Ecological Emergency in El Salto and Cosmopolitical Aesthetics in Eugenio Polgovsky's Resurrección (2016)

Abstract

This article examines the documentary Resurrección (Eugenio Polgovksy, 2016), which deals with the catastrophic contamination of Jalisco's River Santiago by industrial waste. It discusses the slow violence of environmental poisoning in this region as a form of necropolitics and of wastelanding, and the campaign of collective Un Salto de Vida, who feature prominently in the film, for a clean river. It goes on to explore the heterogenous worlds and uncanny, sensorial aesthetics that characterise the film, arguing that through them, it makes a significant contribution to the search for visual forms through which to represent eco-catastrophe, and the reconfigured relationship between human and non-human required to address it.