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Looking at the Amazon from the inside

We have checked one by one where each documentary can be watched legally. Those that cannot be watched from Spain for now carry a notice. Many were made, filmed or narrated by Indigenous peoples themselves, and each one explains well a piece of what we work on with schools: the Acre where the Network was born, the defence of the land, illegal mining, the Indigenous school and other ways of understanding nature.

We do not host any of these films. The rights belong to their authors and production companies: from here we only link to the official platforms. Availability changes by country and over time; if a link stops working, search for the title on your platform or write to us and we will fix it. The images on the cards are the thumbnails each production company publishes on its official YouTube channel. The one for “The Emerald Forest”, from 1985, is our own photograph of the Môa river.

Feature films

Fiction about the Amazon and its peoples. There is animation for primary school, six hundred years of Brazilian history in seventy-five minutes, and a film made with the Krahô people, who star in it. Each card says where to watch it and the age we use it from.

Talks and voices

As well as films, here are talks and videos of thinkers and Indigenous peoples speaking for themselves, which we use to prepare the workshops and which work just as well in a staff meeting as in a sixth-form class.

Agroforestry and caring for the land

Videos and talks on agroforestry, seeds and regenerative agriculture, with Indigenous voices from Acre and the Amazon and examples from Brazil and Catalonia. They complement the Living land section.

And ours, still under way

With the Puyanawa people we filmed «Sacred Land — Peyabakebu Puyanawa», a documentary about the memory and cultural recovery of the community. It is on hold for lack of funding: the two teasers and the footage shot in the village already exist.

See the teasers in Other projects

Is one missing? Have you used one in class and want to tell us how it went? Write to us and we will add it to the list.

← Back to Resources

Animation and Brazilian history

Uma História de Amor e Fúria (Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury)

Luiz Bolognesi · Brazil · 2013 · 75 min · Portuguese

The same couple meet again in four eras, and in each one the country changes hands: the Tupinambá defending the coast in the sixteenth century, the Balaiada rebels in Maranhão, the resistance against the military dictatorship, and a Rio favela in 2096, where water is bought and sold.

Why we recommend it

It puts six hundred unbroken years in front of students, and in that line Brazilian history begins with Indigenous peoples defending their land. It is directed by Luiz Bolognesi, whose “Ex-Pajé” and “A Última Floresta” we also recommend.

In the classroom

From age 14. It contains scenes of violence. In Portuguese. It won the Annecy Cristal for best feature and was the first Brazilian animated film selected at that festival.

Where to watch

 Cinema made with the Krahô people

The Buriti Flower (A Flor do Buriti)

João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora · Brazil and Portugal · 2023 · 123 min · Krahô and Portuguese, with Spanish subtitles

Patpro, a Krahô girl, hears from her father what happened in 1940. The directors lived in the village for years; the people of Pedra Branca are the screenwriters and the actors of their own history, and the film was shot on their land, in the state of Tocantins.

Why we recommend it

It is the closest thing we have seen to what we look for in the Network: a people telling their history in their own words and deciding what is taught. It also shows the work of the guardians of the land, the same work Puwê and the Puyanawa do in Acre.

In the classroom

From age 14. In Krahô and Portuguese, with subtitles. It received the ensemble prize at Un Certain Regard (Cannes, 2023).

Where to watch

 Rubber and memory

Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente)

Ciro Guerra · Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina · 2015 · 125 min · Amazonian languages, Spanish and German

The film starts from the diaries of two real travellers, the ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grünberg and the botanist Richard Evans Schultes, and looks at them from the other side: from the shaman who guides them. Along the way come the rubber camps and the missions.

Why we recommend it

It is the other face of “Segredos do Putumayo”: what the rubber boom did to the peoples of the north-western Amazon, told from within. And it teaches something we work on in the workshops: when a language is lost, what that language knew is lost too.

In the classroom

From age 16. It contains hard scenes. It was the first Colombian film nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film.

Where to watch

 Animation for primary school

Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon

Richard Claus and José Zelada · Peru and the Netherlands · 2021 · 84 min · Spanish

An animated adventure set in the Peruvian Amazon. The land, the animals and the spirit guides are at the centre of the story, and the threat is specific: gold mining and deforestation.

Why we recommend it

It is the film on this list that works in primary school. It tells the story of illegal mining and logging in language an eight-year-old follows, and it opens the subject before a workshop.

In the classroom

From age 6. Dubbed into Spanish. It runs 84 minutes, so in class it is best split into two sessions.

Where to watch

 The Xingu Indigenous Park

Xingu

Cao Hamburger · Brazil · 2011 · 102 min · Portuguese

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

Orlando, Cláudio and Leonardo Villas-Bôas join the expedition as labourers and end up spending their lives with the peoples of the Upper Xingu. The film also tells what arrived with them: the epidemics and the dependency.

Why we recommend it

The Xingu Park, created in 1961, is the forerunner of the land demarcations explained in “Mapear Mundos” and of the debate on the Marco Temporal. It is worth watching both: this one tells the story from the brothers, “Mapear Mundos” from the peoples.

In the classroom

From age 14. In Portuguese.

Where to watch

 The dam and the forest

The Emerald Forest

John Boorman · United Kingdom and Spain · 1985 · 110 min · English

Bill Markham runs the dam works. His son Tommy disappears at the edge of the forest and grows up with the “Invisible People”, a group invented for the film out of several from the Xingu. Ten years later father and son meet again, with the works well advanced and the forest falling around them.

Why we recommend it

It puts the works and their consequences in front of you: the road, the dam, the rising water and the people who lived there. And it shows where the cinema of those years looked from: the protagonist is the engineer’s son, the two main Indigenous roles are played by actors who are not Indigenous, and the people in the film are invented. People from the region’s communities did take part in the shoot.

In the classroom

From age 14. It contains nudity and scenes of violence. It had three BAFTA nominations. It pairs well with “The Buriti Flower”: the same forest told from outside and from within.

Where to watch

 Culture and education

O Brasil antes de 1500 (Brazil before 1500)

Canal Nostalgia, Maria Farinha Filmes and Instituto Alana · Brazil · 2025 · 60 min · Portuguese

Archaeologist Eduardo Neves, of the University of São Paulo, goes through what archaeology has found in recent years: the terra preta made by people, the straight roads running for kilometres, the mounds, the planted forests. Ten million people lived in this territory before 1500.

Why we recommend it

It says the same thing we say in Peoples: the rainforest is a landscape tended by people, not an empty space someone arrived at. Here archaeology says it, with the evidence on the table.

In the classroom

From age 12. It is in Portuguese. It comes with a free teaching guide for primary and secondary, made by Instituto Alana.

Where to watch

 Acre and rubber tappers

O Acre de Txai Macedo

Bruno Carneiro · Brazil · 2001 · 27 min · Portuguese

Txai Macedo tells the story of Acre from the inside: the rubber boom, Xapuri and Chico Mendes, the world’s first extractive reserve and the Indigenous peoples of the Juruá valley.

Why we recommend it

This is the film closest to what we do. Txai Macedo was an honorary member of the association and a friend and mentor to Adolf Sanz until his passing, in 2026. In 27 minutes you understand where the Acre we work in comes from.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. In Portuguese, without subtitles: teachers should prepare or comment on it.

Where to watch

 Acre and rubber tappers

Chico Mendes: Cartas da Floresta

Dulce Queiroz · TV Câmara (Brazil) · 2009 · 44 min · Portuguese

Drawing on his letters and on interviews recorded twenty years after his murder, it reconstructs how a rubber tapper from Xapuri became the leader who joined the defence of the forest to the defence of those who live in it.

Why we recommend it

Chico Mendes is the starting point of everything that came afterwards in Acre: the extractive reserves, the «alliance of the peoples of the forest» and the idea that caring for the forest and defending rights are the same thing.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. A free public production, it can be used in full or in clips.

Where to watch

 Acre and rubber tappers

Chico para a Juventude

Ivini Ferraz · Brazil · 2006 · 52 min · Portuguese

A documentary made for a young audience about Chico Mendes and the struggle of the Acre rubber tappers, with testimony from those who walked alongside him.

Why we recommend it

Among those who speak is Txai Macedo, an honorary member of our association, alongside Marina Silva, Gumercindo Rodrigues and Toninho Alves. It is one of the few films about Chico Mendes made expressly for young people, and it shows in the pace and the tone.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up (secondary and sixth form). Portuguese without subtitles: worth preparing beforehand or discussing it in parts.

Where to watch

 Mining and climate

A Queda do Céu (The Falling Sky)

Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha · Brazil, Italy and France · 2024 · 108 min · Yanomami and Portuguese

Filmed in the Watorikɨ community during the reahu, the great Yanomami funeral ritual. It grows out of the book and the testimony of the shaman Davi Kopenawa and the anthropologist Bruce Albert.

Why we recommend it

It is the best way into Davi Kopenawa’s thinking: his critique of the «people of merchandise», illegal mining and the epidemics that come with it. It helps to understand that there are other ways of being in the world, not quaint beliefs.

In the classroom

Age 16 and up. It is a long, contemplative film; it works better in sixth form or with a discussion afterwards.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

The Netflix link no longer works and for now it is not on any platform in Spain.

 Mining and climate

A Última Floresta (The Last Forest)

Luiz Bolognesi · Brazil · 2021 · 74 min · Yanomami and Portuguese

Script written together with Davi Kopenawa. It mixes documentary and scenes re-enacted by the community itself to tell how the arrival of gold prospectors brings disease and death to a Yanomami village.

Why we recommend it

It shows very vividly what garimpo (wildcat mining) is and why illegal mining is today the greatest threat to the peoples of the northern Amazon. It won the audience award at the Berlinale.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. There are hard scenes, but nothing explicit.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

It is on Netflix in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the United States, but not in Spain.

 Land and rights

The Territory

Alex Pritz · Brazil, Denmark and United States · 2022 · 85 min · Portuguese and English

A young Uru-eu-wau-wau leader organises the patrolling of his land in Rondônia against invaders and loggers. A good part of the footage was filmed by the community itself.

Why we recommend it

It shows something you rarely see: how a territory is actually defended, with cameras, drones, maps and patrols. And it presents the settlers’ point of view honestly.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. A National Geographic production, with Spanish subtitles. In Spain it can be watched on Disney+. In Spain it is titled «Amazonas: territorio límite».

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Piripkura

Mariana Oliva, Bruno Jorge and Renata Terra · Brazil · 2017 · 82 min · Portuguese

Two men of the Piripkura people survive on their own, constantly on the move, inside a territory surrounded by ranches and loggers. A Funai fieldworker looks for them every year to prove they are still alive and keep the land protected.

Why we recommend it

It is the clearest portrait of what «people in voluntary isolation» means, and of how an administrative decision can decide the survival of a whole people.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

Only on Prime Video in Brazil.

 Land and rights

Martírio

Vincent Carelli, Ernesto de Carvalho and Tatiana Almeida · Brazil · 2016 · 162 min · Guarani and Portuguese

Forty years of footage on the struggle of the Guarani Kaiowá people to recover their lands in Mato Grosso do Sul, and on the violence they meet.

Why we recommend it

It is the film that best explains the underlying conflict behind the Marco Temporal (cut-off date) doctrine: who occupied what, when and with which papers. Hard, long and necessary.

In the classroom

Sixth form or adult education only: it contains images of real violence. Spanish and English subtitles. On Vimeo you can rent it for a week or buy it.

Where to watch

 Culture and education

Ex-Pajé (Ex-Shaman)

Luiz Bolognesi · Brazil · 2018 · 81 min · Paiter Suruí and Portuguese

Perpera, the last shaman of the Paiter Suruí people, stopped being one when evangelical missionaries declared his religion demonic. The film follows him as he decides whether to heal again.

Why we recommend it

It deals with something rarely discussed: religious conversion as a form of ethnocide. And it does so without caricaturing anyone. Special jury mention at the Berlinale.

In the classroom

Age 16 and up. Very useful for working on religious diversity and respect for other ways of understanding the world.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

Only on Apple TV in Brazil.

 Culture and education

El sendero de la anaconda (The Path of the Anaconda)

Alessandro Angulo · Colombia · 2019 · 73 min · Spanish

The writer Wade Davis and the anthropologist Martín von Hildebrand travel the rivers of the Colombian Amazon half a century after they met, following the routes of the botanist Richard Evans Schultes.

Why we recommend it

It is in Spanish and the calmest on the list. It explains plant knowledge very well, the idea of the Andes-Amazon ecological corridor and why recognised Indigenous lands are better preserved.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. Being in Spanish, it can be used without preparation.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

It is on Netflix in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the United States, but not in Spain.

 Culture and education

Uýra: The Rising Forest

Juliana Curi · Brazil and United States · 2022 · 63 min · Portuguese

Uýra, an artist of Indigenous descent and a biologist, travels the outskirts of Manaus running workshops with Indigenous young people about the forest, identity and the right to exist.

Why we recommend it

It is the only one on the list that shows Indigenous environmental education in action, with teenagers and in a large Amazonian city. It also deals with the discrimination faced by Indigenous and LGBT+ people in Brazil.

In the classroom

Age 16 and up; it is worth watching first to see whether it fits the school’s project.

Where to watch

⚠️ Not available in Spain for now

Only on Prime Video in Brazil.

 Land and rights

Yanuni

Richard Ladkani · Austria, Brazil, USA, Canada and Germany · 2025 · 112 min · Portuguese and English

A portrait of Juma Xipaia, from the Xipaya Indigenous Land, from her village to national politics: she was Brazil’s first Secretary for the Articulation and Promotion of Indigenous Rights and has survived several attempts on her life. The film follows both her public life and her life with her husband, Hugo Loss, an environmental enforcement agent.

Why we recommend it

It is the most recent film on the list and the one that best shows illegal mining and the direct threat to those who defend the forest. It is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio together with Juma Xipaia herself, and it was shortlisted for the Academy Award for best documentary.

In the classroom

Age 16 and up. It deals with death threats and violence, so it is worth watching first and preparing the discussion.

Where to watch

The full film is free on YouTube, on Leonardo DiCaprio’s channel. YouTube asks you to sign in to confirm your age, so in class it has to be opened with an adult account.

 Acre and rubber tappers

Chico Mendes: Voice of the Amazon

Miranda Smith · United States · 1989 · 56 min · English, with Spanish subtitles

Filmed a few weeks before he was murdered in 1988: Chico Mendes tells, in his own voice, the struggle of Acre’s rubber tappers for the forest.

Why we recommend it

It lets you hear Chico Mendes in the first person and understand why the rubber tappers defended the standing forest. It pairs well with the other films about him.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 12 and up. Free, in English with burned-in Spanish subtitles.

Where to watch

 Acre and rubber tappers

A gente luta mas come fruta (We Fight, but We Eat Fruit)

Wewito Piyãko and Isaac Pinhanta · Brazil · 2006 · 40 min · Asháninka and Portuguese

Two Asháninka filmmakers show how their community of Apiwtxa, in Acre, restores its forest and rivers and drives out the loggers.

Why we recommend it

Made by the Asháninka themselves in the Juruá valley, where the Network works. It shows from the inside how a community cares for and restores its land.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 10 and up. English subtitles. Paid on Vimeo: rent or buy it for a few euros.

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Mapear Mundos (Mapping Worlds)

Mariana Lacerda · Brazil · 2024 · 71 min · Portuguese, with Spanish subtitles

How Brazil’s Indigenous peoples were located and how the Indigenous chapter of the 1988 Constitution and the demarcation of their lands were won. With Ailton Krenak and André Baniwa.

Why we recommend it

The best starting point to understand the Marco Temporal: it explains where Indigenous land rights in Brazil come from and who fought for them. Published by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

In the classroom

As a guide: age 14 and up. Free, with Spanish subtitles.

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Guardianes del Amazonas (Guardians of the Amazon)

Thomson Reuters Foundation for BBC Mundo · 2019 · 26 min · Spanish

The Forest Guardians of the Guajajara people, in Maranhão, patrol their land against illegal loggers.

Why we recommend it

In half an hour, it shows what it means to defend a territory with your own body, told by the people who do it. Very useful to open a debate.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 12 and up. Free, in Spanish.

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Corumbiara

Vincent Carelli · Brazil · 2009 · 117 min · Portuguese, with English subtitles

Vincent Carelli spends twenty years investigating a massacre of Indigenous people in Rondônia and searching for the survivors.

Why we recommend it

By the director of Martírio. It shows how a people is erased and how the camera becomes evidence when justice does not come.

In the classroom

Upper secondary or adult education only: it deals with a massacre and its impunity. English subtitles. Paid on Vimeo: rent or buy.

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Pere Casaldàliga. Les causes i la vida (Causes and a Life)

Francesc Escribano · TV3, Sense ficció · 2014 · 47 min · Catalan

The Catalan bishop who stood up for peasants and Indigenous people in Mato Grosso and lived under death threats from landowners.

Why we recommend it

It links Catalonia and Brazil: it explains the struggle for land in the Amazon through a figure close to Catalan students.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 14 and up. Free on 3Cat, in Catalan.

Where to watch

 Land and rights

Segredos do Putumayo (Secrets of Putumayo)

Aurélio Michiles · Brazil · 2020 · 82 min · Portuguese, with Spanish subtitles

Based on Roger Casement’s 1910 diary, it reconstructs the crimes of the rubber boom against the Indigenous peoples of the Putumayo.

Why we recommend it

It gives the historical background of the rubber cycle, the same one that shaped the history of Acre and its rubber tappers.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 16 and up, as it describes violence and slavery. Rent or buy on Apple TV Spain, with Spanish subtitles.

Where to watch

 Mining and climate

La jaula de oro (The Golden Cage)

En Portada (RTVE) · 2021 · 39 min · Spanish

Illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon: razed forest and mafias controlling the trade.

Why we recommend it

A rigorous account of how illegal gold mining works, the same threat many Indigenous territories in Brazil face today.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 14 and up. Free on RTVE Play, in Spanish.

Where to watch

 Culture and education

Das crianças Ikpeng para o mundo (From the Ikpeng Children to the World)

Karané Ikpeng, Natuyu Yuwipo Txicão and Kumaré Ikpeng · Brazil · 2001 · 35 min · Ikpeng and Portuguese

Four Ikpeng children from Mato Grosso present their village in a video letter: their families, their games and their celebrations. And they ask children from other cultures to write back.

Why we recommend it

Made by children, for children. It is perfect to start an exchange between schools, which is exactly what the Network does.

In the classroom

For all ages, primary school included. English subtitles. Paid on Vimeo: rent or buy it for a few euros.

Where to watch

 Culture and education

Já me transformei em imagem (I’ve Already Become an Image)

Zezinho Yube · Brazil · 2008 · 32 min · Huni Kuin and Portuguese

The Huni Kuin of Acre tell their history: first contact, captivity on the rubber estates and their current work with video.

Why we recommend it

Directed by a Huni Kuin filmmaker, it shows Acre from the inside and how a people uses the camera to recover its memory.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 12 and up. English subtitles. Paid on Vimeo: rent or buy it for a few euros.

Where to watch

 Asháninka people

Povo Ashaninka e a produção florestal (The Asháninka People and Forest Production)

Ashaninka Apiwtxa channel · Brazil · 2022 · 2 videos of 3 min · Portuguese

An Asháninka man from the village of Apiwtxa, on the Amônia river (Acre), recalls that as a child he had to ask the estate bosses for fruit. Today, on the land his people recovered and reforested on a former ranch, fruit trees surround the houses.

In the second video, the village’s agroforestry agents explain their agroforestry systems and their swiddens: fruit trees, some 23 varieties of banana, cassava, and fruit as a safeguard when meat or fish are scarce.

Why we recommend it

It is the Indigenous voice of Acre, without intermediaries, in the same Juruá valley where the Network works. And it is the same community as in «A gente luta mas come fruta», sixteen years later.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 8 and up, with the teacher’s help. Two short videos in Portuguese, with automatic subtitles: about 20 minutes including the discussion.

Where to watch

 Yawanawá and Puyanawa peoples

Projeto Reflorestar Yawanawá (Yawanawá Reforestation Project)

Aliança Reflorestar da Amazônia · Brazil · 2022 · 21 min · Portuguese

In Nova Esperança, a village of the Yawanawá people (Gregório river, Acre), 5,722 trees were planted —fruit trees, pioneer species and hardwoods— and a nursery and a seed bank were built. The seedlings were provided by the Puyanawa, led by Puwê.

The project included training in agroforestry and in the technique for collecting seeds from the tops of trees. Puwê Puyanawa, an agroforester and teacher, speaks in the video.

Why we recommend it

It is an exchange between peoples for reforestation, and it involves the Puyanawa, the people we have worked with since 2016.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 12 and up. Twenty-one minutes, in Portuguese.

Where to watch

 Peoples of the Rio Negro

Sistema Agrícola Tradicional do Rio Negro (The Traditional Agricultural System of the Rio Negro)

National Geographic Brasil · 2022 · 3 episodes of 10 to 12 min · Portuguese

The Indigenous peoples of the Rio Negro explain their system of swiddens (roças), recognised as cultural heritage of Brazil in 2010: the origin of cassava, swiddens at different stages and the role of women as «mothers of the swidden».

There are three episodes: «Saberes da roça», «Produtos da floresta» and «Ciência indígena e crise climática». In the last one, the Tariana elder Clarindo Chagas explains that the signs in nature that used to announce the seasons are no longer reliable.

Why we recommend it

It presents Indigenous agriculture as scientific knowledge: a system that combines forest and crops, is passed down from generation to generation and is now suffering the effects of climate change.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 12 and up. Each episode lasts about ten minutes, in Portuguese with automatic subtitles. It is worth explaining beforehand the difference between the small swiddens of forest peoples, which the forest reclaims, and large-scale deforestation.

Where to watch

 Ernst Götsch

Life in Syntropy

Agenda Gotsch · Brazil · 2015 · 15 min · Portuguese, with Spanish subtitles

Three examples of syntropic agriculture: two farmers from Brasília, a large farm in São Paulo and Ernst Götsch’s farm in Bahia, where exhausted land became forest again.

It was made for the 2015 Paris climate summit (COP21).

Why we recommend it

It is the best video introduction to what Living land explains: planting the way the forest grows, in layers and over time.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 13 and up. Spanish subtitles. Some figures are given by the people in the film without a source, and the section on the large commercial farm is best watched with a critical eye.

Where to watch

 Ernst Götsch

Los agricultores que convirtieron un desierto en un bosque (The Farmers Who Turned a Desert into a Forest)

BBC News Mundo · 2021 · 6 min · Spanish, with the interviews subtitled

Ernst Götsch and his student Nelson Araújo, who brought almost two hectares of Brazil’s semi-arid region back from the brink of desertification: shade-grown cacao, «planting water» and the return of streams and animals.

Why we recommend it

It is short, it is in Spanish and its images show the before and after of an agroforest.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 10 and up. Six minutes: good for opening a class discussion. There are versions in Portuguese and English.

Where to watch

 Agroforestry agents of Acre

Haskai Nukũ Yunu Bei Keyui Ikimekãi? (Why Are We Losing Our Swiddens?)

Comissão Pró-Indígenas do Acre · Brazil · 2021 · 4 min · animation in an Indigenous language, with Portuguese subtitles

A Huni Kuin woman tells how global warming is causing the villages of Acre to lose their swiddens. It was made by the Indigenous agroforestry agents (AMAAIAC) and the Indigenous teachers (OPIAC) with CPI-Acre.

Why we recommend it

It is told by Acre’s Indigenous agroforestry agents themselves, the network the association worked with in 2017 on the Território Indígena project.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 8 and up. Four minutes of animation: a good way to start talking about the climate with the youngest children.

Where to watch

 Peoples of the Xingu

O que é a Rede de Sementes do Xingu? (What Is the Xingu Seed Network?)

Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) · Brazil · 2021 · 5 min · Portuguese, with English subtitles

Indigenous women, farmers and town residents collect native seeds from the forest. Mixed together in the «muvuca», they have already grown forest on almost 7,000 hectares.

Why we recommend it

It shows another way of growing the forest back: sowing it directly, with seeds collected by the communities themselves.

In the classroom

As a guide: age 10 and up. Five minutes.

Where to watch

 Catalonia

Regenerative agriculture at the Planeses farm

CREAF and Hope! · Girona · 2020 and 2022 · 17 and 6 min · Spanish

At the Planeses farm, in Girona, CREAF combines forest, livestock and crops to regenerate the soil: grazing that moves to a new plot every day, shredded branches from the forest and a no-till vegetable garden.

There are two videos: the talk by Marc Gràcia, of CREAF, on the principles of regenerative agriculture and the Polyfarming project, and the video by Javier Peña (Hope!) filmed on the same farm. According to Gràcia, the organic matter in the soil rose from 1.8% to between 5% and 6%.

Why we recommend it

It shows regenerative agriculture here, in Catalonia: the same work as agroforestry in the Amazon.

In the classroom

As a guide: the Hope! video, age 12 and up (6 minutes); the CREAF talk, age 14 and up (17 minutes).

Where to watch

 Puyanawa people

Identidade do Povo Puyanawa

Brazil · 2024 · 3 min · Portuguese

“What do you imagine an Indigenous person looks like?” A short video by the Puyanawa people themselves that takes apart the idea that all Indigenous peoples are the same and that there is only one way of looking the part.

Why we recommend it

It is the people we work with, speaking about themselves. In three minutes it knocks down the stereotype we meet most often in classrooms, and it does it better than any explanation of ours.

In the classroom

From Year 6 up. Three minutes, ideal for opening a session of the intercultural workshop.

Where to watch

 Txai Macedo

The world’s first extractive reserves were created in the Amazon

TEDxAmazônia · Brazil · 12 min · Portuguese

In twelve minutes, Txai Macedo tells how the struggles of the Acre rubber tappers ended up creating the world’s first extractive reserves.

Why we recommend it

Txai Macedo was an honorary member of our association and a friend and mentor to Adolf Sanz. It is the shortest video on this page and the one that best sums up where the Acre we work in comes from.

In the classroom

Age 14 and up. Twelve minutes: it fits into one lesson with time left to discuss it.

Where to watch

 Ailton Krenak

Induction into the Academia Brasileira de Letras

Academia Brasileira de Letras · Brazil · 2024 · 2 hr 02 · Portuguese

On 5 April 2024, Ailton Krenak became the first Indigenous person to join the Academia Brasileira de Letras, the country’s oldest literary institution. The full ceremony, with his speech.

Why we recommend it

It is a historic moment and you see it without intermediaries. Krenak is not there to collect a prize: he is there to tell the Brazilian literary elite that his people’s thinking belongs in that room. His book Ideas to Postpone the End of the World is one of the readings behind our Peoples section.

In the classroom

Sixth form and teacher training. It runs two hours: for the classroom, pick Krenak’s speech.

Where to watch

 Ailton Krenak

“Do sonho e da terra”

Teatro Maria Matos (Lisbon) · 2017 · 2 hr 08 · Portuguese

A talk in the Questões indígenas series. Krenak speaks about dreaming as a form of knowledge, about the land as kin, and about what it means to live without separating nature and culture.

Why we recommend it

It is the talk that best explains, in his own words, what our Peoples section sets out in academic language. If you can only watch one thing by Krenak, make it this one.

In the classroom

Sixth form and teacher training. European Portuguese, no subtitles.

Where to watch

 Ailton Krenak

Vozes do Rio Doce

Ipatinga (Minas Gerais) · 19 October 2024 · 1 hr 48 · Portuguese

A meeting with young students about the Doce river, the river of the Krenak people, polluted by the collapse of the Mariana mining dam in 2015.

Why we recommend it

Krenak talking to secondary students, not to academics. It is the register closest to what happens in a classroom, and the Doce river case connects with what we explain about the rights of nature.

In the classroom

Secondary and sixth form. The audience in the video is the same age as the students.

Where to watch

 Gersem Baniwa

Indigenous peoples and education

Instituto Unibanco · Brazil · 2021 · 19 min · Portuguese

Gersem Baniwa tells his own story, the challenges of Indigenous school education in Brazil and how his people educate: with the whole community sharing responsibility, not the school alone.

Why we recommend it

He is the first Indigenous person in Brazil to hold a doctorate in anthropology and the academic reference on Indigenous school education. Nineteen minutes that explain why an Indigenous school cannot be the usual school translated into another language. One of the best things available for preparing a staff meeting.

In the classroom

Teacher training. It also works in sixth form. Portuguese without subtitles, but he speaks slowly and clearly.

Where to watch

 Daniel Munduruku

Olhar Indígena: on Indigenous education

Daniel Munduruku’s channel · Brazil · 2018 · 12 min · Portuguese

A relaxed conversation with the writer and educator Daniel Munduruku about how learning happens among Indigenous peoples: where education begins, who educates and why each people needs its own materials.

Why we recommend it

Munduruku has written more than fifty books for children and young people and has been going into schools for decades. When he says that education begins at home and that one set of materials cannot serve every people, he is describing exactly what we find across the Network.

In the classroom

Teacher training and sixth form. Twelve minutes, easy to fit into one session.

Where to watch

 Célia Xakriabá

Indigenous cultures

Itaú Cultural · Brazil · 2017 · 6 min · Portuguese

From her experience as an educator, the teacher Célia Xakriabá explains what would have to change for Indigenous education to be genuinely autonomous rather than a copy of the school from outside.

Why we recommend it

Six minutes, straight to the bone. Hers is the youngest voice on this list: a teacher, then the first Indigenous woman in the education administration of Minas Gerais, and today a member of parliament. She talks about school from the inside and from below.

In the classroom

From Year 10 up. Six minutes: it fits at the start of any session.

Where to watch

Amazon Guardian Schools Network

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