Coming to theatres this Thursday, September 4: GRINGO TRAILS
Pegi Vail’s exploration of the unintended impact of tourism made its debut at last year’s Margaret Mead Film Festival. It went on to Washington DC’s Environmental Film Festival, Sebastopol Doc, Yale Environmental, Göttingen Ethnographic, Documentary Edge, and Galway, among others.
An exploration of how we tell stories about the places we visit, and of the consequences of that storytelling, Vail’s thoughtful film reveals the footprint of tourism on formerly exotic, remote destinations in Bolivia, Thailand, Mali, and Bhutan. Framing the film is the story of Israeli Yossi Ghinsberg, whose book on surviving alone in the Bolivian Amazon opened up the region to generations of tourists seeking to recapture his experience, as a result transforming the community’s way of life to accommodate them. Vail explores similar unintended developments, as other travelers reveal how formerly pristine hidden gems, known to a select few outsiders, became quickly co-opted and overrun. The tale of Thailand’s Haad Rin beach, a paradise that initially drew a motley group of bohemians but eventually became the site of massive beach parties, serves as the central cautionary tale, while the Kingdom of Bhutan demonstrates an opposite extreme, limiting tourism to high-end travelers in an effort to prevent unwanted cultural encroachment. Along the way, travel writers and ordinary tourist share compelling stories of the delicate balance of sharing their experiences of must-see places while preserving what makes them so special.
what (not) to doc 