THE AMAZON ARCHIVE

The following pages are set up so that visitors to this site can read detailed summaries of what footage I shot on my various trips into the Amazon over an eight year period. This summary is drawn from over fifty hours of professionally produced broadcast video recorded with state-of -the-art cameras on Betacam SP tape. This footage was shot for documentaries, news magazine segments, and news reports that I produced for such broadcasters as PBS, CBS News, ITN News, National Geographic, Antenne Deux, ABC, CBC, and among others. Realis Pictures has retained the exclusive rights to this footage and it is the sole distributor of this archive.

An explanation as to how you can acquire sample reels and rights to this material follows this introduction. A short "Quick Time" reel provides screeners with a representative selection of the quality of the images from this vast archive. Please click here when you are ready to request preview materials.

If you are looking for footage along a particular theme or subject matter, you might also visit our Documentaries page where you can see descriptions of the different films that we produced during this era. To rent or purchase one of these documentaries for screening purposes, you can simply click on to a link following each description which will take you to the web site of our nonbroadcast distributor Filmakers Library.

The following pages describe the various trips I made into the Amazon rain forest over an eight-year period beginning in 1987 and ending in 1995. This period is unique for two reasons. It marked the end of two decades of military rule in Brazil which allowed for the arrival of a period which became known as the "abertura," a tentative opening toward democratic rule. This period in Brazilian history permitted individuals and organizations--for decades repressed by the Brazilian military--an opportunity to openly assert their democratic rights. This sudden new sense of liberty gave rise to a broad range of social movements populated by the disenfranchised from all walks of life.

In the Amazon, the poor and dispossessed who began to organize were Indians, rubber tappers, and landless peasants backed by liberation theologists, liberal politicians, and human rights activists. Their demands for fair and equitable treatment by the Brazilian government were spurned by feudal oligarchies who for decades had dominated life on this lawless frontier. This conflict between a traditional oligarchy wishing to preserve the status quo and a growing movement of disenfranchised peoples resulted in a sudden upsurge in violence repression and political assassination. In the late 1980s this new wave of violence combined with alarming reports of environmental destruction based on NASA photographs, suddenly thrust the Brazilian Amazon in to the international spotlight.

The landmark event of this era took place in December of 1988 when the Brazilian trade unionist, environmentalist and rubber tapper Chico Mendes was assassinated outside his home by local cattle ranchers. I had documented Chico's life in the weeks prior to his assassination for the documentary, Voice of the Amazon, produced by filmmaker Miranda Smith and media entrepreneur Ted Turner. I wrote extensively about my work with Chico and those last days I spent filming with him in my book Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier.

THE AMAZON FOREST

On every trip I made into the rain forest I had the opportunity to film the forest from various vantage points: mountain tops, while canoeing on a river, from a helicopter, during heavy cloud cover, on sunny days, under heavy down pour, at dawn, at dusk, in Indian villages, gold mining camps, rubber tapping outposts and deep within the forest. I filmed massive trees being cut by Indians, miners and demarcation specialists alike. I also filmed a number of tribes as they went about their daily rituals: hunting for Tapir and monkey, panning for gold, chopping wood and tending to their gardens. I filmed traditional indigenous dwellings being constructed and, when a malaria epidemic threatened to kill off most of the tribe, those same homes being fumigated by Brazilian health workers. My work focused almost entirely on the people in the forest and the ecosystem in which they lived. Outside of the occasional shot of a tapir or a parakeet, I rarely had the opportunity to film any animals. If you are looking for footage of wildlife, I suggest you search elsewhere.

THE YANOMAMI INDIANS

The Village of Wakatauteri:

I spent a total of two weeks in the Yanomami village called Wakathautheii. The first trip was in 1989 during a gold mining invasion and ensuing malaria epidemic. The second trip was in 1995 where I went to gage the impact of the gold rush in the aftermath of the massive death and destruction that had taken place between as a result of the gold rush. On both trips I did extensive documentation of the Indian's daily life including images of gardening, collecting wood, construction of their traditional "shabono" (a communal house), cooking, hunting, their interactions with local missionaries, children at play, and traditional shamanistic practices.

On both trips I conducted extensive interviews with several males leaders in their traditional language of Yanomam. The subjects of these interviews included their attitudes towards "whites," shamanism, Western Medicine, the local missionaries, gold miners, their myths regarding the origins of white people, how they first had contact with outsiders, what the impact of contact diseases has been in their community, and how the recent gold mining invasion has impacted their life and that of surrounding Yanomami communities in terms of water pollution, disease, violent contacts, trade, hunting and territorial rights.

The Consulata Missionaries:

I filmed extensive images of a missionary nurse's work with Indians sick with malaria, TB, measles and small pox. I interviewed the missionaries at length about the origins of these illnesses and how they go about treating them. I also interviewed the missionaries about their thoughts and feelings regarding the practice of traditional Yanomami shamanism used by the Indians in conjunction with modern Western medicine.

The interviews I conducted with the Catholic nun and priest at this outpost were conducted in Portuguese and English. They covered a number of subjects including the missionaries' relationship with the Indians, the impact of the gold mining invasion on the Indians in terms of death and disease, how the missionaries' religious beliefs have changed as a result of living among these traditional people, and how they perceive their role as missionaries who have conscientiously decided to no longer proselytize among isolated indigenous people.

The Village of Paapiu:

I visited this village at the height of the gold mining invasion in 1989. At that time a population of fifty-thousand miners were overrunning the ten thousand Indians who inhabited Yanomami Territory, an area of pristine rain forest two times the size of Portugal. Paapiu, which had a local population of 400 Yanomami Indians, had become ground zero for the gold rush because it had one of the largest airstrips in the region. By seizing control of the landing strip, the miners transformed what was once a quiet missionary outpost into a bustling frontier airport. At the height of the gold rush, it was estimated that some two hundred and fifty planes were landing and taking daily. The impact of this uncontrolled contact with Brazilian gold miners was devastating and I documented it extensively. The images I gathered included local rivers being polluted with mercury, large mines the size of football stadiums being carved out of the forest, the forest being torched by miners to make way for new encampments, new hydraulic mining equipment and supplies being shipped in daily on cargo planes, the Indians sick with malaria and begging for food, and Indians running panic stricken at the sight of an oncoming plane. There was also extensive footage of their villages in disarray, and the lone Brazilian Indian Agency (Funai) employee abandoned and helpless in a run down shack bordering the airstrip.

At Paaipiu and in surrounding gold mines, I did extensive interviews with Brazilian miners regarding the difficulty of living in the forest and working the mines. They spoke about their attitudes towards the Indians, the Brazilian government, the state of the economy, and what they hoped to do with the money they made in the mines. I followed some of these miners back to the boomtown of Boa Vista where I filmed the city streets and the gold stores. Boa Vista, during this era, had gone from being a sleepy, frontier town to a rollicking bastion of decadence and disease which had tripled in size in just a four-year period. At the height of the gold rush, it boasted the highest rates of homicide and HIV infection among any city in the Amazon.

THE WAIAPI INDIANS

Located in the NE of the Amazon, the Waiapi Indians are an isolated indigenous people who were first contacted in the late 1970s when the Transamazon Highway encroached on their lands. When I arrived there in 1989, I was the first professional cameraman to enter their villages. I did three different shoots with the Waiapi Indians over the course of three years. The first two were in 1989 and they comprised the eleven hours of footage that I used to produce the Academy Award nominated documentary At The Edge of Conquest: The Journey of Chief Wai-Wai. On my first trip I spent two weeks in the rain forest accompanied by the anthropologist Dominique Gallois. During that trip I got to know the Waiapi while documenting their daily life. I interviewed them about their belief systems and their history of contact with outsiders. I accompanied them on hunting trips and fishing expeditions and as they went about their daily life, cooking, cleaning up, crafting baskets and tending to their gardens. The Waiapi were also excellent musicians and I filmed them performing their ritualistic "Fish Dance," an elaborate ritual in which they wear traditional costumes, drink vast quantities of beer and dance while playing flutes and horns. I also filmed the Waiapi as they traveled deep into the forest where they panned for gold using equipment they had seized from Brazilian miners who had illegally invaded their traditional lands.

The next time I filmed the Waiapi was several weeks later when I traveled to Brazil's capitol to join three Waiapi representatives as they journeyed to Brasilia to meet with government officials in order to persuade them not to seize a critical part of their northern territory that had been coveted by large-scale mining concerns and wild cat miners. This was an extraordinary trip and includes images of the Waiapi participating for the first time in some of our mundane rituals of daily life. They include: taking an elevator, flying an airplane, walking through automated glass doors, crossing a street, touching a concrete building for the first time, and attending meetings and fighting for their rights as they negotiate the complex labyrinth of the Brazilian government bureaucracy. I also interviewed the Waiapi extensively about their reactions to Brasilia and the difficulties they encountered in asserting their rights to their traditional lands.

On my third encounter with the Waiapi I met them in the frontier capitol of Macapa where they had come to speak with local politicians on Brazil's "Day of the Indian." Here I filmed them in the streets of Macapa, testifying before the local congress, meeting with local politicians, visiting an old French fort on the outskirts of town and talking about their trip to the capitol and the experience of their interaction with local Brazilian politicians.

THE ALTAMEIRA CONFERENCE

Considered to be a turning point in the "Fight to Save The Rain Forest," the Altamira conference in 1989-- organized by the Kayapo with the help of international environmental activists--represented an unprecedented alliance of indigenous leaders and Western European activists and politicians. The two groups had come together to protest the construction of a massive dam complex in the center of the Amazon. This was also the first time that the Rock Star Sting went public with his announcement to team up with the Kayapo leader Raoni in a crusade to demarcate Kayapo lands.

The five day conference-coming just weeks after the assassination of Chico Mendes and organized by the Kayapo leaders Payakan and Raoni-brought together leaders from numerous tribes in the Amazon including Davi Kopenawa (also known as Davi Yanomami) who was beginning to emerge as one of the world' preeminent indigenous leaders.

During the conference I filmed numerous speeches by Brazilian, Indian and international activists as well as fantastic spontaneous protests led by the Kayapo against Brazilian politicians and members of the Amazon Region's electrical authority known as "Electronorte." I also spent time filming local life in the frontier town of Altamira and along the Xingu River including the streets, the river, local boats and the surrounding forest.

THE RIO EARTH SUMMIT

In 1992 the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted the UN's Earth Summit. Heads of state from all over the world attended this unique gathering of international leaders to discuss a number of issues regarding the environment including, among other issues, global warming and ceilings on carbon monoxide emissions. While the politicians convened in an air conditioned Rio Convention Center, I spent my days covering the protests and events sponsored by indigenous leaders on the periphery of the UN Conference. Chief among them was the Karioca Conference, which was sponsored by a global cross-section of indigenous leaders. It was held outside of Rio just several days before the start of the UN Conference.

At Karioca I had a unique opportunity to interview indigenous leaders from across the globe. Once again interviewed Davi Kopenawa, the Yanomami indigenous leader who I had first met in 1989 at Altamira. This was just one of several interviews I conducted with Davi over the course of several years in Altamira, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, and New York as I created an extensive archive of his growing role as a Brazilian indigenous leader. Those interviews covered such subjects as the gold mining invasion of Yanomami Territory, the massacre of the Yanomami Indians, his role as an indigenous leader and as a shaman, his perception of Western Europeans as well as other indigenous leaders, and a variety of topics that focused on the growing political awareness of one of Brazil's most important indigenous leaders.

One of the breaking stories during the "Earth Summit" took place not in Rio but thousands of miles away in the frontier town of Redencao where the Kayapo indigenous leader Paulinho Payakan was accused of rape, cannibalism and attempted murder by a local woman backed by conservative, frontier politicians. This event sparked outrage by the Brazilian press and shock by the environmentalists, journalists and politicians who had known Payakan for years as the preeminent champion in the "Fight to Save The Rain Forest." Upon hearing the news, Payakan's uncle and Kayapo leader, Raoni wasted no time in attempting to turn the tide of public opinion back in favor of the Kayapo. On the second to last day of the conference, Raoni commandeered a bus and staged an impromptu protest at the site of the "Earth Summit Convention Center" drawing the attention of not just UN Security personnel but of the Brazilian army who attempted to block his approach with an array of tanks and military personnel.

I accompanied Raoni and twenty Kayapo warriors on this historic trip. Traveling on route to the Convention Center, I documented Raoni as he deftly negotiated his way past dozens of Brazilian soldiers and UN Security personnel. The Kayapo eventually gained access to the Convention Center where they staged an impromptu press conference condemning the accusations against Payakan and calling attention to the global struggle of indigenous people, a segment of the world's population that had been virtually ignored in the UN proceedings.

Raoni's action was a unique and dramatic display of street theater combined with a savvy understanding of modern public relations. It was played out to maximum effect in front of a galley of hundreds of international journalists hungry for a photo opportunity during what had a rather boring conference of bureaucrats.

Footage shot during this trip also includes the Karioca Conference, and various alternative conferences taking place during the Summit. The archive includes interviews with then Senator Al Gore, former California governor Jerry Brown, and other members of the US Congress who had arrived to speak before a cross section of indigenous leaders. I also interviewed Brazilian Indian Agency Head Sydney Possuelo as I documented meetings between the UN Environmental Secretary Maurice Strong and various indigenous leaders.

THE KAYAPO

I visited the village of Pukanu in September of 1992 to document the demarcation of Kayapo lands for a report I was doing for CBS Evening News. The demarcation project, funded by Sting's Rain Forest Foundation, established boundaries around what is today known as Menkragnoti Territory. I spent several days in dense jungle filming survey teams as they used chain saws to cut large trees in the forest in order to clear a swathe establishing the demarcation limits for Kayapo Territory.

I also spent several days in the village of Pukanu where I got to see how the Kayapo lived. The images I gathered there were both fascinating and troubling. Very often they contradicted the image of the Kayapo as "Nobel Savages" that had been disseminated to the outside world by environmental activists and indigenous leaders alike. Here was a village where Coca Cola cans littered the village floor and where TV and satellite dishes dominated the village square. These were a people abandoned by the Brazilian government and left to fend for themselves with no basic social services. The Indians paid for medicine, doctors, emergency helicopter evacuations, and schooling with money they gained by selling off mahogany and mining rights to wild cat miners and local lumber mills.

During my visit to Pukanu I did an extensive interview in Portuguese with their leader Puketheri who spoke about the current predicament of his people caught between two divergent worlds. I filmed the remnants of village life: people cooking, returning from hunts, children playing, and people bathing in the rivers that recent Rain Forest Foundation studies had proven were polluted with high levels of mercury, the toxic substance used by miners to separate gold from other minerals.

Extensive helicopter shots on this trip revealed the pristine beauty of much of the region. The aerial footage contains massive waterfalls, mountains, and long stretches of dense rain forest. The impact of deforestation can be seen in the burnt stretches of rain forest that make way for frontier towns, highways and cattle ranches.

FATHER RICARDO REZENDE/ THE PASTORAL LAND COMMISSION

I made two trips to document the work of Father Ricardo Rezende, a Franciscan priest and human rights activist who works with landless peasants in the southern part of the state of Para. "Padre Ricardo" was the local director of The Pastoral Land Commission, a church institution that helps to lessen the burden of poverty and oppression faced by millions of landless peasants in Brazil. Southern Para is one of the most violent regions of the country, a virtually lawless state where armed gunman known as pistoleros enforce the demands of a feudal oligarchy run by ranchers, loggers and gold mining entrepreneurs.

My first trip to this region was recorded on three quarter inch tape in 1987 in the small frontier town of Conceicao do Araguaia. During a one-week period, I documented six assassinations of peasant leaders by pistoleros working on behalf of large scale cattle ranchers. I also tracked the day-to-day work of Father Ricardo as he went about documenting the assassinations, consulting with survivors, performing services, and advising landless peasants on their ongoing struggle to secure rights to their land. I interviewed Father Ricardo extensively about his life and work as well as the dangers he faced as a potential victim of this regional violence.

The second story I did on Father Ricardo was shot on Betacam SP tape in 1992. At this time this fearless priest was living in the town of Redencao where he was accompanied by a full time, armed guard as a result of repeated death threats. During this shoot, I did extensive documentation of one specific incident of rural violence that focused on a conflict between a peasant Jose Fininho and a local cattle rancher. Interviews with Ricardo during this trip focused on his ongoing work with The Pastoral Land Commission and the repeated assassination attempts against him.

Footage includes Ricardo Rezende with wounded peasant Jose Fininho, interview with Ricardo Rezende on his human rights work, Ricardo visiting peasants, and a trip to the small village where Jose Fininho was shot that included testimony on the part of villages as to what led to the shooting.

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