Children of the Amazon

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Images

Negarote Girls, Mato Grosso, Brazil 1990

Chico Mendes one month before his assassination, Xapuri, Acre Brazil 1988

Iara Negarote, Mato Grosso, Brazil 1990

Motira Surui, Rondonia, Brazil, 1987

Renato Negarote, Mato Grosso - Brazil,1990

Feliciana Negarote and her baby, Mato Grosso - Brazil 2002

Chief Almir Surui, 2007

Negarote boy, Mato Grosso - Brazil, 1990

Website

http://www.childrenoftheamazon.com

Topics

Arts & Culture: Documentary, Photography
Economy: Trade
Environment: Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environmental Activism, Forests
Human Development: Children, Education, Social Exclusion, Youth
Human Rights: Indigenous Rights
Information & Media: Culture
Politics: Globalization

Project Geography

International: South America

Identity Niches

Children, Indigenous, Latino, Native American, Student

Budget

Raised to date: $440,092.00
Estimate to complete: $130,500.00
Total Estimated Budget: $570,592.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 06/03/2009

Status

Distribution

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Key Personnel

Denise Zmekhol
Project Director

Brazilian born Denise Zmekhol dedicates her professional life to media production. With over 20 years of experience, she has worked as a producer/director, camera person, associate producer, sound recordist, assistant director, production manager, and an English/Portuguese translator. Her media contributions range from newscasts to political spots to public television documentaries. In addition to her production and communication skills, Denise has photographed extensively in the Amazon, producing the photo essay titled CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON and taking the last photographs of rubber tapper/activist Chico Mendes before his assassination. Her CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON photos achieved wide exhibition success, and her photos of Mendes appeared in Time Magazine and other publications worldwide. Her recently completed documentary CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON, a labor of love for over 8 years, is garnering awards at film festivals across the globe and inspiring audiences to take action to stop destructive rainforest practices in the Amazon.

Jane Greenberg
Associate Producer/Outreach Coordinator

For the past decade, Jane Greenberg has worked exclusively in the production and outreach of social issue documentaries and educational films. She has contributed to numerous public television documentaries from inception to distribution in roles ranging from producer/director to outreach coordinator. She produced the film FENCELINE: A COMPANY TOWN DIVIDED (POV, 2002) and recently Co-Produced BUTTE, AMERICA (NEH, ITVS). She served as Associate Producer for many films that aired on national public television, including the Emmy Award-winning SCHOOL PRAYER: A COMMUNITY AT WAR. Before her career in film, Jane volunteered as an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation, while receiving her Master’s degree in communication from Cornell University. She also spent two years teaching high school in upstate New York. Jane has been working on Denise Zmekhol’s project CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON for over three years.

Kevin Kanarek
Web Strategist, Online Content Manager

As a social media strategist, Kevin is well-versed in both the technical and social communication aspects of web development. After completing his Master’s degree at the New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP ), Kevin worked as an Educational Technology Consultant for the international publishing group Bertelsmann, focusing on media literacy, online publishing and project-based learning.

Kevin has worked as a writer, researcher and content editor for AOL/ Time Warner, Scholastic, the Center for Children and Technology and the American Natural History Museum. His articles have been published by New Media Magazine and Electronic Learning, and he has developed educational content and curriculum for The New School University and community technology centers. As Web Strategist and Online Content Manager for CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON, Kevin will help develop a social media strategy and oversee the implementation of the website.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

The CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON outreach strategy employs a two-tier plan. The Exposure Plan is designed to present the film to both a wide and a targeted audience. The Enhancement Plan offers supplemental information and interactive digital tools to viewer-participants providing opportunities for them to share experiences and make changes in their lives and the world around them. Both plans will make use of partner organizations, whose areas of interest and expertise are instrumental in helping to connect with target audiences, providing resources for screening tours, and helping to facilitate the interactive section of the website. Current partners include: Google Earth Outreach, the Amazon Conservation Team; Rainforest Action Network; Amazon Watch; the Sierra Club; and Amazon Alliance.

EXPOSURE PLAN

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON will be offered to public television stations on Earth Day, 2010 by the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Outreach professionals will integrate a broadcast campaign with media campaigns promoting Earth Day. Partner organizations will help disseminate broadcast details through their membership networks. Recent coverage on high profile websites such as the New York Times.com and NPR’s Living on Earth provides high visibility for the project and its upcoming broadcast. And an online presence through www.childrenoftheamazon and on the social networking sites Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace will help spread the word and encourage the online community to tune in to the broadcast.

In the time leading up to the television premiere, the film is being circulated through various distribution efforts. CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON is currently enjoying a festival run, having screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival and the DC Environmental Film Festival among others. California Newsreel is distributing the film to the US educational market and various international broadcast outlets are being pursued.

An integral component of the exposure strategy focuses on a series of tours that include screenings at professional conferences, educational institutions and in targeted communities. Of particular importance are environmental, human rights and indigenous rights conferences that provide opportunities to build partnerships with like-minded organizations, collaborate in efforts to help influence policy making, and spread the word about the effects of the disappearing rainforest. Screenings at colleges and universities in California are being expanded to a national scope. CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON has unusual promise to connect with middle schools and high school audiences who may not yet be contemplating such global affairs. Many of the film’s characters are children and their stories are likely to strike a chord with their school-age counterparts, as evidenced by the Youth Choice Award granted to CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON at the Jules Verne Film Festival in Paris. Discussions and resources at these screenings will focus on changing personal habits that support rainforest destruction, participation in established efforts that protect the rainforest and its people, and options for buying sustainable rainforest products. Non-profit organizations will assist with screening resources and panel discussions.

Screening events will also target underserved, diverse communities who can identify with the challenges faced by the film’s characters. These include communities suffering from human rights abuses, native communities struggling to preserve their culture, and longstanding communities that are threatened by profit-driven environmental destruction whose land may be intricately tied to their culture and identity. Simply viewing the film may provide inspiration, as many of the film’s characters achieve incredible successes in the face of great odds. Partner organizations will provide resources designed to aid in community mobilization and to empower disenfranchised individuals.

ENHANCEMENT PLAN

The enhancement plan for CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON is designed to begin where the film leaves off—to take immediate advantage of its emotional impact and provide viewers with opportunities to make a difference. The primary tool is a comprehensive website (www.childrenoftheamazon.com) that includes: supplemental information about the film and its characters; a news page with current legislation and facts; an educators guide; publicity materials for event/screening coordinators and press; links to organizations dedicated to human rights and environmental protection campaigns; and a “Take Action” link designed to offer a wide range of viewers concrete opportunities to make differences in their personal lives, immediate communities, social networks and beyond. The website is already receiving considerable traffic and attention, with many of the proposed elements complete and some still pending.

One key area of development focuses on leveraging social networking to catalyze action among viewers and users, enabling them to contribute their efforts to the spread of information and the momentum of change. The tool under development is an interactive, multimedia section of the site showcasing efforts by the Indigenous Surui community to protect their land and culture.

In an unusual collaboration with Google Earth Outreach, the Surui are using Global Positioning System devices and computers to map their land, history and culture; engaging in an online global dialogue; and monitoring illegal logging on their land with satellite imagery. The CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON website will feature a blog on which online participants will be able to follow in real time the efforts of Chief Almir Surui as he organizes resistance to destructive rainforest practices and promotes more sustainable land use for the Amazon. Chief Almir and others from the Surui community will post photos, maps, text and audio as they document their efforts to preserve their forest home. Online participants in turn will post updates about responses they are able to initiate, such as identifying fair trade products and suppliers in their individual markets, and identifying related legislation and initiatives. Indigenous participants and others in the Amazon region will have tangible evidence of the growing attention and constant scrutiny these issues, dangers, obstacles and goals are receiving worldwide.

Last June, I traveled to the Amazon to document this unusual partnership between the tech giant Google Earth and these remote forest people. The resulting video clip is currently available on my website (www.childrenoftheamazon.com > Gallery & Videos > Videos)

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
Latino Public Broadcasting	$15,000.00	08/08/2008
Independent Television Service	$184,305.00	03/08/2007
Tides Foundation	$10,000.00	07/10/2006
Pacific Pioneer Fund	$5,000.00	12/15/2005
The Fleishhacker Foundation	$3,000.00	12/01/2005
Nu Lambda Trust	$3,000.00	01/01/2005
Private Donations	$18,512.00	01/01/2005
Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research	$1,000.00	01/01/2003
Seeds for Communities	$215,207.00	05/21/2002

Location

2600 Tenth Street, Suite 614
Berkeley, CA, 94710

See Google Maps

Short Synopsis

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON, an award-winning documentary, follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the Indigenous 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.

Description/Treatment

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON is a completed documentary slated for a public television broadcast on Earth Day (April 22nd), 2010. The film presents the issues of global climate change and disappearing cultures through first-hand perspectives of Brazil’s forest people, whose lives are inextricably linked to their rainforest home. Reaching out to audiences on emotional and intellectual levels, CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON and its outreach strategy strive to increase awareness about the growing crisis in the Amazon, serve as a catalyst for awareness about individual accountability for rainforest destruction, and offer concrete opportunities for participants to be involved with meaningful change.

In the time leading up to the television broadcast, the project is seeking funds to increase exposure of the film through targeted screening tours and to develop web features that leverage social networking and digital media to catalyze action among viewers and users.

A unique collaboration between one of the Indigenous tribes profiled in the film and Google Earth Outreach is presenting an unusual outreach opportunity for CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON. In an effort to empower the tribe, Google Earth has equipped and trained the Surui people to use computer technology to preserve their culture and monitor their lands. A principal goal of the CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON outreach initiative is to create an interactive web page for the Surui people to communicate directly with other internet users, provide updates on their efforts, and strategize with an online community concerned with preserving indigenous cultures and the rainforests.

To date, CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON has received significant recognition and support. It has garnered numerous awards during an impressive festival run, including the Outstanding Environmental Film Award presented by LinkTV at the Smithsonian Museum and the Youth Choice and Best Picture Awards at the Jules Verne Film Festival in Paris. The film has attracted prominent media attention, most notably a review in Variety Magazine and a feature story on NPR’s Living on Earth. And partnerships with prestigious organizations such as Google Earth Outreach and the Amazon Conservation Team are enhancing the film’s impact through outreach projects dedicated to preserving the land and culture of the subjects profiled in the film. Through these ongoing efforts to increase the film’s exposure and outreach potential, the rarely heard voices of a remote rainforest people will extend to audiences around the world. Their stories, combined with web features providing action updates and opportunities, call attention to a crisis on our shared planet—an astounding influence for a people who made contact with the modern world only 40 years ago.

The film:

For countless generations, the Amazon rainforest provided a home to the Surui and Negarote people who lived in what they called “forest time”— utterly 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 and paving the way for the most massive migration in Brazil’s history. As a consequence, 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.

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON examines life in the aftermath of the road through the point of view of filmmaker/ photographer Denise Zmekhol and the characters she encounters on her journey. Over fifteen years ago, as part of a documentary crew, Denise traveled the new road and photographed the children she met. Born to parents who had relied on the rainforest for their survival, these children were growing up in a changing world. Her portraits include children of the Surui and Negarote people and the family of rubber tapper Chico Mendes. Chico, who led a world-renowned, non-violent resistance movement to protect the rainforest, was shot and killed by a cattle rancher in 1988. Haunted by the faces of the children she photographed and the murder of her friend, Chico, Denise is inspired to travel the road again.

CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON begins with Denise’s return to the forest. As she travels the road, she searches for the children she photographed—now grown—and documents them once again, this time, their stories of change and struggle to save the forest. She follows Itabira, the Surui leader who navigates a risky course between cultural preservation and economic survival. She discovers that Iara, the shy child in her photograph, was poisoned by inadvertently drinking juice intended for her father—an outspoken opponent of logging. She finds the embattled Chief Almir Surui fighting to stop illegal logging and save his culture in the face of death threats. And she documents the legacy of slain activist Chico Mendes, whose posthumous victory to create land reserves, which now protect 22 million acres of rainforest, is made bittersweet by the 13,000 acre-a-day destruction that continues today.

Zmekhol’s cinematic journey combines stunningly beautiful images forest life, rare archival footage, and dramatic moments of forest destruction. Intimate interviews with the forest people are interwoven with Zmekhol’s personal and poetic meditation on environmental devastation, resistance and renewal. Staggering facts are simply stated. The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest providing 20% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. Its disappearance is resulting in environmental catastrophe.

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 land and its people, for we are all children of the Amazon—breathing the same air, walking the same planet, and sharing the same fate.