News
VideoTakes in Latin America for Two Exciting Projects
Arlington, VA, January 9, 2009 – Members of the VideoTakes family traveled to Guatemala and Peru in recent months for two exciting new projects: Roots of Resilience, produced for the World Resources Institute (WRI), and Potato Heads and Corn Dogs: Keepers of the Crop, a new film directed by Larry Engel.
In November, 2008, host Chris Perceval of the WRI and VideoTakes producer Dan Gallagher traveled to Peten, Guatemala, to film an innovative model of government land concessions aimed at protecting the area’s Maya Biosphere Reserve. Once a refuge for illegal settlers, illegal ranchers, and illegal loggers, the Reserve suffered widespread deforestation during the country’s recent civil war. With the introduction of the concession model, communities within the Reserve now harvest rainforest goods – nuts and spices, floral palms, resins and timber – in exchange for meeting strict environmental standards.
Perceval and Gallagher filmed at several concessions during their week in Guatemala, and saw firsthand how the model is raising income while giving communities a stake in the health of their forests. This month VideoTakes released a two-and-a-half minute trailer on the Guatemalan concession model as part of a larger effort by Perceval to document the health of the world's ecosystems in preparation for the 2010 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Perceval and Gallagher hope to release a half-hour “pilot” episode on northern Guatemala later in 2009.
Filmmaker Larry Engel and sound recordist Carolyn Moore were in Peru in November shooting for Engel's film Potato Heads and Corn Dogs: Keepers of the Crop. While there, they captured an indigenous ceremony celebrating the spring planting of potatoes in the high Andes of Peru. The film, scheduled for release later this year, makes the case that humankind’s survival may rest with the gatherers of the crops, not the hunters of the beasts.
Engel has worked with VideoTakes on several award-winning productions, including The American Prairie Reserve and Save Rainforests, Save Lives. He and VT President Sandy Cannon-Brown teach at American University where they are associate directors of the AU Center for Environmental Filmmaking, founded and directed by VT CEO Chris Palmer.