Eyes Wide Open

A trip through modern South America

In 1971, Uruguayan journalist and writer Eduardo Galeano published his landmark work Open Veins of Latin America, in which he comprehensively described the centuries of economic exploitation of Latin America. Almost 40 years later, filmmaker Gonzalo Arijon reevaluates the situation. His search takes him from the soybean plantations of the Brazilian Amazon to the tin mines of Bolivia to the deep jungles of Ecuador. Arijon’s politically committed film allows the local populations to speak for themselves, interspersing this with archival footage of speeches by Hugo Chávez, Lula da Silva and Evo Morales. Galeano himself also speaks—sometimes in poetic language— about how the rise of socialist governments in the early 21st century is benefitting Latin America, and what more can be done.