Peru, 2017-2019
Peru is one of the countries with the highest of territory gave in concession to extractive industries. More than 15% is in concession to mining companies foreigner. For geological reasons the majority of those concessions are in the Andean area, over 3000 m a.s.l.
Cerro de Pasco has more than 70,000 inhabitants and has developed around a huge open pit quarry called El Tajo. A crater two kilometers long and wide and almost a kilometer deep from which tons of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver have been extracted. The waste rocks are poured into the environment causing irreparable damage to the inhabitants and the ecosystem.
Industrial pollution has made Cerro de Pasco one of the most polluted places on earth. If international standards were applied, 100% of the population would be rushed to hospital due to the presence of heavy metals in their bodies.
33% of infant mortality is due to congenital malformations and the incidence of cancer is four times the national average.
Despite the millions of dollars generated by over 400 years of mining exploitation, today Cerro de Pasco is one of the poorest cities in Peru. The health system is almost non-existent, the education system is close to collapse and the population receives no help from the government. The inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco live in a situation of social and economic exclusion.
In recent years the NGO Source International and local activists have been working to push international institutions to recognize the case of Cerro de Pasco as a crime against humanity.
In the documentary, Lourdes and her family live a few meters from a large lead mine that contaminates the environment in which they live. Lourdes’ children suffer from serious diseases caused by heavy metal pollution, with consequences on their life expectation. The need to take them away from that area that is killing them clashes with the social and economic impossibility of imagining a future anywhere else.
Featured on
Die Zeit
The Washington Post
FQ Millennium
Il Post
Artribune
Oltremare
Exhibitions
2024 Iquique, Cile
2024 Palazzo Ducale, Biennale itinerante del sociale, Genova, Italia
2024 Officine Fotografiche, Biennale itinerante del sociale, Roma, Italia
2024 Palazzo Averoldi, Biennale itinerante del sociale, Brescia, Italia
2022 Chippenham Museum
2022 Chatelherault House, Glasgow
2022 Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
2022 Oriel Colwyn, North Wales
2022 Newcastle Arts Centre
2022 FujiFilm House of Photography, London
2022 St John’s College, Oxford
Screenings
Cinema in Libertà, Case circondariali di Secondigliano e Poggioreale – Terramia Film Festival – Humans Fest, Valencia – Corto D’Orico, Ancona – Visioni Verticali, Potenza – Festival Internacional De Cine sobre Derechos Humanos – Bogocine – Festival de Cine de Bogotá – Roma Creative Contest – G Local DOC – Festival del Cinema dei Diritti Umani di Napoli – CortoDino Film Festival, Torre Annunziata – Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano – Sulmona International Film Festival – Fano Film Festival, Fano – ÍCARO – Festival Internacional de Cine en Centroamérica – Terra di Tutti Film Festival – Give Peace a Screen – Matera Film Festival – CineOFF, Jesi – Sezze Film Festival – ValdarnoCinema Film Festival – Festival Internazionale del Cinema Povero – Mario Puzo Film Festival – Aria Film Festival – Caselle Film Festival – Lucania Film Festival – Magna Graecia Film Festival – Clorofilla Film Festival – Festival de Cortometrajes de Medi Ambient Montseny – Ariano International Film Festival – Lucania Film Festival – Social World Film Festival – Festival dei Diritti a Baschi – Umbria Film Festival – Pärnu Film Festival – Mediterraneo Festival Corto – CinemAmbiente – Prato Film Festival – Life After Oil – Festival Internacional Cine Social Rio Negro – Los Angeles Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival – Festival Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote – West Nordic International Film Festival – AccordiDisaccordi – DIG Awards