4,000 km upriver to find who's really fighting for Earth—and why we barely notice.
With a hybrid style blending political essay and road movie, this documentary by Santiago Bertolino takes us into the heart of the Amazonian reality. Following Marie-Josée Béliveau, an ecologist and ethnogeographer, they journey together along the 4000 km from the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil to one of its sources in Ecuador where they meet with the guardians of the forest. As a result, we witness powerful and spontaneous testimonies from local communities who are doing everything to preserve what remains of their lands, which are disappearing due to the inexorable advance of Western modernity.
Cinematography
The river itself becomes a character—muddy, vast, alive.
Production
Hybrid essay format lets communities speak, not just be spoken about.
Director
Santiago Bertolino
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bertolino's hybrid 'essay-road movie' structure deliberately rejects traditional documentary objectivity, mirroring how Western 'neutral' science has historically failed Indigenous knowledge systems.
The communities featured are actively using this film—and others like it—as legal evidence in land rights cases, making the 'documentary' literally a tool of resistance.
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