CONTACTED TRIBES
Not Supported by the Mainstream Medias
The tale of the Bameno people is one of a place where men live in community, and where myriad forms of animal and plant life come together to form a lush microcosm. The Waorani people, belonging to the Kamperi clan, are among the Amazon's indigenous communities. They are at the heart of a centuries-long struggle to protect the Amazon, their own territory, the OMÉ and their way of life. However, the nature of this struggle has changed as have the relationships between this family's history and that of the outside world.
In 2013 Varial embark on a journey to the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and reach the most remote Waorani village of Bameno, home to some of the last hunter-gatherers, whose territory is threatened by Big Oil. Equipped with photographic, video and sound equipment, he travelled by land from the city of El Coca and then took a two-day boat trip on the Cononaco River to reach Bameno. He spent a month documenting the life of these last warriors, now prisoners of recent political decisions.
What he discovered during these weeks spent with the 80 members of the Baihua family is their level of modernity and adaptability to the modern world, as well as the real challenges they face to protect their territory.
Written from an intimate and immersive angle, the project celebrates the beauty and simplicity of these ancient cultures, generally unknown to the world, without concealing the modern issues faced by these men and women.
Presented as a hybrid experience, it offers viewers a different vision of a tribe that, perhaps incorrectly, they already think they know.