Sounds and Colours to Premiere Two Documentaries in London This June
12 June, 2012This June we’re presenting two new documentaries in London. On Friday 15th June we’ll be screening Cartas Para Angola at Passing Clouds as part of a Movimientos night of film and music. We’ll then be teaming up with Canning House to show Peruvian documentary The Devil Operation on Wednesday 20th June, with a Q&A to follow.
The Movimientos night on Friday 15th June will feature live music from Wara and MamaNoLlora as well as an assortment of DJs at Passing Clouds in East London. Starting the night though will be our presentation of Cartas Para Angola, a new documentary getting it’s UK Premiere here. The film explores via video postcards the relationships and cultural differences between people who have moved between Brazil, Portugal and Angola. Using this medium Brazilian film-makers Coraci Ruiz and Julio Matos have created a thought-provoking and often surprising study of identity, a topic with particular resonance in an ever-integrating world.
Here is the synopsis of the film from it’s producers:
Brazil and Angola while on either side of the Atlantic Ocean have the same language, a common colonial past and many shared stories. In this film, correspondence is exchanged between these two places – some people are longtime friends, others have never met. Their stories intertwine and tell about migration, nostalgia, belonging, war, prejudice, exile and distance. The search for identity and flow of memory are driven by the line of affection that binds the seven pairs of speakers presented in this documentary, people whose life stories are traced between Brazil, Angola and Portugal.
On Wednesday 20th June we’ll be presenting the UK premiere of The Devil Operation at Canning House, followed by a panel dicussion and Q&A session. The Devil Operation is a documentary showing the conflicts between Canada’s Newmont Mining Corporation and the local Peruvians who live where Newmont are planning to expand their gold mining operations.
Initially simply fearful of their environment being destroyed by the mine’s expansion – and their livelihoods with it – the film soon becomes a tale of spies and espionage as a private security firm begins tracking the Peruvians’ every movements. In a documentary focused on the environment and depicting the power of protest and social movements it’s this almost “Hollywood-worthy” twist that shows how far large corporations are willing to go in order to please their shareholders. The Devil Operation is directed by Stephanie Boyd. Here is the official synopsis for the film:
Father Marco, a humble priest from the mountains of Peru, is being followed. A private security firm is filming and photographing the priest’s every move; their meticulous reports are code-named “The Devil Operation”. Marco’s allies are murdered and tortured, but he and his disciples refuse to be victims. They turn their cameras on the spies and develop a counter-espionage plan that leads to South America’s largest gold mine, owned by the Newmont Mining Corporation of Colorado. For the past two decades, Father Marco has defended farming communities against the Yanacocha mine’s abuses, earning him the nickname ‘The Devil’. Peru is one of the world’s top gold producers and the state has ceded power to transnational corporations who guard their territory like outlaws in the Wild West. Film-maker Stephanie Boyd has spent 10 years documenting the farmer’s struggle and became caught up in this real-life political thriller.
More information on the Movimientos night featuring Cartas Para Angola can be found here
More information on the screening of The Devil Operation can be found here
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