RESILIENT Research Group Participates in Documentary Launch about the Amazon

The documentary will premiere on 27 November at the University of Geneva

As part of the Max-Planck-based RESILIENT group’s activities, the avant-première of the documentary Amazonia: Coeur de la Terre Mère (Amazonia: Heart of the Mother Earth) is being planned within the framework of the Planète Amazone NGO’s tour in Europe. The event is organized by the General History Department and the Latino Lab of the University of Geneva, in collaboration with MPI GEA researchers.

This outstanding documentary highlights the history of Indigenous peoples' struggle for land rights and their fight against deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The projection will be followed by a debate bringing together researchers, NGOs, and Indigenous leaders, including Magdalene Kaitei, leader of the Maasai people, Mauricio Yekuana, director of the Yanomami Hutukara, alongside with the NGO Planète Amazon founder and documentary director, Gert-Peter Bruch. They will debate some key-topics of the documentary together with Antoine Acker, Professor at the University of Geneva and Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, and Julia Silva de Medeiros, Doctoral Researcher at the MPI GEA/TU Berlin under the supervision of Patrick Roberts alongside with Danielle Heberle Viegas and Stephanie Herold.

“I believe the event will be important to showcase to a wider public the vision and the fight of the Indigenous peoples to keep the Amazon Forest standing. They are often left out of institutional narratives, and this is one of the ways we can echo their voices and histories,” says Julia Silva de Medeiros, whose research at MPI GEA investigates how the heritagization narratives of former extractivist company towns in the Amazon Forest can impact environmental policies and politics in the region. 

"The event is also deeply aligned with the discussions held at the conference 'Voices of the Global South on the Anthropocene: Archaeological, Historical, and Ancestral Perspectives,' hosted by Max Planck GEA in June 2024," adds Danielle Heberle Viegas, PI of the RESILIENT project and seed member of the MPI GEA group “Archaeological, Historical and Ancestral Perspectives from the Global South to Navigate the Anthropocene Crisis,” both connected to the isoTROPIC permanent research group at MPI GEA.

The event will take place at the University of Geneva on Wednesday, 27 November, at 18:15 CET.