The Critical Room: We are Guardians - Indigenous peoples fight to preserve the Amazon

The Amazon rainforest is one of Earth’s most unique and important ecosystems, but also faces some of the biggest environmental threats. Who protects it, and is there more hope for the Amazon now?

The insightful documentary WE ARE GUARDIANS (2023) follows members of indigenous tribes in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, their fight to protect it, and the complicated struggles they face. Ahead of the screening there will be a panel discussion asking: Is there more hope for the Amazon now, with Jair Bolsonaro out of the presidential palace?

The panel:

• Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman are American documentary filmmakers who specialize in working with nature and indigenous people. Both will be joining digitally.

• Lars Løvold is a former long-time head of the Rainforest Foundation Norway, and has traveled to the Amazon and done fieldwork several times.

• Larissa Avelar is a Brazilian activist and chair of the board of the The Norwegian Solidarity Committee for Latin America (LAG).

Practical information

• Ahead of the screening of WE ARE GUARDIANS on Tuesday, November 14th, there will be a conversation about the indigenous peoples' struggle to preserve the Amazon. The conversation begins at 20:15.

• The conversation will take place before the screening and will be held in English.

About the film

In WE ARE GUARDIANS we meet some of the indigenous people of the rainforest who dedicate their lives to preserve it, despite the risks involved. Among them are Forest Guardians, volunteers who patrol indigenous territories to prevent the illegal extraction of resources, and political activists working to better the legal standing of the rainforest and its inhabitants. Along with these guardians, the documentary dissects the political and economic forces that fuel deforestation and destruction of the rainforest, as well as the danger this entails, not only for those in the area, but for the planet as whole.

The Critical Room

The screening is part of the section The Critical Room (DKR) which is Films from the Souths forum for debate and conversation.