The 16th annual Reel Stories film festival is just around the corner and will feature four days of hand-picked, thought-provoking documentary films from all over the world.
The festival will take place at the Uptown Theatre from February 20th to 23rd and tickets are $10 for each viewing. In anticipation of this event, we will be previewing a selection of films that you can check out this weekend at the festival.
Maxima
In the opening act of the film, Maxima and her husband are busily shearing the wool from a few of their sheep. Most come to rest and allow the family to do their work, except for one. However, struggle as it might, its defiance seems futile and eventually, Maxima and her husband calm the stubborn animal down and finish shearing its wool.
Maxima tells the story of an indigenous woman who faces often violent intimidation from a multi-billion dollar mining corporation who wants to expand operations onto her land. It is a classic David and Goliath story, or as Yanacocha (The aforementioned mining corporation) so thoughtlessly put it, an ant and an elephant.
Why then does the elephant have such trouble? For a company whose job it is to literally shift mountains, Maxima presents herself as an immovable object who can't be bought, intimidated, or scattered to the wind with a well-placed piece of dynamite. Maxima proves to be a towering symbol for not only the people of Peru but for the whole world.
This fight that presents itself to be about land and the almost certain chance that the areas water supply would be contaminated, quickly reveals itself to be a power struggle and a commentary on the lengths those who hold that power will go to in order to keep it. However, the tighter their grip gets, the bloodier their hands become, and just as the corruption of this corporation trickles all the way down to the drinking water, so too does it allow those who seek justice to follow the trail back up.
While she begins this struggle with only her family behind her, the people of Peru quickly take up the cause shouting "Maxima! Our Sister! The People are with you!". But even with their support and her unshakable dedication, it is an uphill battle. Maxima versus Yanacocha, ant versus elephant, David versus Goliath. It seems an impossible task, like a sheep struggling to resist the shear.
Featured image courtesy of the Barrie Film Festival
