Maxima

CLAUDIA SPARROW | USA & LIMA | 2019 | 88'

One woman’s fight against corporate greed.

An indigenous woman from the Peruvian Andes who cannot read or write, stands up to the largest gold producer in the world, US-based Newmont Mining Corporation.

It may look like a bare patch of land, but to Máxima and her family it’s the centre of their lives. Aerial shots of the landscape are marred by an enormous crater – the shape of an upturned pyramid some 200 meters deep. This is the neighbouring goldmine bent on expansion – and it’s going to swallow up Máxima’s plot.

Máxima becomes a symbol for the battle for human rights. While she fights one court case after the other, the mining company plows up her potato field.

As one human rights lawyer sums it up: “You can’t eat gold.”

Credits

Director: Claudia Sparrow
Producers: Ryan Schwartz, Claudia Sparrow
Language: English & Spanish
Awards: Audience Award, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival