Alex, we're here at the Sun Valley
Film Festival and you have the honor
of one of your documentary films and
territory being showed here this weekend.
For those who are unfamiliar, though,
give us a kind of a quick Cliff notes
on exactly what this film is all about.
The territory is a feature documentary
film following the fight for the
future of the Amazon rainforest.
So looking at a group of farmers and
settlers that are trying to overtake
the protected rainforest and a group of
environmentalists and indigenous people.
They're working to defend
it OK, and where did the inspiration
though for the story come from,
you know that that's a very
large story. Yeah, it's
you know it's a global story.
I think it affects all of us.
You know what happens to the
Amazon rainforest will affect
everybody through climate change.
That I originally found my
way into it through madinia,
one of our protagonists in the film,
whose work I just found really inspiring.
She's kind of the godmother of
Environmental Protection in the Amazon,
and given the way that the political
situation in Brazil was shifting
with the presidential election
in 2018 that Jair Bolsonaro won.
Thought, you know,
this is going to become a
really difficult time for her,
and began to conversation and
and 1 foot in front of the other.
And out of that, though you had
such an incredible opportunity to.
I only tell the story of the Amazon
rainforest, but the people that
call it home the indigenous peoples
which also played a huge role not
only obviously in the story itself,
but how this film was made.
Tell us about that.
Yeah, you know, I'm
a white American. I am not indigenous,
have no experience living through that
and at the same time you know we were
telling the story about Environmental
Protection and became really obvious
that indigenous people were at the
forefront of of this protection
and needed to be part of the story.
And so we thought really
critically about how to include.
That perspective in the story,
in an authentic way,
given you know the team and our makeup and.
In the end we ended up Co producing the
film with the rural indigenous community,
and so you know worked with
them to develop skills,
filming and shooting and producing
so they actually shot some
of this. Yeah yeah, if
you watch the film there.
My cinematographer is tongai.
Well wow, we producers on the film
and and you know it was a really
collaborative effort the whole way through
collaboration and also really coming
from that angle of truth, right?
There's no one else who
could tell that story.
Probably better than those
who are actually living it
absolutely. And and when you see the
footage that this community captured.
You know it's footage.
I never could have captured myself.
It's a first hand perspective of
this conflict, and there's a raw
urgency in that that you know,
I, as an outsider would never
be Privy to their story,
has been perverted and stereotyped and
stigmatized in so many different ways,
by by outsiders,
and so we felt a real responsibility to
do this in a way that that we
were accountable to the Community,
and that they had ownership over this.
Yeah, and and National Geographic.
I mean obviously known as the world
leader in documentaries, right?
Some of the absolute best work you
see comes from National Geographic,
and you're showcasing here at
the Sun Valley Film Festival.
Why is it important to have
support like this here at festivals
like Somebody Film Festival,
we are so lucky to be working
with National Geographic.
I mean, this is a story
that's emblematic of what's
happening across the Amazon,
but really, it's a story
about a group of 183 people.
A really small. Community
and to have a distributor like Nat
Geo that can blow this up and get
it out all over the world and raise
the alarm on our climate crisis,
you know, couldn't think of a better
partner and then to bring this to
Sun Valley and the American West.
You know, I I think is really
wonderful opportunity and especially
with all these festivals being
virtual just being here in person.
Yeah yes it is.
It's so nice to return.
Speaking of storytelling, right?
And empathetic?
And and having that human connection,
now we can actually have
that human connection. And
in person, absolutely, which speaks
volumes in itself, right? Yeah,
I mean for me the theaters like church,
you know? Yeah, you sit there,
you commune with these people.
You feel something together.
You talk about it afterwards
and there's nothing better.
It's all that connection, yeah?