About the Project

TRIBES ON THE EDGE follows filmmaker Céline Cousteau as she returns to the Brazilian Amazon after a fateful email from Beto of the Marúbo tribe beckons her back to help tell his people’s story. Céline ventures into the heart of the jungle to explore the health crises and the threats to land and human rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari, expanding the view to how this is relevant to our own lives. From a history of invaders bringing devastating diseases all the more relevant in our current global pandemic, to the ongoing illegal activities including hunting, gold mining and deforestation, to the alarming dismantling of all protection of their land and human rights by the Brazilian government. Much more than a narrative of tribal reality in the Amazon, the film provides a perspective on how our future is interwoven with theirs and with nature. The indigenous communities are fighting to protect their home, critical to the ecological balance of our planet, and as a result…they protect us.

Humans and nature are intimately interconnected. Where there is environmental destruction, humans suffer. In the Amazon, where there are indigenous communities, there is no deforestation. If they vanish, we lose the guardians of vital ecosystems.

Spanning more than 85,000 km2 (an area the size of Portugal), the Vale do Javari is the second largest indigenous territory in Brazil and is home to 5000 indigenous peoples from 6 tribes as well as the largest population of people living without any contact with the outside world in the entire Amazon and some say the world. Though the Javari has been designated for the tribes living there, there is looming pressure to increase harmful resource extraction which in other parts of the Amazon has led to environmental degradation. With Hepatitis rates as high as 50-80%, this preventable infectious disease brought in by outsiders is decimating the population and threatening their very survival.

These threats could determine how the story unfolds. Or, our actions will nurture a better path.

The survival of Javari is the survival of each one of us.

It is estimated that the Amazon produces 20% the world’s oxygen and releases 55 gallons of water into the Atlantic ocean every second. Stated by IUCN to be “one of the irreplaceable areas of our planet” because it is exceptionally valuable for biodiversity conservation[1], the Javari is a strong candidate for World Heritage Status[2]. But just outside the borders of the Javari threats loom: destructive gold mining encroaches on its western border, the cocaine trail to the south prevails, and  potential oil exploration threatens. Inside the borders, continuous illegal logging, fishing, and gold mining by outsiders creates conflict. The most vulnerable people, the uncontacted tribes, are at risk of being decimated by the same diseases that wiped out populations more than 150 years ago on arrival of the first Europeans looking for gold and rubber.

This is not just a film, we are taking action!

Your funding enabled us to:

• finish an animation scene,
• finish our original music score for our director’s cut
• hold an impact campaign strategy meeting in the Amazon with indigenous leaders and partner NGOs to map out tangible actions chosen by the indigenous peoples of the Vale do Javari.

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