Pasture
In process - film and research project
It’s the summer of 2007: the mercenary warfare and contract security company Blackwater USA has more than 23,000 private soldiers deployed in 9 countries on behalf of the United States; the ratio of private mercenaries to U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq is 1:1. Simon, a white, Jewish trans person in his late-twenties living in New York City, learns about a civic resistance movement taking place in Potrero, a small town forty-five miles southeast of San Diego, on occupied Kumeyaay land — where in 2006 Blackwater USA announced plans to develop a training facility, citing Round Potrero Valley as a “natural sound barrier,” and in this way, an ideal location for military training. Simon comes out to California to participate in and document the anti-Blackwater demonstrations taking place in October 2007. After the demonstrations, he decides to stay. He develops a relationship with what he hears to be the voice of Round Potrero Valley.