By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today
Health & Environment Editor
GUADALAJARA – From
The Esperanza Project, an independent multimedia outlet based in this Mexican metropolis, comes an online screening and film discussion July 1 of “The Condor and The Eagle,” a new documentary linking the environmental and climate justice leadership of four indigenous women in South and North American frontline communities at risk.
The film took shape as spouses Sophie and Clément Guerra, of Germany and France respectively, set out on the road in North and South America to find, compile and share the stories of grassroots community activists in a production that has become a the keystone of a campaign to support native voices for Mother Nature.
After five years of offering their services, the filmmakers premiered the full-length documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York State in October 2019. Selected by more than 50 film festivals across North America, “The Condor & the Eagle” since then has won 12 awards, including Best Documentary Film at the Red Nation International Film Festival in Beverly Hills.
Many thanks to Xica Media and to Xica Nation for the great writeup and the huge support in getting the word out about...
Posted by The Esperanza Project on Sunday, June 28, 2020
The 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City, led by indigenous women from North and South America, convinced the Guerras to trace the relationships kindled there to their hometown roots.
The film’s storyline follows the protagonists from tar-sands fracked Athabascan neighborhoods, to the climate march, to oil pipeline impacted bayou communities in North America, then to Central and South American rainforests villages ravaged by mineral extraction, as they build a meaningful Panamerican alliance for resilience and sustainability.
Inspired by Ponca Casey Camp Horinek, a leader of the North-South (eagle-condor) movement, the film was set for international theater release just when the 2020 pandemic of coronavirus shut down movie houses everywhere.
The Esperanza Project and numerous other allies are picking up the slack by providing watch parties for groups to share the film and ideas it inspires in a virtual setting.
“As we work to prevent the spread of Covid-19, indigenous activists across North and South America continue to defend the lands and waters, and to protect their communities from extraction and the pandemic,” The Esperanza Project Founder Tracy Barnett said in issuing the screening invitation.
“The climate crisis is not paused while we battle Covid-19; we must support and learn from those at the front line of the struggle for climate justice.”
Partnering with the film directors, the Mexico-based production company Voices of Amerikua, and the climate justice group 350.org Guadalajara, The Esperanza Project has scheduled a live post-film online discussion for the event entitled "
Defending the Defenders Of Mother Earth.” It will be led by prominent indigenous changemakers of Turtle Island.
Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com
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