Flowers are Colombia’s third largest export. But behind the beauty of the carnations and chrysanthemums sold in the U.S. and Europe, lies a horror story of hazardous labor conditions for the 60,000 women who work in the flower industry. The use of pesticides and fungicides, some banned in the developed countries that export them, has had drastic health and environmental consequences. This beautiful and powerful documentary is the final collaborative effort of Marta Rodriguez and her husband Jorge Silva. The filmmakers evoke the testimonies of the women workers and document their efforts to organize with urgency and intimacy. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a documentary which has affected me so greatly. I was impressed by the directors’ sensitivity to their subject and deeply moved by the testimonies of the people interviewed. Such a balance of true craft and spirit is rare.” Laura Thielen, SF Film Festival. Directed by Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva, Columbia, 1988, 58 min.

Shown with Defending the Forests: The Struggle of the Campesino Environmentalists of Guerrero (Chiapas Media Project, Mexico, 2000, 18 min). The deforestation of Guerrero’s Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán mountain ranges dates back to the 1950s. In the 1970s, under then-governor Ruben Figueroa, logging increased, accompanied by militarization and repression of Guerrero’s rural communities. In 1994, with the signing of NAFTA, the transnational Boise Cascade Corporation began what resulted in the exploitation of thousands of kilometers of virgin forests, leaving deserts in its wake. Defending the Forests is the story of the Organization of the Campesino Environmentalists (OCE), created in 1998, and their success in halting Boise Cascade’s exploitation of their forests. The video describes, through the members of the OCE, the Mexican government’s campaign to destroy the OCE with the arrest and torture by the Mexican Military of OCE co-founders Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Both were recently sentenced to prison terms of seven and ten years on false charges of weapons and drug trafficking for their courageous activism in defense of the forests. Also screening Thursday, October 10, Ithaca College.

Cosponsored with the Latin American Studies Program, Gender and Global Change, and the Center for US-Latin American Relations.