6:00pm Monday 7th September
Dendy Opera Quays
The Festival’s Microcinema represents a space for audiences to connect with the communities represented in the films through guest speaker discussion. Each session will present a series of themes of contemporary relevance in Latin America today that resonate on Australian soil.
The Healer (La Curacion) screens on Monday 8th September explores the realities of practising Shamans in Ecuador and takes stock of the evolving attitudes towards both traditional and western medicine.
Kaplana Ram, Head of Anthropology at Macquarie University will facilitate a panel of speakers including practising shamanic and indigenous healers on the subject of traditional medicine. Also from Macquarie Uni, Chris Kavelin will discuss protection of Indigenous medical knowledge and the idea of regionally based Indigenous owned pharmaceutical companies. Byron Serrano, a member of Babana Mens Group and one of the facilitators of the Family and Culture Day in Redfern will join the panel to address the role mens groups play in the healing of communities.
Tuesday’s evening session will feature the emotionally charged documentary When Clouds Clear that follows an Ecuadorian community’s victorious resistance against displacement by an international mining company. Wooed by promises of wealth, and causing irreparable divisions between families, suddenly these once peaceful farmers find themselves thrust into a dangerous world of corruption, splintered households, murder and arson as they fight to protect their land and families.
Local filmmaker Alejandra Canales will facilitate a post film panel discussion on mining, the question of sovereignty, and the struggle for authority over land. Linking the stories in the film to similar issues in Australia, the discussion will highlight the Lake Cowal Campaign, an almost 20 year struggle in Western NSW between traditional owners and an international mining company that is currently being fought in the Supreme Court. The speakers will offer insight into the similarities of the experiences in Australia with those in communities in Chile, Peru and Ecuador.