Cowboys in India (2009)

Run Time - 79 min.  |   Countries - United Kingdom  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

British journalist and filmmaker Simon Chambers offers a tongue-in-cheek look at the failings of corporate environmentalism in this documentary. Vedanta are a powerful British mining firm who have been working in India for some time are expanding their operations there, so Chambers and a small camera crew visit the village that's to be the beneficiary of the company's largess. However, Chambers chooses poorly when he hires a pair of singularly inept locals to serve as translators and fixers, and with their "help" new things do wrong at every turn. But it's possible not everyone in the village feels like helping visitors from the UK; as Chambers learns during the course of his visit, Vedanta has a poor record when it comes to pollution control, their employees have been abusive to the local residents, and most of the promises they made to the community have gone unfulfilled. As Chambers learns more about what a poor neighbor Vedanta have been, he discovers he and his helpers may be in danger, as the company prefers these sort of stories not make it into the press -- and that local residents who have tried to stand up to Vedanta have faced serious consequences. Cowboys In India was an official selection at the 2009 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.