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Documentary, "Ecuador: Rainforest vs. Globalization"

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Nov 18, 2011, 10:38

Documentary, "Ecuador: Rainforest vs. Globalization"

One Country in Latin America Has Undertaken a Profound Reform to Invent a New Type of Governance, Both Pragmatic and Humanistic

(Los Angeles) After taking office in 2007, Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, immediately declared that Ecuador's national debt was illegitimate and pledged to fight creditors in international courts.  He then implemented bold policies and a new constitution that would dramatically transform his indebted country.  The controversial Yasuni Initiative is one of them:  a proposal to refrain from exploiting the oil reserves of the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field in exchange for 50% of the value of the reserves in order to preserve the biodiversity of the region, avoid CO2 emissions and to protect the indigenous peoples living in the rainforest.  The future of Ecuador is presented in ECUADOR: RAINFOREST VS. GLOBALIZATION, a 72-minute documentary by Jacques Sarasin, available on DVD and digital platforms in North America starting November 29, 2011.

The documentary features intimate interviews with President Correa, members of his cabinet, prominent human rights leaders as well as a few opposition leaders, including:

  • Alberto Acosta, a political economist and the former Minister of Energy and Mines in Ecuador;
  • Cesar Robalino Gonzaga, currently serving as the President of the Association of Private Bankers in Ecuador;
  • Fernando Vega, formerly a priest but was suspended in 2007 when he chose to run for political office by seeking one of the 130 seats on the Constitutional Assembly.  He has since left politics and is a priest again in Cuenca focusing on the country's emigration problems;
  • Ricardo Patino, currently the Minister for Policy Coordination in Ecuador and was formerly the Minister of Finance and Minister of the Coast under Correa's administration.

 Paris-based director, Jacques Sarasin, began making films in 1996 after a career as a world champion yachtsman.  He then founded the International Foundation of Architectural Synthesis (FISA), which developed social housing in Africa and South America.   Combining love for documentaries and current political themes have been his passion ever since.

Sarasin's other films include:  "Je Chanterai Pour Toi" ("I'll Sing For You"), the story of Boubacar "KarKar" Traoré, a Malian singer who sang of independence; "On the Rumba River," shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is a musical tribute to the Congolese people through the music of Antoine Kolosoy known as "Wendo."  In 2006-2009, Sarasin made two films about Nobel Prize Winner and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz.  The first one, "Where is the World Going Mr. Stiglitz?" and "Around the World with Joseph Stiglitz.

SYNOPSIS:

When Rafael Correa, an established economist, entered politics, he was a man on a mission.  Elected as Ecuador's President in 2006, he quickly transformed a country with archaic structures into a social, independent, ecological and participative democracy.  Ecuadoreans now have genuine reason to believe that the rigid structures of the past are no longer acceptable and that they have a voice.

From the Yasuni Initiative, by which the country would no longer rely upon the exploitation of its natural oil resources, to the analyzing of the IMF debt structure, hear from Correa and other Ecuadorean leaders as they present alternatives regarding their political, ecological and economic status in the global marketplace and how they will put their people and the planet before profits.

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/31882166

Web page: http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/ecuador/index.html

 

 

Resources:

http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/ecuador/index.html