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.