Filmographies - films at UST by Country: Ecuador

Star anchorman Manolo Bonilla has flown to a small town in Ecuador with producer Marisa and cameraman Ivan on the trail of a child serial killer and rapist. The accidental death of a young boy brings the town to the verge of lynching Vinicio Cepeda, a humble traveling salesman. Manolo's intervention saves the man's life, and makes a great story for his show in Miami. Vinicio is put in jail for involuntary manslaughter and he offer Manolo information about the "Monstruo" in exchange for a news story on TV about his wrongful imprisonment. Manolo accepts, powerfully drawn to the dark side he senses in Vinicio. He begins to break the rules, determined to be the hero who single-handedly stops the killer.

A predawn murder sets in motion a series of interlocking tragedies that eventually find their way to the city morgue's brooding Dr. Arturo Fernandez. Physically and emotionally isolated from the world around him, Arturo develops an oddly intimate relationship with the personal lives of his cases, gradually forcing him to confront his connection to the living, and the dead.

A whaling ship carrying Herman Melville arrives in Peru, where he finds Manuela Saenz, the former mistress of Simon Bolivar. Her life story enfolds as she rereads letters from Bolivar which recount her life as a colonel in his movement to unite South America into one nation.

Esperanza and Tristeza, two young adventurers, set out on a trip through the mountains and coasts of Ecuador. Ironically when the bus they are traveling on breaks down, they decide to continue on their own and it is then that their real journey begins. Everyone they meet along the way will make them discover a different facet of themselves and the true meaning of love.

Salvador, a young naive petty thief, is about to be shaken with the arrival of his cousin Angel, an ex-convict in search of easy money and a hideout. Salvador gets wrapped in his cousin's twisted dealings in an attempts to escape from his environment in a poverty stricken Ecuador. Dragging along his family and friends, Salvador ends up destroying the few things that made sense in his life.

In the search for the 'black gold' that drives Western economies, multinationals are working to extract billions of dollars of oil reserves from beneath Ecuador's rainforest. Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow investigates the operations of the EnCana Corporation, a large Canadian oil firm that, despite proud public declarations of its social responsibility, is shown to be answerable for widespread environmental contamination and human rights violations. Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow focuses on EnCana's development of a heavy crude pipeline from the Amazon, across the earthquake-prone Andes, to the Pacific coast for export. Filmmaker Nadja Drost follows the pipeline, along the way interviewing farmers, indigenous community representatives, and environmental activists, among others, who recount forced relocation, imprisonment, and intimidation, including shootings and beatings, by the Ecuadorian police and army. Avoiding government and corporate security agents, Drost also documents unsafe construction methods, toxic waste deposits, and contamination of rivers, as well as effects on Ecuadorians in terms of skin cancer, miscarriages and birth defects, and destruction of wildlife and natural preserves. Occasionally dredging up a lump of foul-smelling crude on the end of a stick, the filmmaker here becomes, literally, a muck-raking journalist. We also see Drost presenting evidence of corporate misdeeds to Ecuadorian government bureaucrats, and confronting EnCana's CEO at a stockholders' meeting. Ultimately, Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow is a revealing case study of the troubling connections between multinational corporations, Western consumption patterns, and the resultant devastation wrought on the social, economic, and environmental conditions of foreign countries and populations.

Examines the issues and problems of ecotourism. Focuses on the Quechua-speaking Capirona Indians in Ecuador and looks at the cultural, economic and environmental issues for both indigenous communities and tourists.

This program traces the harsh life of indigenous women from several tribes, including the Otavalan, Puruha, and Quechua of Ecuador, from pre-Columbian times to the present.

One thousand kilometers due west of Ecuador, where four major ocean currents unite, vast undersea volcanoes break the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Early explorers described these otherworldly islands as 'Last Encantadas' but in time they became known as 'Galápagos,' the 'Islands of the Tortoises. The documentary reveals how wildlife has found the most enterprising ways to survive on this restless volcanic outpost, why these islands are such a fascinating showcase for evolution, and the profound forces that influence the delicate balance of life. Galápagos is unlike any other place on Earth.

A documentary portrait of a 1930s murder mystery. Fleeing conventional society, a Berlin doctor and his mistress start a new life on uninhabited Floreana Island. But after the international press sensationalizes the exploits of the Galapagos' "Adam and Eve," others flock there, including a self-styled Swiss Family Robinson and a gun-toting Viennese Baroness and her two lovers. Things would never be the same.

Dr. Edgar Rodas has dedicated his life to improving the health conditions for underprivileged communities in his native Ecuador, and Cinterandes is his visionary mobile hospital and rural health care project. The Most Distant Places travels with Dr. Edgar Rodas and his team to the far reaches of Ecuador; by road, from the indigenous mountain communities to the coast with their specially designed hospital truck; and by river, deep into indigenous villages in the Amazon jungle with their surgical boat. The story goes deeper to show how an innovative rural health project grew from the success of the mobile surgery program, and how Cinterandes has become an effective model that can be replicated in other developing countries. By interweaving intimate portrayals of the doctors with stories of the patients they treat, this film offers a unique look at the challenges of providing health care for impoverished people located far from adequate medical facilities.

Director Oliver Stone visits seven presidents in five countries in South America to gain some understanding about the political and social ideas and the revolutions, and to clear up how people view them. Includes interviews with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Argentinean president Cristina Kirchner, Cuban president Raul Castro, Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Rafael Carrea (Ecuador), and Fernando Lugo (Paraguay).

The Ecuadoran government granted Burlington oil a contract to explore and exploit oil in the Achuar Indian territory without consulting with the Achuar. The Achuar are opposed to the oil company's presence in there land. President Lucio Gutierrez is threatening to control the area militarily if the Achuar do not cooperate. The Achuar are attempting to evict the oil company by suing them for environmental damage to their land, which has contaminated drinking water, killed crops and game, and caused health problems among the Achuar.

Documentary about the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, Ecuador's unprecedented proposal for fighting global warming. In exchange for payments from the world community, the country will leave its largest oil reserves untouched. If the proposal is accepted, it will conserve the Amazon's biodiversity, protect the rights of indigenous people and avoid the emission of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.