DMF Grantee Beth Bird Wins at L.A. Film Festival

by Lewis Wright, DMF Board Member

(July, 2005) - Everyone Their Grain of Sand, a film which has received grants for two years running from the Diane Middleton Foundation, tells the very personal story of the working class community of Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is a community predominantly run by

women. Maclovio Rojas has around 2,000 families, with 65% of them working in the surrounding maquiladoras. Those workers face unbearable conditions for $3-4 a day including health and safety hazards, and predatory sexual behavior by management.

The film is told with stark simplicity, pulling the curtain back to demonstrate how the power of the state, working on behalf of corporate international giants, cannot crush the will of a united community lead by dedicated, charismatic women and men.

Four years in the making, this film shows how to tell a story. By bringing the viewer to ground zero and by sharing in the victories and defeats of the community, film maker Beth Bird was able to amplify to the world a compelling story which the corporate powers would rather have been swept under the rug of history.

The film had already received accolades in Europe when Beth Bird brought it to the Los Angeles Film Festival. There it won the "Best Documentary, $50,000 Target" award.

The Festival Judges made this statement about the film: “This year’s Target Documentary Award winner is a return to unvarnished, passionate documentary filmmaking. It's a testimony to the importance of access and dedication, both of which culminate in an engrossing look at issues of corporate power and international politics as they bear down on the lives of ordinary citizens. With a deceptive simplicity, this film captures the courage and resilience of those who rise up to ‘fight the power.’”

- Lewis Wright,
DMF Board Liaison to Everyone Their Grain of Sand

 

 

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