Document Type
Film
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
The Power of the People: A Collective Struggle for Life and the Environment features the experiences of Jobos Bay residents in southeastern Puerto Rico. Community members strive to live good lives, while resisting the ongoing toxic assault caused by power plants and other extractivist industries that poison human and more-than-human bodies in this beautiful region and ecosystem. The Jobos Bay area residents featured in this film record and amplify their voices by literally taking power into their own hands, confronting environmental racism and injustice. El poder del pueblo documents grave problems and urgent alternatives in the form of solar community projects that transform both electric and people power. As a methodological intervention and a form of refusal, film production team members challenge (neo)colonial filmmaking and research that often targets their communities via the extraction of images, stories, and testimonies. El poder del pueblo is by and for the Jobos Bay community and was made with support from longtime coalitional partners in the US Puerto Rican diaspora. These collective energies radically reimagine community documentary work and join with other people and places throughout the world struggling for self-determined environmental, climate, and energy justice.
Rights
© 2021 Jose Luis Baerga Aguirre, Catalina de Onís, Hery Colon Zayas
Recommended Citation
Baerga Aguirre, Jose Luis; de Onís, Catalina M.; and Zayas, Hery Colon, "El poder del pueblo: Una lucha colectiva por la vida y el medioambiente / The Power of the People: A Collective Struggle for Life and the Environment" (2021). University of Montana Staff Publications. 7.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/staff_pubs/7
Film trailer for El poder del pueblo/The power of the people
Comments
Director José Luis Baerga Aguirre
Co-productores/Co-producers José Luis Baerga Aguirre Catalina M. de Onís
Videógrafos/Videographers & Co-editores/Co-editors José Luis Baerga Aguirre Hery Colón Zayas
Consultores de producción/Production Consultants Víctor Alvarado Guzmán Mabette Colón Pérez Hilda Lloréns Ruth Santiago
Entrevistadores/Interviewers Víctor Alvarado Guzmán José Luis Baerga Aguirre Hery Colón Zayas Catalina M. de Onís
Entrevistados/Interviewees Víctor Alvarado Guzmán Alberto Colón Aldwin Colón Burgos Hery Colón Zayas José Joel Cordero Hernández José Cordero Santel Ismenia Figueroa Matos Adneris Hernández Rivera Carmen De Jesús Daniel De Jesús Hernán Lamboy Collazo Humberto Martín Martínez Luis A. Nieves Flores Héctor Luis “Güito” Sánchez De Jesús Santiago Santel Ruth Santiago Roberto José Thomas Ramírez
Subtítulos por/Subtitles by José Luis Baerga Aguirre, Mabette Colón Pérez, Tania Cordero, Catalina M. de Onís & Ruth Santiago
Agradecimientos/With Special Thanks Eduardo Burgos, Ian X. Cora, Erasmo Cruz, Bryan De Jesús, Juan A. De Jesús Ofray, José Rivera Santiago, Gloriangelys Rodríguez Rodríguez, Yaminette Rodríguez, Pedro Ángel Rivera, Juan Rosario & Nelson Santos Torres
Coal Ash Mitigation Fund, University of Colorado Denver, Waterhouse Family Institute, Willamette University & Working Films