For showtimes for "Marmato" at Heartland, click here.
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Documentary can be one of the most powerful forms of filmmaking; very little is as compelling as the drama and emotion of real people and real events. As the form has surged in popularity in recent years, the line between true documentary and narrative films seems to get blurrier.
The genre is popular with audiences, but often the films themselves are so infused with agendas and authorial intent that some would call them propaganda. Whenever directors fail to resist the temptation to inject themselves into the narrative (either via voiceover or, worse, onscreen) viewers need to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. So it is refreshing when a documentary comes along that takes pains to present a coherent story without leading the subjects or the audience along by the nose.
Beautiful and engaging, "Marmato" is a documentary about a 500-year-old Columbian mining town of the same name. The town sits on a gold deposit worth $20 billion, but very little of that fabulous wealth finds its way to the miners or the townspeople. The miners use antiquated tools and techniques that look like something out of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." The town itself is literally crumbling, and the people struggle to make ends meet and put their children through school. Despite the conditions, the people of Marmato are proud and love their traditional way of life.
That way of life becomes threatened when a Canadian mining company named Medoro Resources proposes a massive open pit mining project to more efficiently extract Marmato's gold. Of course, this project essentially means completely razing the town and displacing more than 8,000 people. In addition, the project would deplete the mine in a few decades. Without the mine that has served as its lifeblood for hundreds of years, Marmato would quickly cease to exist.
"Marmato" follows the stories of several of the town's inhabitants. The central figure throughout the film is Jose Dumar, a miner with a wife and five children. Dumar provides much of the context for everyday life in Marmato. Every day, he gets up and blesses each member of his family and kisses them goodbye — a touching ritual that also reminds us that his work is dangerous and has claimed many lives. The film follows Dumar through the tunnels and shows the rugged, back-breaking work that goes into the outmoded mining system presently used in Marmato. Ropes, pulleys, carts, shovels and pickaxes (all powered by manual labor) combine with dynamite and the threat of cave-ins to make it a hard life. Jose and the other miners work hard and with good spirits, despite the uncertainty that hangs over the future of the mine. Dumar takes pride in his work and does it to provide for his family and give his children the opportunities he didn't have, such as an education.
Conrado is a farmer in Marmato who also owns one of the mines. He wants to sell his mine to Medoro but is holding out for a good price. Conrado is active, in his 70s and very concerned with money; after a lifetime of hard work, he wants to sell the mine and live out the rest of his life comfortably. He believes that Columbians should take advantage of foreign investors like Medoro because, like it or not, money makes the world run. His wife, Lucelly, is more skeptical; she values the peaceful life they have in Marmato and worries that money will change Conrado.
Lawerence Perkes is a Canadian driller working for Medoro. Throughout his 35-year career, he has never treated the countries he has worked in as much more than a drill site, but spending time with locals such as Jose has led Lawerence to feel sympathy for the people of Marmato. As his assignment in Columbia ends, he sits down with the miners and gives them the hard truth: "They are going to take this whole mountain down. I have seen it before and it will happen here. This town is finished." It's not a threat, but rather a warning that foreshadows what is to follow.
Luis Gonzaga is a local troubadour whose songs about the past and present are used to drive the documentary's narrative. His songs about the town, money and the encroaching foreign interests help provide context and explanation of what is happening. It's a very effective way of presenting the story to the viewer without resorting to voiceover commentary by the filmmakers. With this method, we get the viewpoint of one of the documentary's subjects rather than the filmmaker's interpretation. It's a welcome technique that keeps the story firmly rooted within the film's outstanding sense of time and place.
"Marmato" excels at presenting a complex situation in a way that is clear, objective and compelling. It's a complicated issue, and the pros and cons of both sides are presented. The people of Marmato would benefit immensely in the short term in terms of jobs and resources, but is it worth it to them to destroy the past in order to do so? In the case of Marmato, it may be very well be a choice between a town's slow, wasting death and a quick and profitable one. Even so, do governments and multinationals have the right to force that decision?
While it is easy to side with the underdog townspeople, the film does not go out of its way to demonize the mining company or set them up as the bad guys. But Medoro does itself no favors when we see a high-level executive lounging in his luxury apartment in South America showing off his rock garden, which includes rocks from excavation sites around the world.
"Marmato" simply presents their actions and the consequences and allows the viewers to draw their own conclusions. But as the film progresses, the manipulations of both the foreign investors and the Columbian government itself make it clear that the people of Marmato are under political, economic and, eventually, military siege.
The end result is a film that is beautiful, provocative and stirring. Director Mark Grieco realizes that a great documentary doesn’t need to force the narrative. Real life is a sweeping arc all its own.
4 Yaps
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