Logline:

In a gripping and unpredictable 20-year quest, Juan Carlos Rodríguez showcases the poignant story of Vieques. Through intimate recollections, community voices, and archival footage, the film exposes the profound hardships endured by Viequenses before and after the US Navy’s departure in 2003. It unveils Vieques’ dire health situation throughout the years.

Synopsis:

This documentary examines how a demilitarized community confronts social, economic, and environmental challenges. The film focuses on the environmental and health costs of the US military presence while looking at the dilemmas of post-Navy Vieques. Tensions with the FWS underscore the colonial dilemmas created by federal lands in Vieques. Tourism and gentrification present a threat to the prospects of a community-driven path to sustainable development. The toxic waste of the US Navy has compromised the future, leaving Viequenses with all the uncertainties of an irreversible ecological crisis. Limited access to health services poses a risk for Viequenses, a population with a higher cancer rate than the rest of Puerto Rico.

This ecological and public health crisis has been aggravated by the loss of the only hospital after Hurricane Maria, transforming Vieques’ situation into a prolonged disaster. A case-study of military training as slow-violence, the story highlights the problems created by using Vieques as a bombing site, as well as the challenges of cleaning up vast areas of an island polluted with toxic waste. It is an intimate meditation on the paradoxes of war, memory, historical change, and social justice in the 21st Century.