Streams of Gold
•
Landlocked Films Presents
Streams
of Gold
From West Texas to
the mountains of Ecuador --
a grandfather's legacy, a town's history,
a people's
memory of a promise made long ago.
To order a copy,
click here
To view the trailer,
click here
When Mellick Tweedy rode his
mule into the Ecuadoran mining camp of Portovelo in 1916 seeking gold, he firmly
believed in the power of industrial capitalism to bring prosperity and freedom
to the world. Over the years, as the isolated camp grew into a booming company
town, Mellick and Portovelo experienced both the promise and the poverty of this
vision. Ultimately, embittered workers confronted the American company in the
name of a new and radically different set of beliefs – and set in motion tragic
events that swept the town far downstream from Mellick’s youthful ideals.
Portovelo today still bears the marks of that human flood of nearly a century ago. But the streams of gold that once flowed from the town into the great rivers of the global economy are now mostly dry. In Streams of Gold, filmmaker John Tweedy journeys back through the family myths surrounding his grandfather and paints a complex portrait of a man whose personal struggles in the mountains of Ecuador mirror the great ideological battles of the twentieth century. Through the film’s conversations with old miners, their children and grandchildren, we experience the thirst of a town still searching for prosperity and freedom in an era of exhausted veins and closed borders.
Streams of Gold had its world premiere in the cities of Portovelo, Zaruma, and Machala, Ecuador, in April 2004, before a combined audience of over 800 people.
-Winner of the 2005 NAFDMA Insight Award for Excellence
-Broadcast nationally on Free Speech TV
Screenings:
-World Premiere,
Portovelo, Zaruma, Machala, Ecuador, April 13, 13, 14, 2004
-Cine
Las Americas, Austin, TX, April 24, 2004
-Toronto
Hispano-American Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, May 30, 2004
-Cine
Acción's ¡Cine Latino! Film Festival, San Francisco, CA,
September 19, 2004
-Vistas
Film Festival, Dallas, TX, October 1, 2004
-Starz
Denver International Film Festival, Denver, CO, October 17 & 18, 2004
-Santa
Fe Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM, December 4, 2004
-Boulder
International Film Festival, Boulder, CO, February 19, 2005
-Festival
Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay, Punta del Este, Uruguay, March
19-April 3, 2005
-Artivist
Film Festival, Hollywood, CA, April 21, 2005
-Encuentros
del Otro Cine, Quito and
Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 28-May 10, 2005
-Noveno
Encuentro Latinoamericano de Cine -- Festival elcine, Lima, Peru, August 10,
2005
-Quito
Mountain Film Festival, Quito,
Ecuador, October 10, 2005
-Boston
Latino International Film Festival, Boston, MA, October 23, 2005
-Queens
International Film Festival, Rego Park, NY, November 17, 2005
-Documentary
Cinema Institute, Boulder, CO,
January 10, 2006
Praise for "Streams of Gold":
"This is a very
moving portrayal that spirals into the awful realities of of global extraction
of local resources, and touches meaningfully on the human faces therein."
--Norman E. Whitten, Jr., Journal of Latin American Anthropology
(click here for full review)
"Tracing one's roots is an enduring, universal yearning, and filmmaker Tweedy weaves his uneasy genealogical journey, which is inextricably intertwined with Ecuador's early attraction to capitalism. Streams of Gold would be a unique addition to large public libraries." Nancy Spillman, Library Journal
"A beautiful documentary. It made me want to weep for all that it makes us remember." -- Narcisa Munoz, Portovelo, Ecuador
"Streams of Gold is a beautifully shot documentary dissecting the effects of dependent economic development on a small, isolated mining community. It is a vivid portrayal of the complicated relationship between global capital and local communities." -- Marc Becker, Truman State University
"This wonderfully evocative film spans the twentieth-century history of economic
globalization and U.S.-Latin American relations. It is accessible
and personal, but at the same time provides a nuanced view of the contradictions
involved in extractive economies in the Third World. " -- Kim Clark,
University of Western Ontario.
Available in DVD with English or Spanish subtitles. To order, click here.