Everyone Their Grain of Sand
USA / Mexico, 87 minutes
Director: Beth Bird
Screenwriter: Beth Bird
Documentary, In Spanish & English, with English subtitlesSynopsis: Everyone Their Grain of Sand chronicles the struggles of the fiercely determined citizens of Maclovio Rojas, Tijuana, Mexico, as they battle the state government's attempts to evict them from their land to make way for corporate development. Over a three-year period, filmmaker Beth Bird followed the remarkably spirited and resourceful residents as they built a school by hand and persistently petitioned the state for such basic services as running water and pay for their teachers. The government responded with bureaucratic stonewalling and the systematic persecution of community leaders—eventually arresting one and forcing others into hiding. The filmmaker balances the story of hardships with glimpses of the community's hard-won triumphs - including an elementary school graduation - that reminds us what the community is fighting for. Both heartbreaking and inspiring, Everyone Their Grain of Sand offers a rare look at the devastating human cost of economic globalization in a place where working people are often treated like nothing more than cheap labor for multinational corporations.
Website: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c680.shtmlShowtimes: Saturday, April 29, 8:30 PM - Monday, May 1, 4:00 PM