“¡Están aquí! ¡Son de La Empresa!” The walkie-talkie crackles violently with static as a woman’s frantic voice cries on the other end. “They’re here! They’re from The Company!”
In an instant, a pack of tattered work boots pound down the mountain trail, flanked by battered
machetes, as they race toward the Check Point. On the other side stands the enemy, The
Company. It waits at their doorstep, pacing like a hungry puma looking for the perfect moment to strike. But before there was the puma, there was peace.
For half a century this isolated village nestled deep in the cloud forests of northern Ecuador was a quiet hamlet composed of a handful of simple farming families. The citizens went about their lives unconnected to the outside world—the men tending to the fields, the women keeping the homes and the children filling the noisy, one-room schoolhouse. Their land was good to them and always provided more than they needed. But one day, this abundance became a curse. In the mid-’90s rich deposits of copper were discovered in the region. Soon, International mining corporations arrived at their doorsteps, determined to extract the valuable ore, no matter the cost. That cost, as the citizens of Junín soon learned, would be not only their land but also their village and their very way of life.
When Clouds Clear is a remarkably intimate look at the struggle of one small town to protect itself in the face of capitalist conglomerates. As discord and confusion rip through Junín from outside pressures, relationships begin to splinter apart from within, pitting friend against friend and father against son. But with the senseless killing of one of its citizen, the community coalesces into a united resistance movement in what is quickly becoming a perilous battle for survival. After repeated failed attempts to bring these egregious human rights violations to the attention of the Ecuadorian government, the community is forced to radicalize. In a pivotal decision, villagers set fire to a mining exploration camp, temporarily expelling the invaders but also setting a dangerous precedent for extreme actions when a second company later arrives. A host of community members narrate the story of their struggle, including village founder Don Rafael Piedra, Polivio Perez, the eloquent leader of the resistance and Marcia Ramierez, a passionate young lady who fondly remembers the day the mining camp burned. Another young villager named Robinson Piedra reflects on the situation with wisdom beyond his fourteen years.
Despite the turmoil enveloping his world, he speaks with a youthful hopefulness that some day, with his education, he will help banish the Company forever and return peace to Junín. His future, he realizes, is also that of the land’s, and in order to survive they will both need each other.
Crafted from 16 mm, Super 8 and archival video footage, When Clouds Clear is a beautiful
patchwork of textures and voices that tells the extraordinary tale of one community’s
transformation from a simple village to a powerful grassroots social movement. Directed and
produced by co-directors Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein and accompanied by a
breathtaking original score by Juan Carlos González, the film is ultimately a story about humanity and our visceral desire to protect family and homeland.
OFFICIAL SELECTION and AWARDS:
- Encuentros del Otro Cine, Quito, Ecuador
- Guadalajara International Film Festival
- Green Film Festival in Seoul, Korea, WINNER Best Feature
- Encounters Film Festival, Cape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa
- LA Film Festival
- Santa Barbara International Film Festival, WINNER Social Justice Award
- Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, WINNER Artistic Vision Award
- Breckenridge Festival of Film- WINNER Best Latin Film
- Atlanta Film Festival
- Trento Film Festival - Trento, Italy
- Rincon International Film Festival - Rincon, Puerto Rico, WINNER Best Spanish Doc
- Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival, Seattle, WA, WINNER Best of Fest
- Trento Mountain Film Festival, WINNER Excellence in Film, Accolade Competition and WINNER CINE Golden Eagle 2008
- EDOC-Quito, Ecuador Audience Top 5
Price:
Institutional: $250.00
Festival Screening: Please contact us.