Spears from All Sides

Country / Region

USA

Year

2018

Producer

Christopher WALKER & Lara KHACHOONI

Director

Christopher WALKER

Time

86min

Language

Spanish with English & Japanese Subtitles

Production

Phantom Films

Distribution

Since the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, Ecuador’ s Waorani tribe, have defended their Amazon rainforest with spears. In the 1950’ s American missionaries cleared the way for oil companies to enter Waorani lands. Now, 70% of Ecuador’s Amazon, home to some 12 tribes, has been divided into oil blocks, polluting one of the most bio diverse rainforests of the planet. Only one small tribe, the Waorani, have successfully fought to keep oil off most of their land. 25 years ago, I came to the Amazon to tell their story in the documentary film “Trinkets & Beads” Now, Ecuador has started to auction off the Waorani’ s last virgin rainforest to the international oil industry including the Yasuni National Park, thought to contain more species per acre than any where else on earth. At the end of 2014, I returned to Ecuador to see if the Waorani could still win their fight against big oil.