Event

Gringo Trails

Gringo Trails
USA, 2013, 79 minutes
Director: Pegi Vail

Presented by Longboard Vineyards

Are tourists destroying the planet or saving it? Directed by anthropologist Pegi Vail, Associate Director of the Center for Media, Culture and History at NYU, Gringo Trails raises urgent questions about one of the most powerful globalizing forces of our time: tourism. Following stories along the well-worn western travelers' route, the 'gringo trail', through South America and beyond to Africa and Asia the film reveals the complex relationships between colliding cultures: host countries hungry for financial security and the tourists who provide it in their quest for authentic experiences.

Preceded by

Vultures of Tibet
Canada, USA, 2012, 20 minutes
Director: Russell O. Bush

In rapidly developing Western China, Sky Burial - a sacred ritual where the bodies ofTibetandead are fed to wild griffonvultures- becomes a popular tourist attraction. This intimate window reveals the current state of Sky Burial as an anecdote of the larger ideological issues inTibettoday - exploring a world in which nature and culture, humans and animals, spirituality and politics are all interconnected.