Film Forum

Neidinha Bandeira has spent over four decades working directly with Indigenous communities to defend their rights and protect their lands. In 1984, she moved back to Uru-eu-wau-wau territory as a ranger for FUNAI, the government agency responsible for protecting the traditions, cultures and rights of Indigenous people. A rush to exploit the rainforest for logging, mining, farming and cattle ranching was underway. While the Uru-eu-wau-wau had been granted sovereignty over 7,000 square miles of their ancestral territory, illegal incursions and attempted land theft were common. Neidinha and the Uru-eu-wau-wau worked together to conduct surveillance and catch invaders, forging an enduring relationship. After exposing corruption inside FUNAI in 1990, Neidinha and her fellow whistleblowers founded the nonprofit Kandidé Ethno-Environmental Defense Association to continue their work with Indigenous populations.

Alex Pritz is a documentary film director and cinematographer focused on human’s relationship with the natural world. Pritz’s directorial debut, THE TERRITORY, premiered in the World Cinema competition at Sundance 2022, winning both an Audience Award and Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft, making it the only film at that year’s festival to win awards from audience and jury alike. Pritz also worked as a cinematographer on the feature documentary THE FIRST WAVE with director Matt Heineman, and as a cinematographer and field producer on Jon Kasbe’s feature documentary WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS (Tribeca 2018). Prior to that, Pritz co-directed, shot and edited the documentary short My Dear Kyrgyzstan (Big Sky 2019). He is a co-founder of Documist and has received grants from the Sundance Institute, IDA Enterprise Fund, Catapult Fund and Doc Society. Pritz holds a Bachelor of Science from McGill University, where he studied Environmental Science and Philosophy. In 2012, he received an inaugural Dalai Lama Fellowship for his work developing film curricula alongside low-income communities in the Philippines and taught participatory film workshops for lawyers and human rights advocates around the world.

Natalia de Campos, born in São Paulo, Brazil, is a performance and theater artist, producer, writer, educator, translator, and activist. Natalia has taught English and Portuguese to non-native speakers since she was 19 years-old in various settings. She moved to New York in 1998, founded the multidisciplinary arts collaborative Syncretic Pleasures to continue to teach, while also translating, producing and performing works by Brazilian authors, including her own. In 2016 she co-founded the Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee in New York with a group of activists to fight for democracy and social justice. Recent teaching/ lecturing includes courses for independent non-profit organizations and institutions like NYU, in Portuguese, social engagement, collaboration, solo performance & activism. Natalia has a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of São Paulo and a Master’s degree in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from CUNY/ Brooklyn College.

Related Films