WBC Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem

Red Lounge: Int'l Workers Right

Wednesday, 28th of May 2008 at 7:00 pm (19:00)

Screening

SIPAKAPA NOT FOR SALE / SIPAKAPA NO SE VENDE

a documentary video that demonstrates the Mayan People's resistance to Gold Mining

by Caracol Produciones
( Guatemala 2005)
55 min, Spanish with Engl. Subtitles

"In our works we seek to communicate. To communicate is to rescue and to value popular knowledge, as much of our ancestors as of our youth, and puts this knowledge in context within the regional, national, and global reality in which we live."
(Alvaro Revenga - Caracol Produciones )

Montana Exploradora, subsidiary of the Canadian/US transnational company Glamis Gold, received 45 million US dollars in financing from the World Bank to exploit an open-pit gold mine in Sipakapa, Guatemala. In accordance with ILO Convention 169, a Community Consultation was held in this Maya region to establish whether the population would accept or reject mining exploitation in its territory.

The result was a resounding "NO" to mining. Sipakapa Is Not For Sale analyses the debate on mining exploitation and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan People as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neoliberal megaprojects.

Sipakapa no se vende contrasts the daily life and struggle of the Maya Sipakapan people with the arguments of representatives of the mining company that operates in their territory.

This documentary analyses the debate on mining exploitation and demonstrates the dignity of the Sipakapan people as they fight to defend their autonomy in the face of encroaching neoliberal megaprojects.

Awards

# Anaconda Award for Best Documentary, PRAIA, Bolivia and Ecuador, 2006

# Best Documentary, Indigenous International Film and Video Festival, CLACPI, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2006

Thanks to

Alvaro Revenga - Caracol Produciones t for their friendly permission to screen this movie in the Red Lounge.

The “Bata” cooperative and the “El imagen del Sur” - Filmfestival for social cinema, Cordoba, Spain.

Pierre Klochendler for bringing us in contact with Alvaro Revenga, Caracol Produciones and other film makers commited to video as a tool for social change.

www.willybrandtcenter.org/en/red/reviews08/sipakapa
09.09.2010, 23:09