Synopsis

San Miguel de Allende is bursting at the seams with tourists and expansive developments while in its fringes, a social uprising is taking place as a group of citizens, scientists and activists struggle to preserve what little is left of the region’s water supply.

San Miguel de Allende—once the cradle of Mexican independence—is home once again to a coalition of resistance.

Water extraction is running unchecked in the state of Guanajuato. The region’s largest watershed is now overrun with waste, forcing communities to depend on the most ancient of water at the bottom of the aquifer. Cuenca—or, “watershed”—documents the fight local activists are waging against the complete annihilation of the region’s aquifer, the associated brutal health risks and the inevitable diaspora of the native communities. This investigation converges in the swiftly expanding town of San Miguel de Allende, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, according to Conde Nast Traveler, “The Best City in the World.”

Time is running out for the inhabitants of this watershed and its surrounding communities to seize what is theirs, and fight for their rights to clean water.