Darwin's Nightmare
A powerful look at the ecological and economic impact of globalization
The West's plundering of the natural resources of Third World countries may not be a new story, but Austrian director Hubert Sauper's compelling documentary succeeds in revealing the subject in a memorable new light. Focussing on the fishing community of Mwanza on the shore of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, Darwin's Nightmare follows its impoverished inhabitants who export their catches to Europe and Japan in return for Russian cargo planes full of arms and ammunition destined for civil wars in neighbouring countries.
Darwin's Nightmare begins with a "little scientific experiment" in the 60s, when a bucketful of Nile Perch was introduced into the world's largest tropical lake. This fish turned out to be a ruthless predator, multiplying rapidly and wiping out all the other species in the waters. Whilst the locals sell the white fillets to overseas markets, they themselves are forced to eat scraps from the rotting perch carcasses. Mwanza's population, meanwhile, has been decimated by AIDS, with many of the women turning to prostitution and gangs of glue-sniffing, orphaned children left to roam the streets.
Juxtaposing natural beauty and human hardship, Sauper lets his film unfold at an unhurried pace and he interviews, sometimes secretly, an impressive range of people connected to events in Mwanza. He speaks to pilots, factory owners, fishermen, bar girls, priests and journalists. Half the Tanzanian population, it emerges, subsists on less than $1 dollar a day, and one man explains how war is hoped for, because at least men can then be paid by the government to fight. It's a shocking reminder of how what Darwin called the "survival of the fittest" depends on the exploitation of the least economically privileged. (T. Dawson, BBC)
Darwin's Nightmare
Sat November 5, 2005, 7:00 & 9:15, Muenzinger Auditorium
107 min, Austria, 2004, in English, Color
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
International Film Series
(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
C.U. Film Program
(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.