the back-to-back screenings at the door or online.
And check out VLAFF’s site for this film and for the full listing of the many others that will be screened 3-13 September 2015.
Stop the Institute
The campaign to close CIRDI is advanced by a collective of concerned UBC and SFU students, in collaboration with mining justice activists and members of various Vancouver diaspora communities with intimate connections to the women and men directly affected by Canadian companies’ mining schemes abroad.
We – and the Mining Justice Alliance – are VLAFF’s ‘community partners’ for this screening, and will be sharing information on our work and the Stop the Institute campaign at The Cinematheque before and after the screenings. Come by and say hi!