En el nombre del Litio / In the name of Lithium, Argentina 2021

Directed by Tian Cartier and Martín Longo; Pía Marchegiani as Director of Farn’s research team. Produced by Calma Cine and Farn.

In the name of Lithium is a documentary about the struggle of the indigenous communities of north Argentina to prevent its salt flats, containing one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, from becoming a sacrifice zone to reduce global warming.

Two worldviews confront in the north of Argentina. On one hand, the original communities of the salars in their fight to defend their traditions and the ecosystem. And, on the other, the contemporary world in its desperate need to find lithium, an alternative to oil, and be able to store renewable energy, without questioning its extracting methods.

The outcome for the communities is unfavorable: they are not considered in decision-making, nor in operating profits. And the political-economic, national, and international interests are increasingly fierce. The total colonization of their salt flats seems inevitable, and their traditions seem to be condemned to extinct in order to save it.

The film has the support of the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts and Cultural Patronage of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.

3:20-3:25 - Welcome, brief intro about the documentary (release, production, place of production, etc.).

3:25-4:40 - Film screening

4:40 - 5:15  - Q&A and conclusions