Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley
Saturday, October 17, 12:30 pm, University Christian Church
By suggested donation of $5
Jesse Freestone, 91 min, Honduras/Canada
The morning of June 28th, 2009. The people of Honduras are preparing to vote in their first-ever referendum. The proposition is to write a new constitution, and a ‘yes’ vote could dramatically transform the country. Three-quarters of Hondurans weren’t even alive the last time an elected government was overthrown in Central America, yet they awake to find soldiers everywhere and reports that President Manuel Zelaya has been kidnapped by the military.
A nation-wide movement, known simply as ‘The Resistance,’ rises in opposition. Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley follows the protagonists behind the most daring wing of the movement, the farmers of the Aguan Valley. Not satisfied with marching and blocking highways, the farmers take over the palm oil plantations of Miguel Facussé, the country’s largest landowner and a key player in the coup. The camera follows three members of the movement over the four-year period between their takeover of the plantations and the elections they hope will restore democracy.
The power of land is observed in both the transformation seen in the lives of those that take it, as well as in the violence unleashed by the man that loses it. For the first time in their lives, the farmers find themselves with no boss and plenty of fertile land on which to build their dream community. Meanwhile, roughly every two weeks a member of the movement is gunned-down by Facussé’s hitmen.
Looking for a long-term solution, many of the farmers join the Resistencia’s new political party. But are the same forces that overthrew the last elected president prepared to hand power back in an election?
