À ciel ouvert
Open Sky
Iñès Compan
»Kollas thus become victims of the globalization with this new mining boom associated to the decreasing metal exchange rate, essential to the technological development of our modern societies.«
– Iñès Compan
Puna, Argentina: due to the natural resources of the region, the local indigenous Kolla population are caught in the middle of national and international struggles for these resources, but nobody is bothered about their rights. Iñès Compan gives these people a voice. The Canadian company Standard Silver wants to reopen the abandoned silver mine of Mina Pirquitas, 4,500 metres above sea level. They want to make it one of the most productive open-cast mines in South America. There are prospects of gigantic profits for the global player, which stand in absurd contrast to the poverty of the Kollas. Resistance begins to form in their ranks, sensitively captured by Iñès Compan with sympathy and outstanding camerawork in this impressive landscape. In the opening sequence, the Kollas occupy a country road in the middle of nowhere, because their demand for the completion of the small village school, which is still just a shell, has for years fallen on deaf ears.
Film Programme If You Don’t Fight Back
Iñès Compan
Iñès Compan studied biology in Toulouse and Paris, where in 1993 she gained her doctorate in microbiology and worked until 1995 in the Institut Pasteur. In 1996, she enrolled in the documentary film class in the Atelier Varan in Paris. Since her graduation, she has made numerous documentations, including contributions for the Archimedes Magazine, which is broadcast by ARTE. In 1994, she visited Puna in Argentina for the first time, and in the following years she stayed with the indigenous population of the Kollas for lengthy periods. In all her films Iñès Compan is both director and cinematographer. She moved back to Toulouse and has lived there since 1999.
Films by Iñès Compan
Entre deux bleds 2003 | Armoise, Ambre de l’Altas 2002 | Du vent dans le voile 2002 | Manège à mouches 2002 | Nanobruette 2002 | Au temps de Romaines 2002 | La vie devant toi 1999 | La zeste de Zen 1996
