MORICHALES
A film by Chris Gude
(USA/Colombia, 2024, 83 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
U.S. Premiere!

The third feature by director Chris Gude (Mambo Cool) is a lyrical, immersive documentary that journeys deep into Venezuela’s Guayana region, where vast gold reserves lie hidden beneath groves of moriche palms. Guided by a fictional explorer’s voice, the film moves from remote jungle mining camps to the banks of the Orinoco River, mapping the extraction and commercialization of gold while questioning extractive practices and humanity’s fraught relationship with the land.

Using evocative visuals, hand-drawn illustrations, 16mm film, and atmospheric sound, and through the voices and labors of the miners, the film explores the destructive relationship between people, land, and the global demand for resources. Juxtaposing the slow processes of geology with the urgency of extractive capitalism, Morichales becomes a poetic meditation on fortune, survival, ecological cost, nature, labor, and value.

Thursday, March 5, 7:30pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd St.)
For tickets and more information visit: https://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/59363

Presented as part of Lost & Found:  Cine(ma)s Latinoamericanos Re-unidos, co-programmed by Matías Piñeiro and Carlos A. Gutiérrez.