The Last Forest

A much needed documentary. The photography is insane, Pedro did a wonderful job. And I was amazed at the folklore tales, narrated and played by the natives themselves. I can't see anything that faults it, it's raw, it's pleasant, it's humanity at it's best and at it's worst.

Understatements. Everything I could say about this powerful sharing would be an understatement. It is beautiful, devastating, poignant, hilarious, haunting. It is us. What we should be. I dare you not to see the world and your life differently after watching this.

Honestly, I couldn't finish it.

I watched the first few minutes of footage of the men and a family and then the tribesmen running off 3 white men gold prospectors.

I expected to see their clothing to be minimal, as their customs have bead works and body paint.

It just bothered me immensely that this dramatized documentary seemingly had probably altered their dress to give them a voice. Seeing these tribesmen in modern day basketball shorts. And yet, the women wore only beads and bands of cloth..... Did the filmmakers change their customary clothing (or lack there or) for our view on modesty? It just immediately & jarringly made me feel 'this feels wrong'.

When the ore is dug then the disease comes from the ground. So it is in their creation story of two brothers etc...Almost prophetic in what happens to these tribes on the Amazon. Gold drilling and digging brings mercury to the water supply and so we have the skeleton of this film but there is so much more. Everyone should see this.

After finding Under the Concrete (2020-also reviewed) to be an intriguing feature film debut by Roy Arida,I was excited to enter the forest and catch the third,and final title in the 2021 WOW Film Festival features line-up.

View on the film:

Going deep into the heart of the Yanomami community in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil, director Luiz Bolognesi & cinematographer Pedro J. Marquez wise decision to not have an English language narration, allows for a rich, immerse atmosphere to grow, via Bolognesi's delicate, spectacular tracking shots and striking close-ups in natural light, capturing the untouched by industrialization balance of the practical daily routines, and the deep spiritualism that the Yanomami's hold dear.

Treating the beliefs of the Yanomami's with respect, Bolognesi inter-cuts the daily lives documentary footage with shimmering re-enactments, as the tribes-people play themselves in excellent sequences which dramatizes the mythology that they live their lives by.

Detailing during the end credits the horrific mistreatment and murder that have been committed by prospectors in recent years, Bolognesi fills the screen with the passionate voices of the Yanomami's , who detail the distraction which the brutal outsiders have brought with them,as the Yanomami fight to save the last forest.