Synopsis
History repeats itself in Suriname where Amerindians and Maroons struggle to survive in a global society that ignores their existence. Facing exploitive development, they are denied basic human rights: access to land, clean water, food, medical care and education.
Suriname is a young democratic republic on the northeast coast of South America that gained independence in 1975. However, there is a segment of the population that still has little or no voice as Surinamese citizens. Ninety percent of the population lives within 50 miles of the coast. Ten percent of the population lives inland, in the Amazon Basin. This 10% is mostly comprised of Amerindian and Maroon villages that have been ignored and exploited by national and international communities. The Suriname constitution does not recognize the Amerindian people as an ethnic group. Their culture and way of life will change drastically and likely disappear in the next ten years, due to external development pressures.
Although they face many human rights issues, two major development issues threaten their survival. First, water quality and food sources have drastically declined as gold mining practices cause siltation and leech mercury and cyanide poisons into the water. Second, their land rights are being threatened by exploitive global development as the Suriname government is being pressured from the Inter-American Development Bank to adopt land policy known as the Suriname Land Management Project.
In partnership with the Suriname Indigenous Health Fund (http://www.sihfund.org), Eclectic Reel LLC is using a unique community directed approach that allows the community to direct the content and film portions of the documentary. The goal of this approach is to empower communities to tell their stories on their own terms—before the stories and the people disappear. Ultimately, this film will give the interior peoples of Suriname a global voice to tell their side of the development story before it is too late.
For more information contact:
Producer & Director, Eclectic Reel LLC
MFA Digital Cinema Candidate, National University
Instructor in Media Communications, Walla Walla University
In cooperation with: