THE FALLING SKY is a must see. The film is the story of the Amazonian Yanomami people preparing to perform a ceremony to celebrate the father in law of activist Davi Kopenawa which will hold up the sky and to give them time to come together battle a mining company with designs on their land.
This is great filmmaking. It's a film that starts with a nine minute single take of the Yanomami people returning from a hunt (it was the first shot filmed for the film). Its a film that pulls us into the film and moves us into the forest in a way that I've rarely seen a film do. It's a brilliant move.
This film is so good that you feel that it more a narrative rather than a documentary simply because the vast majority of documentaries don’t give you the depth of “character” that FALLING SKY does. This is a film that doesn’t attach us to one or two people who are way through a subject, but instead this film gives us a sense of everyone who passes before our eyes. We come to love and feel for all the Yanomami because we have been introduced to all of them. Comparing it to a narrative is not a knock but high praise. As a result of this people are going to connect with out any of the walls that many people have concerning docs. With docs some people feel it's "those" people. With narrative its "us". I have no idea why but many people view fake characters as real.
WOW.
This is a film you are going to watch several times simply because it’s a good film telling a great story about great people. Beyond the great story the film is an important one since it gives us insight into the battle for the Yanomami land. It makes clear what will be lost if the land the land slips from their hands and ends up in the hands of industry and the people scattered.
This is one of the great film on so many levels.
Go see it.
I will have an interview with activist Davi Kopenawa and co-director Eryk Rocha when the film gets its regular theatrical run in the spring
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