22 min, 2022, Italy
Original language: Spanish
Subtitles: Italian, English
Genre: Documentary
Aspect Ratio: 2:35:1
Shooting Format: Color Digital Film
Sound Mix: Stereo
Directed: Stefano Sbrulli
Written: Luca Marinacci, Stefano Sbrulli
Editing: Luca Marinacci
Original Music: Slothdance & Noiregg
Filmed: Stefano Sbrulli
On-line Editor: Michele Fuccio
Mix Audio: Claudio Marani
Color-Correction: Gianluca Borgogelli
Illustration: Ginevra Vacalebre
Post-Production: Noisevideo Digital Media
Artwork: Stefano Sbrulli
Producer: Stefano Sbrulli
With the support: Source International
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.
DONDE LOS NIÑOS NO SUEÑAN
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.
AWARDS
2022 Urbanautica Institute Awards – Shortlist
2021 Documentary Photographer of the Year – RPS
2021 Belfast Photo Festival – Shortlist
2021 Zine Tonic Award – Honorable Mention
2020 Zeiss Photography Award – Shortlist
2020 MIFA – Honorable Mention
2020 IPA – Honorable Mention
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