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Spotlight on France
Gonzalo Arijon, France, 2009, 110 minutes
The political intent of Gonzalo Arijon’s cinematic essay is apparent from the opening scene in which Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez hands a copy of Eduardo Galeano’s seminal work Open Veins in Latin America to US president Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas. Galeano’s text encapsulates the tumultuous history of South America, but it also forms a jumping off point for the film’s narrative. In recent years the resurgence of the left, embodied in leaders such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Evo Morales in Bolivia, has been heralded as the dawn of a new age of self-determination and equality for South American nations. But of course, it’s never quite that simple. Eyes Wide Open – A Journey Through Today’s South America is an inherently political film, as much as it is a survey of the Southern continent. From Ecuador to Bolivia, Brazil to Nicaragua, as Arijon travels around, talking to ordinary people, the wealth and diversity of thought and opinion is staggering. Every person has strong feelings, not only about their own country, but about neighbouring nations as well.
The deep affection that Arijon holds for the different landscapes and the people they contain is clearly rendered as the filmmaker perambulates from the jungles of Brazil to the mean city streets. Interviews with Eduardo Galeano provide a particularly thoughtful approach to contemporary developments, but the leaders themselves shown in archival footage of speeches and rallies are of particular interest. Chávez acquits himself especially well, demonstrating just how he won the hearts and minds of the Venezuelan people. But Bolivia’s Evo Morales (Bolivia’s first president of Indigenous descent) and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are equally engaging and complex individuals. Eyes Wide Open makes an interesting companion to Bananas!* (also screening in DOXA this year), a film which also examines the implications of economic exploitation and environmental devastation wrought by multinationals on the land and the people of South America. Whether things have really changed, however, remains to be seen.
Audience Award, 2010 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 he has directed numerous documentaries. A master storyteller, Arijon’s work has garnered multiple awards. His subjects range from the intensely personal as with Stranded, I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountain (DOXA Closing Night 2008), the story of survival of a plane crash in the Andean mountains, to the exploration of broader socio political issues.
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