Watershed intimately captures agrarian life in the heart of the Andes Mountains and portrays the struggle of a Chilean farming community to preserve its culture, land, and water rights.
With the influx of large-scale mining projects, local residents suddenly confront an imminent threat to the watershed system upon which their livelihood depends. The focus of the conflict is the Pascua Lama open-pit gold mine, situated high in the Andes mountain range on the border of Chile and Argentina.
The approval of Pascua Lama has opened this ecologically fragile region to various other industrial projects, which are drastically altering the landscape, forcing rural and indigenous communities off of ancestral lands, and hastening environmental devastation. On a global level, available freshwater represents less than half of 1 percent of the world's water. Massive industrial development is disrupting the balance between humans and nature and has increased the demand for water in resource-scarce areas.
Through personal testimonies and powerful visual storytelling, this documentary sheds light on the implications of unfettered industrial growth and the global issue of diminishing natural resources. We have been following the story as it unfolds in the Huasco Valley and interviewing local residents, natural resource specialists, government representatives, and legal and business professionals who are invested in promoting responsible development and sustainability in Chile and throughout South America.
We completed a short version of Watershed in 2008 in order to meet the immediate needs of activists and educators seeking media to raise awareness about the current struggle. This short film has been screened at community gatherings, international film festivals, museums, media activism workshops, and high schools and universities in Chile.
We are planning to return to Chile to follow the story as it develops. Huasco Valley residents continue to peacefully resist the massive industrial development that threatens their water resources as production at the Pascua Lama gold mine remains uncertain. There is very little transparency on the part of government and company officials, and community members themselves do not know what will happen. Relationships, politics, and way of life in the Valley are slowly changing as a result of this conflict. We believe it is crucial to document the incredible transformation of the region and how such development affects a community and a landscape over time.
Produced and Directed by Lauren Rosenfeld. Edited by Anthony Rauld. 
