Princeton Environmental Film Festival: Patrimonio

Patrimonio begins in 2015 as a mega development is poised to engulf a small Mexican community with a vast hotel/condo complex called Tres Santos. Marketed to wealthy Americans as “green” and “mindful,” Tres Santos threatens to transform and overwhelm the idiosyncratic desert town of Todos Santos, quadrupling its population and causing irreversible damage: not only are the fishermen being forced off the beach they’re used for generations but the developers would also drain an already diminished aquifer, taking drinking water from a town where many residents have little or no access. Patrimonio tells a unique and inspiring story of resistance, a real-life tale about feisty fishermen who dared to stare down an American corporate Goliath – confronting their own government, denouncing corruption, demanding respect and refusing to blink first.

Film followed by a Q&A with director Sarah Teale