Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
The Sacred Land Film Project captured a revival of a canoe ceremony with feasting, dancing and carving, honoring their sacred Ramu River. The region is part of the third largest intact rainforest ecosystem left on earth, where sustainable agriculture and forestry practices have allowed societies to thrive for thousands of years, now threatened by multinational logging interests and corrupt governmental entities.
Oscar-entry documentary chronicles the unsolved mystery of the car bombing of Old-Growth Forests Activists and their later arrest by the FBI for their own injuries. The film also illustrates the Redwood Summer movement to save the Headwaters Forest of Northern California and Judi Bari’s victorious 1st Amendment lawsuit.
Ecuador abandons a plan to preserve the most biodiverse region on Earth from oil exploitation, putting Yasuni national park at the frontline of a global battle between living systems and fossil fuels. Unable to raise sufficient financing, President Correa plans to move forward with oil drilling in this wild Amazonian region, putting wildlife and willfully uncontacted tribes at risk.
Deforestation, the proposed damming of pristine rivers for hydroelectricity, and destruction of indigenous communities threatens the wildest and most biodiverse corner of tropical Central America: The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
President Evo Morales signed into law in 2017 that stripped protection from the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory, known as TIPNIS for its Spanish initials, opening it to highway construction and other development.
With completion of the 3,400-mile Transoceanic Highway, the Amazonian state of Acre in Brazil now connects with the southern Pacific Coast of Peru, unleashing numerous impacts to the environment and indigenous people.