PATAGONIA RISING examines the fight against a major dam project in Chile
Patagonia Rising (Brian Lilla, 2011)
Cinema Village
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Opens Friday, June 8
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patagoniarising.com
For generations, gauchos have been roaming through southern Chile, living off the land along the Baker and Pascua Rivers. But the lifestyle of these South American cowboys, as well as their surrounding environment, is being threatened by the potential construction of five dams along the two rivers. In Patagonia Rising, filmmaker Brian Lilla examines the hard-fought battle currently going on between the ranchers and farmers and hidroAysén, the global corporation behind the massive project. Lilla (Tale of Two Bondage Models, Ghetto Fabulous) speaks to such families as the Sanchezes, the Sandovals, and the Arratias, whose livelihoods and culture are being threatened; glaciologists who point out the environmental damage the dams can cause, especially given the climate change that is wreaking havoc in Patagonia; a hidroAysén general manager who explains that the project will bring much-needed energy resources to Chile while also being environmentally sound and sustainable; and other scientific experts and activists, as well as a few gauchos who are in favor of the dams. Patagonia Rising features beautiful shots of the region, but they are carefully situated to play on viewers’ sympathies in a mostly one-sided documentary earnestly narrated with a lack of authority by Carla Wilkins. The film comes off as a sounding board for the anti-dam movement, but it still raises important points about the future of the area and the possibility of developing alternative energy sources that would be more friendly to the land and its inhabitants.