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Short Summary
We would like to make a 26-minute documentary of macaw conservation research in the rainforest of Peru. The documentary will be used to direct public attention towards the problems these birds are facing in their habitat and the importance of scientific conservation research on the future of macaws in this region.
This documentary differs from other documentaries because it is filmed from the perspective of researchers that is rarely seen. We will explain the newest techniques of this field of research and show up-to-date findings in a comprehensible way in a spectacular movie.
By using our exclusive footage from the fieldwork we will include the following aspects in the documentary:
● The storyline begins with the arrival of a researcher to the pristine Peruvian rainforest, the habitat of enigmatic large macaws.
● During his research trip to the field he first visits a local community who today mostly earn their living from ecotourism.
● He visits their tourist lodges to gain an understanding of the importance of ecotourism for conservation in this region.
● Later he arrives at a research center to see the everyday life of other researchers and find out about their topics.
● He then continues to the wildest part of the Amazon, which is only accessible to researchers today, and he carries out fieldwork in Candamo, a largely inaccessible location with high biodiversity.
● On the way back to the town of Puerto Maldonado the storyline ends with the human impacts threatening this part of the Earth and endangering the macaws: namely gold mining using mercury, tree logging, oil extraction and road construction.
The project in detail
A scientific research project is being implemented in the Tambopata-Candamo region of the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. Thanks to the voluntary work of researchers, we already have a repository of suitable full-HD footage that would require professional editing to produce the desired documentary. Such editing, or post-production, of the footage would include all activities carried out after filming such as editing, sound mixing, recording voiceovers and creating subtitle.
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To make this project we have 2 main collaborators:
● Rainforest Expeditions is a Peruvian eco-tourism company that operates 3 award-winning lodges in our research area.
● Filmjungle.eu Society is an NGO founded in 1996 by independent filmmakers. By now the Budapest-based Filmjungle.eu had become the most productive production unit for wildlife films and conservation documentaries in Hungary. Its award winning list of films include titles as Wolfwatching, Invisible Wildlife Photographer, Sharks in my Viewfinder and Budapest Wild.
Nowadays most scientific research are only available for a very narrow academic audience by publishing in scientific journals. Often the reality of the field-based research, which underpins these journal articles, is most interesting part and is worth to be communicated to a much broader audience by this kind of documentary. Public awareness is an important goal of any conservation research, and documentary films are great tools to accomplish this – not only by conveying our conservation message to many people around the world, but more crucially revealing truths based on scientific evidence.
You can find more detailed information about the research project at this site: http://people.anu.edu.au/george.olah
In the event that we won’t reach our desired goal, we will still make some shorter videos from the extensive full-HD footage about the macaw research in Tambopata-Candamo. It depends on the final budget what we will be able to achieve. If we over-reach our goal we could extend the duration of the documentary or create several episodes instead.
The Impact
● Public Awareness: Aim to reach a broad international audience with our documentary with a strong scientific basis and first-hand experience from a field researcher, interviews with other researchers, locals, visitors, and indigenous people to document a wide spectrum of the study site
● Saving Macaws: Show how we use new (even genetic) techniques for the conservation of macaws, outlining the project’s main aims and initial findings.
● Saving Habitat: Demonstrate how macaws “function” as umbrella species as we can also be conserving other species which use the same elements of the ecosystem as the macaws do.
● Evaluate Threats: Discuss the effect of the newly built Interoceanic highway, gold mining, logging and show what alternative and promising solutions exist like ecotourism that helps local tribes to conserve their ecosystem.
● Land Conservation: Present the story of Candamo Valley that was saved by the public media (thanks to a documentary) from oil extraction and declared to a national park. We will add new information to the story about an isolated macaw population in Candamo prioritizing the importance of biodiversity hotspots.
● English broadcast: The documentary will be in English and we will aim to distribute and broadcast it in the US, Canada and several European countries.
● Spanish broadcast: We will also aim for a Spanish version of the documentary to broadcast in Central and South America.
● Education: We intend that the documentary will be used as educational material in local schools and local communities in Peru. With this documentary we hope to demonstrate to local people and their children the importance of conserving their own natural heritage.
Other Ways You Can Help
Please help us to make some noise about our campaign by sending the link to your friends or posting to your social media sites (you could also use the Indiegogo share tools as well).
The incoming funds from this campaign will only be used for making the documentary about this research. If you want to contribute to the research project itself, please visit the following link.
