Amazon Films & Documentaries

A curated library of films and documentaries on the Amazon rainforest, its peoples, and the fight for its future — from 1970s classics to new releases. Browse by decade or type, or search by title or keyword.

Decade
Type
Documentary1978

Raoni

Follows the struggle, of the Indigenous chief Raoni, through the preservation of the Xingu national park, while threanted by hunters, landgrabbers, and loggers.

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Film1985

The Emerald Forest

Tells the story of a Westerner who grows up as part of an Amazon tribe and re-enters urban civilization in search of family.

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Documentary1988Bullfrog Films

Banking on Disaster

Documents the consequences of paving a road into the Amazon.

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Documentary1990

Killing for Land

Shares the journey of poor farmers who migrate to the Amazon as homesteaders.

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Documentary1990

The Killing of Chico Mendes

Tells the story of Chico Mendes organizing workers in the Amazon.

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Film1994

Burning Season

Tells the story of Chico Mendes organizing workers in the Amazon.

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Documentary1999

The Fate of the Kidnapper

Tells the story of a homestead family and the Uru Eu Wau Wau tribe.

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Documentary1999

Return from Extinction

Documents the invasion, disappearance and return of the Indigenous Panara tribe.

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Documentary2001

The Shaman’s Apprentice

Follows an ethnobotanist in the Amazon searching for plants that heal.

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Documentary2007HBO

They Killed Sister Dorothy

Tells the story of Sister Dorothy Stang, her defense of the Amazon, and the trial that followed her assassination.

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Other2008BBC

Amazon with Bruce Parry

With full episodes on Amazon.com UK and some on Youtube.

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Documentary2008

Children of the Amazon

Follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the Indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years before.

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Documentary2009

Crude

Reports about a class action lawsuit against the Chevron Corporation for oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

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Documentary2011Icarus Films

10th Parallel

Documents a journey of contact with uncontacted tribes in Brazil.

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Documentary2012Al Jazeera

Fight for Amazonia

Follows Brazil's youngest national park director as she declares war on drug gangs and the logging mafia.

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Documentary2014Bullfrog Films

Oil and Water

Tells the story of two young leaders and oil exploration in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

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Documentary2014Vice

Toxic Amazon

Documents the link between deforestation and slavery.

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Documentary2014

Tipping Point: The Amazon

Chronicles the conflict between Brazilian economic development and Amazonian sustainability.

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Film2015

Embrace of the Serpent

Dramatizes the journeys of an ethnographer, a shaman and a botanist through the Amazon in search of the rare plant yakruna.

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Documentary2016

Taego Awa

Features the story of two filmmakers who found VHS tapes containing cultural records of the Ãwa tribe. In search of the group, they discovered a historic trajectory of confrontation with white people dating back to 1973.

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Documentary2016Amazon Aid Foundation

River of Gold

Documents the problem of illegal gold mining in the Amazon.

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Documentary2017

Beyond Fordlandia

Tells the story of the failed attempt by Henry Ford to create a rubber production plantation in the Amazon.

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Documentary2017

Belo Monte After the Flood

Documents the controversial dam on the Xingu river.

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Documentary2017Al Jazeera

The Crying Forest

Documents the story of activist Jose Ribeiro da Silva who died protecting the Amazon forest.

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Documentary2017National Geographic

Creatures of the Amazon Rainforest

Documents the biodiversity of the region.

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Documentary2018

Grazing the Amazon

Narrates the history of cattle in the Amazon from government policies back in the 1960s to the problems of deforestation today.

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Documentary2018

Ex-Shaman

Tells the story of the Paiter Surui, an Amazon tribe suffering from exposure to modernity, and persistant former shaman who is search for ways to restore the vitality of his village.

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Documentary2019

The Amazon – The Awakening of Florestania

Is a portrait of how politics and destruction can go hand in hand, depending on the interests of those in power, and how the development of Brazil has been linked to the destruction of the forest.

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Other2019Series

Aruanas

Is a fictional TV series about NGO activists who investigate illegal miners in the Brazilian Amazon.

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Other2019Netflix

Green Frontier

On Netflix, is a fictional crime thriller miniseries about a detective who travels deep into the Amazon.

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Documentary2019ABC News

Guardians of the Amazon

Is an ABC News documentary about a small indigenous group taking up arms to hunt down illegal loggers and fight for their land.

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Documentary2019

REBBL with a Cause

Tells the creation story of REBBL tea in the Peruvian Amazon to ‘wild harvest” Brazil nuts, generate income, prevent human trafficking and conserve forests.

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Documentary2019Financial Times

How Crime Drives Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon

Features experiences of illegal mining, logging and other kinds of organized crime, and the burdens it puts on the forest.

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Documentary2020OnePlanet

Guardians of the Forest

Tells the story of the Maijuna Indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon as they fight for their biologically rich ancestral lands and cultural survival.

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Documentary2020

Amazon Uncovered

With support from the Munduruku audiovisual collective, shows Amazonian biodiversity and forest degradation over four decades while local populations unite to register their land.

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Documentary2020

Nheengatu

Follows the search for speakers of a lost hybrid language used to reduce diversity and convert Amazonians to christianity in the upper Rio Negro.

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Documentary2020

The Condor and the Eagle

Follows the trip of indigenous leaders from North America to the Amazon people from the North and South for climate justice.

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Documentary2020Friends of the Earth Brazil

The Story of the Siege of the Amazon

Documents the resistance of local Amazonians against the illegal advances of industry in the time of COVID19.

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Documentary2020

Takeout

Chronicles Amazon forest fires, their causes, and recent deforestation trends while exploring food choices, greed, political corruption and other criminal activities.

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Documentary2020

Martírio: 40 Years of Struggle for Survival

Explores genocide of the Guaraní Kaiowá people, their conflict with agribusiness, and their demand of the Brazilian Congress to recognize their land and halt evictions. (Screenings).

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Documentary2020

Yasuni Man

Features the life and journey of the Waorani people of Ecuador, their nature and their struggle for conservation and survival against the advances of the oil industry. (Website).

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Documentary2020Environmental Investigation Agency

Antamiki

Follows a group of musicians to the Peruvian Amazon to learn about illegal logging from indigenous leaders.

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Documentary2021

The Last Forest

Documents the Indigenous community of the Yanomami and depicts their threatened natural environment in the Amazon rain forest.

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Documentary2021

Seeding Change

Is a documentary about new companies taking on the environmental crisis (including Amazon deforestation) and empowering consumers to make change by voting with their dollars.

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Documentary2022

The Territory

Is a documentary about land conflict in the Amazon between indigenous people and cattle ranchers.

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Documentary2022

We Are Guardians

Features the dynamics between an indigenous community protecting its forest, an illegal logger fighting poverty, and a large landowner facing invaders and extractive industries. We learn about the offerings of the forest and its role in global climate stability.

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Documentary2022

Gyuri

Follows the story of a Swiss photographyer and an indigenous leader as they worked together to secure recognition of the Yanomami territory in the Amazon.

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Documentary2022

The Invention of the Other

Chronicles a high-stakes, real-world expedition deep into the Amazon rainforest to establish contact with an isolated Indigenous group.

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Other2023

Amazon Summit 2023

Amazon Summit 2023, features the influence of social movements in shaping the agenda of the Pan-Amazonian summit of government leaders.

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Other2024National Geographic

Tracking Down the Amazon Mafia

As part of the series TRAFFICKED, Mariana van Zeller travels to the Amazon to track down the criminal networks behind a slew of killings and the illegal destruction of the rainforest.

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Other2024BBC

Forests of Food

A BBC News team visits Tome-Acu in Para, Brazil to meet a Japanese community that created a forest of food and became a reference for preventing deforestation.

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Documentary2026Academy Award shortlist

Yanuni

Profiles Indigenous chief and activist Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts while defending her people's land from illegal gold miners and deforestation.

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OtherIn productionInstallation

CURA

A cinematic multi-channel installation co-created with Indigenous tribes across Colombia and Brazil — part film, part art installation, part healing ceremony, replacing narration with sound, vibration and image.

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