Streams of Gold / Quebradas de Oro
A filmmaker’s journey to uncover his family’s past in the gold mines of Ecuador.
Streams of Gold / Quebradas de Oro traces the history of an American company’s presence in an Andean mining town called Portovelo from the 1890’s to World War II, where filmmaker John Tweedy’s grandparents lived and worked for nearly 30 years. Silent film footage and photographs from the 1920s and 30s are pieced together with the recollections of old miners, their children and grandchildren to form a moving mosaic of the struggles of a town whose history was intertwined with an American company for three generations, and whose uncertain future reveals much about the nature of global economics today. Streams of Gold was shown at over 20 film festivals in the U.S. and abroad, and broadcast on Free Speech TV. It is available in English and Spanish versions.
Released in 2004.
Festivals and Awards
Cine Las Americas
Toronto Hispano-American Film Festival
Cine Acción’s ¡Cine Latino! Film Festival
Boulder International Film Festival
Festival Cinematográfico Internacional (Uruguay) Artivist Film Festival
Noveno Encuentro Latinoamericano de Cine (Peru)
Denver Film Festival
Santa Fe Film Festival
Encuentros del Otro Cine (Ecuador)
Quito Mountain Film Festival (Ecuador)
Boston Latino International Film Festival
Queens International Film Festival
Documentary Cinema Institute
Vistas Film Festival
“This is a very moving portrayal that spirals into the awful realities of global extraction of local resources and touches meaningfully on the human faces therein.”
Norman E. Whitten, Jr.,
Journal of Latin American Anthropology
“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.”
Library Journal
“A beautiful documentary. It made me want to weep for all that it makes us remember. “
Narcisa Muñoz, 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