VOICES FOR THE AMAZON
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PARIS, FRANCE- “Amazon Gold,” a production of the Amazon Aid Foundation in association with the Americas Business Council Foundation, is the recipient of the first annual Green Film Network Award (GFN). The award, along with a prize of 5,000 euros, was presented at the opening ceremony of the Fife Ile de France (International Environmental Film Festival) on February 4th.

Amazon Gold director Reuben Aaronson and Amazon Aid founder Sarah duPont accepting the award. Photo courtesy of Festival international du film d’environnement

The film is being screened with French subtitles on February 5th at Cinema des Cinéastes in Paris, France. Producer, Sarah DuPont; Director Reuben Aaronson; Executive Producer, Nicolas Ibarguen; and Amazon Aid Foundation board member and scientist Luis Fernandez will be in attendance. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion to answer questions about the film and the environmental issues it raises.

Amazon Gold was nominated for the GFN award by the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC. AAF founder, Sarah DuPont, on Amazon Gold’s nomination, “If it wasn’t for Environmental Film Festival recognizing the mission and message of Amazon Gold, along with the extraordinary determination it took to actually make this film, we wouldn’t be in Paris accepting this award. We are so grateful to EFN for the nomination.” Amazon Gold was one of 11 films nominated by major environmental film festivals around the world to represent the best of environmental documentary filmmaking from each country. The winner was selected by an international jury of film professionals.

Narrated by Academy Award winners Sissy Spacek and Herbie Hancock, Amazon Gold is the disturbing account of a clandestine journey into the Amazon rainforest. War journalists, Ron Haviv and Donovan Webster, led by a Peruvian biologist Enrique Ortiz, uncover the savage unraveling of pristine rainforest. They bear witness to the apocalyptic destruction in the pursuit of illicitly mined gold with consequences on a global scale. Left in the wake of surreal images of once extraordinary beauty turned into hellish wasteland, Amazon Gold reaffirms the right of the rainforest to exist as a repository of priceless biodiversity.

The GFN (Green Film Network) is a worldwide organization gathering together 21 environmental film festivals. The GFN award is a new annual initiative beginning in 2014 with the aim of supporting documentary filmmakers and raising awareness of important environmental issues.