La Tierra Roja

I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to go to the avant-premiere of La Tierra Roja, directed by Argentinian Diego Marinez Vignatti. The male lead was Geert Van Rampelberg and the female lead Eugenia Ramirez. Geert Van Rampelberg is Belgian. He was invited for the role for which he had to learn Spanish which he did in a relatively short time and although he told  the audience at the end that he was worried about playing in Spanish, since it felt foreign to him, just a different feeling as if some one else was mouthing what he said. I understand the lure of this movie. The main theme is how the paper industry. Ouch! As a writer I use a lot of it, printing out drafts; no I can't do it right on the screen alone:-(. The deforestation, the devastation of the tropical forests mainly done by fumigating, spraying agrotoxic substances and insecticides which make people and animals sick. The peaceful protest by locals is violently squashed, killing. This in order to be able to plant miles and miles pine trees, a softer, fast growing "crop" for which the century old trees like sequoias have to go. Having walked an a Sequoia forest, having felt the presence of history and impressed by their beauty, the subject was close to my heart. The performances are absolutely fabulous. Go see this film: La Tierra Roja is strong, it is true, it will move you.

See the trailer here

Redwood grove (loop trail)

 Today with my friends Irene and Cooper I saw the tallest and oldest trees on earth. They showed me the redwoods where threes can be 2200 years old. We were in a 40-acre grove of ancient redwood trees. The lop is a bit over one Km. The beauty of these trees is overwhelming their  power awe inspiring and soothing. they are gentle giants.

 Their barks attracted me, their power gave me peace because when one of the giants topples over, several new ones will grow from the root system. Imposing and elegant, filtering the light in a most luminous way, inspiring people to protect the area so that it became the Henry Cowell redwood State Park. Here preservationist have done a great job. We saw deer, heard the whistle of the train  on which in the past people come to have an elegant feast in this grove... May it be preserved, these  living witnesses of centuries have a lot to tell us, through the 2200 two rings that tell their story and the story of the area.

On the left you see an extremely rare white albino Sequoia. It survives because it gets food from the normal root system...

So much beauty. We even saw a group of mule deer, walking over the sunlight dappled terrain... in total harmony with each other and the trees.