In June 2012, the production crew of Prehensile Productions will follow five Waorani students as they race to document their ancestors’ knowledge before the last of their elders disappear. With it, the students will build an encyclopedia describing their forest and their way of life, and teach a global audience and future Waorani generations the value of their culture and homeland.
Recording this information within the next 18 months is critical because the Ecuadorian government must reach a decision that will determine the fate of the biologically diverse place and the Waorani, one of the last remaining Amazonian tribes. Either the government receives $300 million from international donors, or they will begin drilling over 846 million barrels of oil from an untapped block of Yasuní National Park.
The threat is nothing new to the indigenous people of this area. With poor resources for education, and a process of assimilation that has separated them from their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, it has proved challenging for the Waorani to defend their biologically rich territory from the massive incursion of industry.
Determined to take matters into their own hands, they formulated a unique strategy to compile information to meld tradition with science, and old knowledge with new technology. With it, they are determined to prove to the outside world the ecological value of their homeland, and the importance of preserving their culture, which played a vital role in defending their homeland for thousands of years. The basic idea is simple -- record traditional knowledge of their forest and culture.
The execution, however, is titanic. In order to compile this disappearing information, the Waorani students must locate and consult the last living elders, who are spread across a remote rainforest territory larger than the state of New Jersey. Once gathered, they will build a multimedia guide to educate their government and the outside world about the ecological importance of their homeland and their presence in it. With this new understanding, they hope to save this ecological Eden from development and devastation.
In the feature length documentary and transmedia campaign, a small crew at Prehensile Productions will accompany the students on their journey, down the Tiputini River and into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Along the way, the students will document the last remaining Waorani elders who, being in their final years, are rapidly disappearing. They are the only ones who remember their rich culture and land as it was before first contact by the outside world in 1956. Prehensile Productions will combine their footage and the photos, videos and information the students gather to tell an intimate story of a small tribe’s attempt to divert a monumental crisis.
To bring awareness to the issues their documentary will explore, producers Keith Heyward and Jennifer Berglund are holding screenings, workshops and information sessions across the country before they return to the Ecuadorian Amazon to complete the documentary. The Chattanooga event will take place at GreenSpaces on Broad Street Feb. 17 from 7-9 p.m. It will be open to the public.