FILM SYNOPSIS:

In his 1971 standard work Open Veins in Latin America, Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano describes the centuries of economic exploitation of his part of the world. Almost 40 years later, Uruguayan documentary filmmaker Gonzalo Arijon reevaluates the situation in Eyes Wide Open -- A Journey through Today's South America. His search takes him from the soybean plantations of the Brazilian Amazon and the tin mines of Bolivia to the deep jungles of Ecuador. Arijon, shows how the current crop of leftist leaders in these countries are attempting to resist the squandering of natural resources by large, international companies.

Their platform?  To seek ways of answering the enormous challenges presented by inequality and social exclusion. How they meet these challenges will depend largely on the consolidation of economic and political integration in the region, an integration that should at last make it possible for Latin Americans to be the masters of their own destinies, less dependent on the economic recipes handed out by “the North” and especially by Washington policy makers. 

Arijon's politically committed film allows the local populations to speak for themselves, interspersing man-on-the-street views with archive footage of speeches by the likes of Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Lula da Silva (Brazil), and Evo Morales (Bolivia). Audience Award winner, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Galeano, sometimes in poetic language, talk about how the rise of socialist governments in the early 21st century is benefiting Latin America, and what more can be done. Audience Award winner, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

 

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY:

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay,  Gonzalo Arijon has been living in France since 1979 and is a citizen of both countries. He studied anthropology and filmmaking and for the past 15 years has directed numerous documentaries. A master storyteller who has won multiple awards, Arijon’s work includes the intensely personal Stranded, I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountain as well as explorations of broader socio-political issues.