 Welcome
to our web site. What you will find here is the culmination
of a decade of work that I did in the Brazilian Amazon
between 1987 and 1997. It includes films, photographs,
literature, a links page, an extensive archive of all
the footage we shot, and a broad selection of study guide
materials that can be used in high schools, universities,
and postgraduate seminars.
In the ten years that I documented social conflicts
in the Amazon, our production team at Realis Pictures
released four documentaries and over fifty news reports
on that region. In addition to the films and news reports
we produced, I wrote a book chronicling my experiences
entitled Amazon Journal: Dispatches From A Vanishing
Frontier. All of this material--the book, the films,
the news reports -- have been presented here, preserved
for ever in cyberspace, so that future generations can
have a better understanding of this complex region of
the world and the unique moment of history that we documented.
Why was this period unique? In no era in recent times
has there been such an extensive contact between Western
European populations and the isolated, indigenous societies
of the Brazilian Amazon. By Western European I mean
not just the loggers, miners, and rubber tappers typically
associated with uncontrolled contacts. But this era
brought with it a new groups of do-gooders: journalists,
politicians, environmentalists, and rock stars who descended
on Amazonia from Brazil and abroad. These "uncontrolled"
encounters between these divergent cultures lead to
countless acts of misunderstanding. At the very worst
there were countless acts murder, violence and even
genocide. At the very best, new, often uneasy, alliances
were formed that had a real impact on the events of
this era. One of the most significant results of this
era was that it gave birth to a new generation of indigenous
leaders who, with the help of humanitarian groups and
sympathetic politicians, succeeded in achieving unprecedented
victories for the indigenous populations of Amazonia.
The films and literature referred to in this site tell
the complicated story of these times; the victories,
the losses, the cultural devastation, and the environmental
destruction. I encourage you to browse this site and
seek out the materials that best suit you or your organization
so that you can a better understanding of what became
known as "the fight to save the rain forest."
I also encourage you not to leave this site without
exploring our links page. There you will discover the
many Brazilian and international environmental and human
rights groups that continue to track ongoing events
in the Brazilian Amazon. When visiting these sites I
think you will see that the effort to preserve the Amazon
is not an old story, but one that has just begun.
I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey O'Connor
Producer/Writer/Director
Realis Pictures, Inc.
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