Film Screening & Director Q&A

Helena from Sarayaku

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2025, the Department of Anthropology is hosting a public screening of the film Helena from Sarayaku, followed by a Q&A with the director Eriberto Gualinga, an internationally recognized Indigenous filmmaker from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon. 

  Watch the Film Trailer Here

The full-length documentary depicts Sarayaku’s struggle against environmental degradation in their territory and how this struggle gave rise to the Living Forest Proposal for Indigenous-led rainforest conservation and climate change mitigation. Traveling between her life in Finland and her mother’s homeland deep in the rainforests of Ecuador, 17-year-old Helena Gualinga yearns to protect her Indigenous community from extractive development and the repercussions of climate change. Her story highlights the efforts of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku to recognize the Amazon rainforest as Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest in Kichwa). The Living Forest is both a cultural philosophy and a proposal that states the rainforest is not a resource to be used, but a living entity in need of protection. With the help of her Sarayaku elders’ wisdom, Helena sets out on a journey to educate the world about the importance of conserving the Amazon rainforest, participating in climate marches, and giving speeches about indigenous sovereignty. A story of perseverance and resilience, the film is an ode to Indigenous communities striving to preserve their culture as they face the consequences of a globalized world and the hastening effects of climate change.

Filmmaker Biography

Eriberto Gualinga is an award-winning Indigenous filmmaker from the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has a degree in cinema from the University of the Arts in Guayaquil, Ecuador and has been documenting the landscapes, livelihoods, and political struggles of his native village of Sarayaku for almost two decades. In 2002, he created his first 1 short film, Soy Defensor de la Selva (I Am Defender of the Rainforest), which won the Anaconda Prize for Best Documentary at the 14th Latin American Festival of Film and Video. In 2012, Los Descendientes del Jaguar (The Descendents of the Jaguar), which documents Sarayaku’s legal case against an oil company at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, won the Best Documentary prize at the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival. In 2022, Helena from Sarayaku premiered at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. and since then Eriberto has hosted screenings and talks at Dartmouth University, Columbia University, and New York University, among others.

Film Screening Sponsors

 Department of Anthropology, The Willson Center, Office of Sustainability, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, Center for Integrative Conservation Research, UGA Arts Collaborative, Department of Sociology, School of Public and International Affairs, Department of Geography, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Department of Romance Languages, Department of International Affairs, Dean Rusk International Law Center, Office of Global Engagement, Department of Theatre & Film Studies, Center for the Study of Global Issues, Department of Entertainment and Media Studies, The Luminous Room Documentary Film Production Program at UGA, The Gable Foundation, and the Native American Student Association. With additional thanks to Ciné for their support. 

Main Organizer

Louisiana Lightsey, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology 

Questions? louisiana@uga.edu