‘The Last Guardians’ Film: indigenous people’s fight in Ecuador

Manari Ushigua, political and spiritual leader of the Sapara community in Pastaza province. Photo: Punzano/Tucker Archive. All rights reserved.After experiencing
first-hand the pressures put upon the indigenous people in the Ecuadorian
Amazon during 2015, as two documentary filmmakers, we set about making ‘The
Last Guardians'.

Three years later
after pre-production, two rounds of fundraising, filming with the incredible
communities of Sarayaku and Sapara, and taking the film through post-production,
‘The Last Guardians’ has just been released on VOD, and is now available to
audiences worldwide!

Watch the trailer and
full film on VOD here:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thelastguardians

In making the film,
our aim was to raise international awareness around the key challenges facing
the Sapara and Kichwa communities of Ecuador – and specifically, their
long-running resistance to the imminent entry of oil companies into their
territories and their efforts to preserve their culture in an increasingly
globalised world.

More broadly, we
seek to draw attention to their rich indigenous worldview and culture – one
which we believe can greatly inform the international community. Both
practically and philosophically, their outlook offers a unique perspective on
the current battle with climate change and the prevention of further
environmental degradation in key biomes such as the Amazon.

“Many people think
that our message is only the Sapara vision, but it also comes from the dream
world, the spiritual world… we're not only thinking about Sapara culture, we’re
thinking about saving and protecting the forest.” – Manari Ushigua

During our time filming ‘The Last Guardians’ we worked closely alongside the Sapara
community of Llanchama Cocha and Kichwa of Sarayaku, two communities bound
together by a shared past, their common language – Kichwa – and now through
their resistance to the Chinese-owned oil consortium Andres Petroleum following
the illegal auctioning of oil blocks 79 & 83 in January 2016.

Being
amongst the Sapara and Kichwa in the dense jungle of the Pastaza province, we
were able to spend time working with a range of community members – including
the spiritual and political leader of the Sapara nation, Manari Ushigua, his
sister Gloria, President of the Sapara Women’s Association, Patricia Gualinga
the International Relations Director of Sarayaku and a range of others.

They
had a great impact on us, as we discussed at length their unwavering resistance
against the entry of oil companies, the indigenous world view and the vital
role of women at the forefront of their struggle.

We
also spent time filming in the deforested oil town of Nueva Loja to the north
of the Sapara and Kichwa territories, where Texaco (later Chevron) began
drilling operations at Lago Agrio in the 1970s. The experience here was a stark
and sobering contrast to the preserved rainforest, as we conducted interviews
with affected communities in the region who have had to experience the effects
of contamination from petroleum extraction first-hand.

Meeting
with reprasentatives from the ´Frente de La Defensa De La Amazona´– an
organisation representing locals in their battle with Chevron – we explore in
the film the full impact of oil extraction and its associated extraction. It is
clear that in the cases of Nueva and Coca, the negative consequences continue
to blight the lives of locals, even decades after Texaco/Chevron’s drilling
took place, including a crippling prevalence of cancer from consumption of
polluted water and other health issues.

Through the
combination of extensive interview footage, interweaved with scenes from
everyday life in the forest – such as hunting, fishing, agricultural work and
ceremonies – ‘The Last Guardians’ presents a detailed insight into life in
these communities but also acts as a vehicle to help carry their voices to a
broader, global audience.

We hope the film
will play a part in inspiring the international community to take real notice
of the messages of indigenous communities and join the growing movement to both
support them and work towards enacting some of the key changes required to
preserve their territories to help conserve the planet for all.

****

Please subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to
date with news and upcoming screenings at https://www.lastguardiansfilm.com/