Patrimonio

Colorado Premiere
The more idyllic its setting, the likelier a town will be targeted for tourist development, and no small Mexican fishing village is closer to paradise than Todos Santos, 50 miles up the Pacific coast from Cabo San Lucas. But a collective of fishermen stage a battle to preserve their patrimonio when they learn their century-old lease of a portion of a beach has been grabbed by developers proposing to triple the town’s size. Led by local attorney John Moreno, the group takes on a large corporation and corrupt politicians. For Todos Santos, as for Telluride, “sustainable development” can sound like an oxymoron to the community that was there before it was “discovered.” Yet the market for “mindful living” and life “at its essence” — as the Tres Santos project was advertised — is growing. Thus, humanity threatens to destroy what it craves, a painful irony not lost on the filmmakers.