|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
72 minutes, 2007,  during the English language sections, Brazil
Producer/Director Denise Zmekhol
In English, Portuguese and Monde with English sub-titles
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DISCONTINUED
*Winner of the Award of Merit in Film - LASA, Latin American Studies Association
*Winner of Best Film from Indie Fest
*Winner of the Outstanding Environmental Film Award from the DC Environmental Film Festival
*Winner of Best Documentary, Southern Appalachian International Film Festival
*Winner of the Jules Verne Best Picture Award
Winner of Best Film from the Accolade Film Awards
Children of the Amazon follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the Indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago. Part road movie, part time travel, her journey tells the story of what happened to life in the largest forest on Earth when a road was built straight through its heart.
For countless generations, the Amazon rainforest provided a home to the Surui and Negarote people who lived in what they called ‘forest time’ –beyond the realm of contemporary human life. Their only contact with the ‘outside’ world was through rubber tappers, who first settled the forest in the 19th century and whose work did no harm to the trees.
And then, everything changed. Footpaths gave way to a road and then a highway cutting through 2000 miles of forest. With the coming of this connection to the rest of Brazil, the world of ‘forest time’ was overrun by farmers, loggers, and cattle ranchers. Lush forest was clear-cut and burned, deadly diseases killed off thousands of Indians, and ‘forest time’ suffered an irreversible transformation.
Zmekhol’s cinematic journey combines intimate interviews with her personal and poetic meditation on environmental devastation, resistance, and renewal. The result is a unique vision of the Amazon rainforest told in part by the Indigenous people who experienced first contact with the modern world less than forty years ago. The film’s central characters are now the grown children Zmekhol photographed more than fifteen years earlier; Itabira and Almir, Surui navigating a risky course between cultural preservation and economic survival; and Chico Mendes, the legendary rubber tapper who organized a non-violent movement to save the forest and was assassinated by cattle ranchers.
As she nears the end of her journey, Zmekhol discovers how the combined efforts of Indigenous people, rubber tappers, and their allies have begun to safeguard the rainforest. Ultimately we grasp our own intimate connection to this remote forest and its people: We are, all of us, ‘Children of the Amazon’ breathing the same air, walking the same planet, and in some sense that we have yet to understand, sharing the same fate.
Chief Almir Surui asked Google Earth Outreach to train indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest on Google Earth and other internet tools. The Surui are now using the internet to preserve their culture for future generations and spread awareness about illegal logging on Indian territory.
Filmmaker Denise Zmekhol captured Google Earth's journey to the Amazon. Click here to watch her short video: Trading Bows and Arrows for Laptops.
Children of the Amazon movie website
New York Times Article: The Uncertain Legacy of Chico Mendes
A study guide consisting of 8 clips and 8 corresponding lesson plans is available on PBS Learning Media website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"A stunning documentary about one of the most impressive environments on the planet. At its heart it is a human story about the people who live in the Amazon and the costs of its destruction for them and for us." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Harley Shaiken, Chair, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"This accessible and visually stunning film tells the heartbreaking story of traditional Brazilian Amazonian peoples across several generations, as they confront the massive changes brought by roads, logging, deforestation, and climate change. Effectively combining extensive historical footage and intimate glimpses of daily life, the film will be useful for teaching at any level about the Amazon region." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marianne Schmink, University of Florida |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Required viewing for everyone interested in the Amazon: its beauty, its tragedy, its children and the hope for the future!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Plotkin, PhD, Ethnobotanist and President, Amazon Conservation Team |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Beautifully filmed and compassionately told, Children of the Amazon deftly uses the director's relationship with the children of three Amazonian communities to show the history of the region as a whole. In doing so, she offers both a provocative perspective on the human costs of economic development and an -inspirational example of local resistance."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Victoria Langland, UC Davis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"A provocative and moving personal reflection on the tragedy of the Amazon." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John O. Browder, Virginia Tech |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Children of the Amazon captures a complex series of historical events that interprets the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest in compelling, human terms. In bringing children to stage center, this film uniquely and beautifully recounts what a generation has lost from a past that was forfeit to development. Mixing rare archival footage with her own camera’s poignant and close-up record, Denise Zmekhol has produced a lasting and moving memoir of the human cost of transforming the Amazon. It is a must-see for anyone seeking to understand the impact of globalization over the last four decades." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Linda Lewin, UC Berleley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Through the captivating photos and interviews in the film, Children of the Amazon tells the story of struggle and hope to protect the worlds largest tropical rainforest and its inhabitants. It is a must see for anyone who cares about the rights of Indigenous people and the survival of our planet." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leila Salazar-Lopez, Rainforest Action Network |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The film raises many important ethical, political, and environmental questions, but it is also a remarkably beautiful and uplifting film that brings home to all of us exactly what it is that is being lost and must be saved, thus engendering hope and inspiring action rather than complacency, while helping us to see that the Amazon rainforest is much closer than we realized." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrea E. Smith, University of San Francisco |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“Glowing images of Surui and Negarote children in their forest home provide a poignant reminder of how much they and their forest world have changed in the fifteen years between Zmekhol’s first visits to the Amazon in 1988 and her return trip in 2002.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Huffington Post |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
