Indigenous community in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon holds a film festival celebrating rainforests

BELÉN, Peru (AP) — In the heart of Peru’s Amazon region, a poor indigenous community put aside the trials and tribulations of daily life and celebrated an international film festival with works from countries with rainforests .

Many of those who attended the 10-day event had never seen a film on the big screen, and the one used for the festival was itself unique due to the region’s geography.

“The festival is intended as a tribute to the jungles of the world and its inhabitants, to the indigenous communities, in which we believe lies the answer to the challenges and destruction that forests face now that everyone is talking about climate change” , Daniel Martínez -Quintanilla, co-executive director of the festival which ends on Sunday, said.

Life in the Belén community revolves around water. Houses and businesses are built on stilts because rains regularly cause flooding that lasts for months. Families own canoes to get around, but children who don’t have canoes sometimes use large plastic containers instead.

So, members of the Muyuna Floating Film Festival – muyuna in the Quechua language means “a whirlpool formed by powerful rivers” – installed the screen on a 10-meter-high wooden structure, allowing residents to enjoy the films from their canoes or the windows of their house.

“For the first time we are learning about these environments that bring us to this community,” said Belén resident Jorge Chilicahua, a 60-year-old farmer who raises chickens and plants cassava, corn and vegetables for meet the needs of his family. . He never went to the cinema.

Much of Belén’s population comes from rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon and is part of various indigenous groups, including the Kukama, Yagua, and Bora, who migrated in search of better economic, educational, and health opportunities. Their challenges are numerous.

People fish by making holes in the floors of their houses, forcing mothers to closely monitor their children who cannot yet swim so that they do not fall into the water and drown. Health authorities have reported that malnutrition and diarrhea are common due to the lack of clean water.

Martínez-Quintanilla said the event included films from Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan, Panama and other countries with rainforests, as well as others made by young Peruvians.

Among the works screened were the Peruvian animated short film “The Engine and the Melody”, which tells the story of an ant that cuts down Amazonian trees and a cicada that manages to regenerate the forest by playing a prodigious flute – until everything changes when a forest fire occurs.

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Briceño reported from Lima, Peru.

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