Baltic Sea Documentary Film Forum spotlights story of contact with isolated Amazon tribe
The 30th Baltic Sea Documentary Film Forum features Swedish director Nathan Grossman's film "Amazon Mania," built around 1996 footage of attempts to contact the Korubo tribe in the Amazon rainforest.
Among the recommended titles at the 30th Baltic Sea Documentary Film Forum is "Amazon Mania," a film by Swedish documentary director Nathan Grossman. The film demonstrates how perspective can fundamentally shape the interpretation of events.
Most of the film consists of archival footage shot in 1996 during an expedition led by journalist Örjan Sjöstedt. At the time, Sjöstedt traveled into the Amazon rainforest with the goal of establishing contact with the Korubo people, a community living in isolation from outside civilization.
At one point in the film, it is stated that by then roughly 200 people had already been killed in previous attempts to make contact with the tribe. According to the film's framing, Sjöstedt failed to grasp what now seems an obvious truth — that the tribe simply did not want to be "discovered."
Contact was nonetheless eventually established, and the video material recorded during the expedition resembles, in style and character, classic National Geographic nature and anthropology broadcasts.
"Amazon Mania" is listed among the films organizers recommend not missing at this year's edition of the forum.
