Landfill Film by Cecilia Aldarondo

Landfill - Film by Cecilia Aldarondo

Through shard-like glimpses of everyday life in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico, Landfall is a cautionary tale for our times. Set against the backdrop of protests that toppled the US colony’s governor in 2019, the film offers a prismatic portrait of collective trauma and resistance. While the devastation of María attracted a great deal of media coverage, the world has paid far less attention to the storm that preceded it: a 72-billion-dollar debt crisis crippling Puerto Rico well before the winds and waters hit.

Landfall examines the kinship of these two storms—one environmental, the other economic—juxtaposing competing utopian visions of recovery. Featuring intimate encounters with Puerto Ricans as well as the newcomers flooding the island, Landfall reflects on a question of contemporary global relevance: When the world falls apart, who do we become?

Online 19 Feb - 91 mins, English and Spanish with subtitles, 2020. Blackscrackle Films.

Q/A with Cecilia Aldarondo in English with Spanish interpretation, February 24, 7:30pm EST/12:30 am GMT (Feb 25) Details at UMass History - Planet on a Precipice (Feinberg Series)