January 2006
“An essential, resounding, overwhelming story. The film is a cry of
outrage; the message, a cry of hope.”
Pablo Gentili, Public Policy Laboratory, Rio de Janeiro
“Important...disturbing...a film that views education from below,
from the classroom and the community. Anyone concerned about
education, human rights, labor unions, Latin America, and globalization will want to see this inspiring film.”
Mexican Labor News and Analysis
Nominated for the International Documentary Association’s 2005 Pare Lorentz Award
Winner Best Documentary, International Documentary Festival Tres
Continentes, Caracas, Venezuela
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Granito de Arena |
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Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand) is the inspiring, and sometimes
unsettling, story of the Mexican teachers’ movement and their
grassroots, non-violent struggle to defend public education from the
devastating impacts of economic globalization. |
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Award-winning filmmaker Jill Freidberg (This is What Democracy Looks Like) spent almost two years in southern Mexico documenting the strikes, marches, and direct actions of over 100,000 teachers, parents, and students fighting the privatization of Mexico’s public schools.
Interviews with internationally-recognized figures, such as Eduardo Galeano and Maude Barlow, place the Mexican teachers’ struggle in a global context, clearly spelling out the relationship between economic globalization and the worldwide public education crisis.
A sixty-minute documentary, Granito de Arena also gives voice to the increasing number of teachers within the movement who believe the movement itself is in crisis and who are exploring community-based alternatives in their struggle to defend public education.
Featuring a driving soundtrack by DJ Food, Slowrider, Correo Aereo, and Los
Mocosos, Granito de Arena fuels indignation, inspires action, and
raises important questions about democracy, sovereignty, and the universal right to public education.
See Granito de Arena at the Documentary Film Premiere in San Francisco, Wed., Feb. 8 at 7:30 pm. Brava Theater, 2781 24th Street, San Francisco. This is a Benefit Screening for CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival
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