Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest

This independent documentary offers a quick run-through of the history of the Amazon over the last five centuries or so, and reiterates the urgent ecological message that our complicity in the deforestation of this area is tantamount to suicide; but its real focus is the testimony of the local inhabitants. Of an estimated 800 tribes indigenous to Brazil, only 80 remain today. Increasingly, the Indians are presenting their case to the world media, and for the first time, those old adversaries the rubber trappers and the farmers are uniting against the government. Amazonia is a bit scrappy, but a salutary film all the same.