Land Defenders
- Documentary DP
- Commercial DP
Copenhagen, Denmark
4 reviews$300 - $1000 / Day
Request QuoteDocumentarians, visual storytellers and media producers. Productions company based in Scandinavia. Working worldwide.
Close Up's first episode, Bolivia's Fight Club, follows Herman, a miner who lives in Colquechaca with his family, to present this ritual and explore the concepts of masculinity that underpin the practice. "Even if you beat me, I’m going to fight back, I won’t say 'no' to a fight," says Herman.
Celia Umenza is a high-ranking leader of the largest Indigenous group in Colombia, the Nasa. The Nasa is an unarmed civilian defence force that has been standing up to armed groups to defend and preserve their land in war-torn Indigenous territories for generations. The strategy of training unarmed activists has been so successful that leaders of the Indigenous guard have trained peasant and Afro communities to form their own defence forces. Celia was one of the first women to participate and later became the coordinator of the guards. Today she is the leader of the women's association within the movement and lives with constant threats to her life. One Indigenous land defender has been killed every three days since 2016, while Indigenous communities are on the frontline against armed groups, multinational corporations, cartels and the Colombian state. The killings aim to silence the land defenders in their fight against catastrophic climate change. Latin America is the world’s most unequal region: the largest one percent of landholdings concentrates more productive land than the other 99 percent. And Colombia is the most unequal country in the region. The Indigenous Nasa see the struggle in historical terms. To them, the Spaniards never fully conquered the Indigenous populations of the Americas, despite massive historical campaigns of extermination, disease and exploitation. Not because the colonisers showed mercy - but rather because Indigenous resistance was too resilient. "One of the Indigenous movement’s slogans is 'If they kill one of us, thousands will rise'," Celia says. The ongoing Nasa rebellion in the mountains of southwestern Colombia is only a recent battle in an episodic colonial war that began 528 years ago when Columbus set foot on the continent. This post-colonial struggle is also a clash between two world views. One believes in the protection of Mother Earth and the other is only interested in extracting as much profit as possible - regardless of the impact on people and environment.
The Swedish musician Lisa Nordström travels with her electronic instruments to Cuba, Japan, Cyprus and Indonesia to let improvised music form the basis of her encounter with strangers. From abandoned and overgrown ballrooms, to subways and back alleys and unexpected musical encounters that take place between people from different continents.
Restavek children in Haiti. Modern day domestic slaves.
Camera
Audio
Production Support
Post Production
Miscellaneous