We follow the story of Alberto Pizango as two worlds collide between the people and the government.
Directed by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel, Sundance World Cinema Documentary special jury prize-winner, ‘When Two Worlds Collide’ received its international premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto International Film Festival 2016 and had its European premiere at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest.
‘When Two Worlds Collide’ is a powerful film about the conflict in Peru between the natives and their government. This film not only brings to light all the problems and corruption within the Peruvian government but lets you become part of the long battle to preserve the Amazon rain forest.
As the film begins the Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, is shown talking in a news conference to the people and business of America, asking them to bring their factories and businesses to Peru to make use of the land and resources they have to offer. This use of archive footage, dating back to 2006, gives some background as to how the conflict began, and allows us some perspective on the changes that are happening to the environment at this moment in time. The footage continues to show President Garcia in 2008 traveling to America to promote the Free Trade Agreement. All this is a great and very good way to allow us to see what was happening within the government at this moment in time.
Alberto Pizango then talks about his father’s words and how the next generations contribute to our world, the main message we get from this is to look after the planet that we have which in my opinion is a very strong message to send out.  Shown is a local maternity/health ward that is full of mothers and babies that are having side effects from the said oil. The water is unclean and is full of harmful toxins that are causing serious harm to the local people, this is leading to some gaining blood poisoning and dying, this is followed by an image of a boy showering in this harmful water.
As things start getting worse, the Amazon police and army start attacking the people who were protesting, this is when things hit the all time low for the people. As we see footage of the shootings and people who are getting injured I became outraged that the government would allow this to happen, to its own people.
Altogether I believe this movie has a very powerful message that anyone could pick up and it would have the people thinking about the damage we are doing to the environment, this film would give anyone a different view on the planet around us and what some people are giving up to protect it.
‘When Two Worlds Collide’ is out in cinemas now – see here for details of screening times and venues.
