“Keepers of the Earth”, Director Presentation and Film Screening

The Latin American Studies Center Graduate Research Cluster

Presents

“Keepers of the Earth”

A film by Aaron Soto-Karlin and David Soto-Karlin

Monday April 9th, 5-7PM in Hellems 199

“Keepers of the Earth” follows the unlikely relationship between a former Guatemalan guerrilla, and Mexico’s leading environmentalists.  Both seek an end to poverty and deforestation, but they find themselves on opposite sides of the battle over an illegal squatter community in the heart of Mexico’s most important rainforest. Their story takes place in the Lacandon Jungle Chiapas, Mexico—a place where peasants fight for their rights. The jungle is the heart of the festering Zapatista rebellion and the core of the World Bank’s Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Mexico harbors the 5th greatest concentration of biodiversity worldwide and the Lancandon Jungle hides Mexico’s greatest riches.  As world leaders face a choice between environmental crisis and a green industrial revolution, the conflict in the Lacandon Jungle may hold the secret to prosperity.