While we are on the subject of the Amazon, I was impacted by a very interesting documentary that was presented in class. The documentary is part of a project called “Videos in the Villages” and the idea is to train natives to use cameras in order to record their own reality. I thought this was amazing and the documentary we saw was really something else. I was astounded by how knowledgeable the children in the documentary were about their environment: they were also incredibly resourceful. They were very much aware of their traditions and respected the memories of their ancestors and grand parents. They also knew of the outside world.

I thought to myself, wouldn’t these people want live in the “modern” world if they knew of all the conveniences? What would life be like without my iPhone? I had lost my iPhone earlier in January and was devastated. Is this arrogant on my part? Perhaps, the people I saw in this documentary seemed content and happy with their lives. They had enough resources and weren’t begging to leave their homes.


Helpful links:
http://www.der.org/films/vitv-collection.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbXvCSFcnr0