Filmed Killing Ignites Fight for Ancestral Lands

Director Lucrecia Martel's "Our Land" thoughtfully employs drone footage to survey the ancestral territory of the Indigenous Chuschagasta people in Argentina's Tucumán Province. This technique emphasizes the land's beauty and vastness while also drawing attention to the role of technology in documenting human events.

The film delves into the complex intersection of recording technology, history, and justice. In 2009, landowner Dario Amin and former police officers confronted the Chuschagasta community, seeking quarry access. The altercation resulted in Amin fatally shooting activist Javier Chocobar and injuring others.

Remarkably, Amin captured Chocobar's killing on video and shared it online, sparking widespread anger in Argentina. This incident amplified the ongoing struggle of Indigenous peoples for land rights recognition, a fight marked by historical land theft and violence.

Martel utilizes a collage of different media, including courtroom footage, a low-fi re-enactment, community testimonies, and Amin's own shaky recording of the killing. The elegant drone shots of the landscape gain poignant meaning as the film progresses, illustrating a site of deep-seated racism, prejudice, and the persistent quest for justice and recognition.

The film implicitly underscores that Chocobar's case gained traction due to its visual documentation. However, it also acknowledges the countless other Indigenous individuals who suffered or died defending their ancestral lands without such evidence, their stories only preserved by their communities.