Normally the Real to Reel programme is a big one for me at TIFF, as I’m a big fan of documentaries, but this year I chose only two. It Might Get Loud was all kinds of fun, but different than the kind of documentary I’d normally enjoy.
Under Rich Earth (tiff), on the other hand, is precisely the kind of documentary I like to watch. It grabbed you right away, something I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a story about mining politics in a small Ecuadorian village. I knew nothing about this story, despite it having a local connection: the mining company involved in the dispute is Canadian mining company Ascendant Copper Corporation. It centered on a series of recent confrontations between the villagers and paramilitaries (whom the villagers allege were hired by Ascendant, which the company denied), and from there spirals out to include politics, government corruption, economic pressures, PR, globalization and a host of other factors which the documentary maker just didn’t have time to go into, but did touch on in his Q&A afterward.
If you want to know more about the film and the topic, check out UnderRichEarth.com.
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[tags]tiff, tiff08, under rich earth[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
Just saw this at the Human Rights Watch film fest – sadly not the only documentary I’ve seen about overseas (and local) practices by Canada’s mining industry. Unlike other developed nations, the Canadian economy is more dependent on primary industries like mining; Canada is notorious for being incredibly lax w/them in terms of regulation… There’s a site called MiningWatch that covers this pretty well.