Capacity Building
Since 2013 If Not Us Then Who? has been connecting with and amplifying communicators from across the tropical forests regions.
Vibrant Indigenous film production supports:
Cultural resilience and resistance
Record ancestral knowledge and raise pride and profile of indigenous communities
Defence of Indigenous territories and rights
Digital storytelling enables injustices and incursions to be denounced to the world and catalyse action against them
Building solidarity
Sharing stories and solutions across greater distances than ever before
Biodiversity
Indigenous peoples are guardians of 80% of the world’s biodiversity and strong Indigenous land rights have been recognised as an important climate solution
Emerging Filmmakers Professional Development Programme
The Emerging Filmmakers Professional Development Programme is the latest chapter of If Not Us Then Who’s work with Indigenous and community filmmakers. This 3 year project builds on initial film training programmes carried out in Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Indonesia and Brazil, with a range of regional partners, to provide onward capacity-building for trainees as they expand their production and establish themselves in the filmmaking industry.
2021-2022 Mentee Cohort
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Profile
Yaily comes from the region of Guna Yala, Panama. She studied a degree in Sanitation and Environment in the Technological University of…
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Luciane Saw Munduruku, more known among her friends and relatives as Beka Munduruku, is 18 years old and lives in Sawre Muybu villag…e.
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Kalfein Michael Wuisan or Kale, is an Indigenous Minahasa youth from Wuwuk, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia. Besides involvement in the youth…
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Kuyu is a filmmaker in Kuyujani Produccion Audiovisual and belongs to the indigenous people of Yekwana, (State of Bolivar, Venezuela). …
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Kokoyamaratxi Renan Suya is a photographer, filmmaker and motion graphic maker from the Kisedjê people (Mato Grosso, Brazil). In 2008…
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Noveni is Dayak Bahau, an indigenous peoples from East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Since 2017, she has been defending the rights of…
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Tirza Yanira Ixmucané Saloj Oroxom, Mayan K’iche, born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Illustrator, muralist, plastic artist, and audi…
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Alcibiades is a facilitator, photographer and amateur filmmaker specialized in environmental storytelling. He is a member of the …
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Jimmy is an indigenous filmmaker. He was born in the Siekoya Remolino community. He loves to face new challenges, visit new places and …
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Elizabeth Swanson Andi is a member of the Santu Urku Kichwa community on the Napo River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is an indigenous …
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Yarixa comes from the region of Guna Yala, in the Caribbean coast of Panama. She was born and raised in Panama, and is currently studyi…
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Carlos is a documentary film maker who lives in the community of Waorani Titepare, in the Amazonian Region of Ecuador. His role involve…
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Nazario Tiul Choc is from a community known as Cooperativa Unión Maya Itzá (a community that was repatriated from Mexico to Guatemala…
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Jose was born in 1994 in the community of Carmelita, San Andrés, Peten, Guatemala, located in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. He graduated…
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Yumi Ortiz (also known as Lyudmila Vallarino) comes from the region of Guna Yala, in the Caribbean coast of Panama. Yumi is a student…
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Ribaldo is a young Siekopai photographer and filmmaker. He lives in the Ecuadorion Amazon and is a member of the NGO Alianza Ceibo, an …
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Nelson was born in Melchor de Mencos (Peten department) and has lived in the Cooperativa Integral Agropecuaria Técnica Responsabilidad…
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Chris is an indigenous male of the Arecuna Nation in Guyana. He is 32 years old and has been volunteering for the past three years unde…
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Welder is a Guatemalan citizen and resident of the community Cruce a La Colorada, which holds a concession that allows the sustainable …
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Edivan Guajajara is from the Zutiwa village, located in Arariboia Indigenous Land (Maranhão, Brazil) and one of the creators of the c…
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An emerging filmmaker, Gabriela belongs to the Garifuna people and has a background in Honduran indigenous and black peoples’ rights,…r.
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Jhonatan a is 21 year old Dayak Kanayatn Youth from Sungai Ambawang, West Kalimantan. He is a Medical student from the Medical Facult…
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The journalist and communicator Erisvan Bone Guajajara is founder of the digital platform Mídia Índia. He was born in Lagoa Quieta vi…
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Maycon Krenak is an emerging filmmaker of the Krenak people. After participating in the process of the documentary about his people …
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Alexandro lives in Rio Bonito indigenous village, located in Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. Since he was 12, Alexandro has worked within …
In total 27 individuals, including 4 collectives were selected for the inaugural year of the program.
Indigenous Perspectives
The defence of cultures, languages and territories is one of the hallmarks of indigenous communication and cinema, as affirmed by those of us who have been working from a multitude of contexts to assert our right to tell our stories and through them to relate to other peoples and struggles.
The capacity to construct other meanings of what our ancestors are, what we are and what we aspire to for our future generation, affirm that our proposals have a deep and broad responsibility, which has to do with spirituality, with diversity, with the way we see the world.
David Hernández Palmar | Wayuu IIPUANA
With this dialogue of knowledge, we hope to continue honouring our ancestors by practising the gift of storytelling, rethinking and strengthening our own identity
David Hernández Palmar | Wayuu IIPUANA
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Film
For thousands of years the Dayak people of the island of Borneo have cultivated their land based on their traditional beliefs. They have developed cultivation technics, such as rotating from a field to another, leaving some fields for years to regain their fertility, and when the time comes, clearing by burning them so they can […]
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Playlists
A central part of our mission is working with young storytellers, supporting them to tell their own stories. This can be via workshops,…
