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Documentaries for looking at the Amazon
A curated list, with where to watch and what ages they suit
Looking at the Amazon from the inside
We have watched and checked each of these documentaries one by one. 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.
All
Acre and rubber tappers
Land and rights
Mining and climate
Culture and education
1
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.
See the details and where to watch →
2
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.
See the details and where to watch →
3
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.
See the details and where to watch →
4
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.
See the details and where to watch →
5
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 .
See the details and where to watch →
6
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.
See the details and where to watch →
7
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.
See the details and where to watch →
8
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.
See the details and where to watch →
9
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.
See the details and where to watch →
10
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.
See the details and where to watch →
11
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.
See the details and where to watch →
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.
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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
×
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
×
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
×
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+.
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
×
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.
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
×
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
Es the only one on the list in Spanish and the calmest. 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
×
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
×
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.
