Posted from: Loggers鈥 camp nr Atalaia
The next day it鈥檚 up early and into the jungle for a long sweaty walk. It鈥檚 pretty tricky as we cross streams and ditches by balancing our way along narrow branches. The Dr has joined us and it鈥檚 hysterical as due to his somewhat large size he is supported by two loggers for each crossing in case the branch snaps. He sees the funny side to everything so the atmosphere is great. It鈥檚 been raining heavily and has just stopped, so the humidity factor is really cranking up high.
Posted from: Atalaia
The first night at the logging camp. Around the hut it鈥檚 a mudbath due to heavy rains and now it鈥檚 stopped the mozzies are out in force. Bruce has moved well away from the hut to string up his hammock and the rest of us, about 15 in all, are packed under the shelter.
Posted from: Atalaia
One last adjustment to the camera and we swing it out over the water on our 25鈥 crane to film some passing shots of the boat. We have travelled ahead on a smaller, faster boat in order to rig this and not hold our journey up. The shot works well by having the camera drift across the water and up over a tree as the boat passes. It really captures the landscape that we are passing through in one smooth shot.
After a long boat ride the river was becoming narrower and Philippe guided us to a small encampment. From here we hiked for 40 minutes into the jungle and arrived at an enormous tree stretching high up through the canopy. This was to be our platform for filming shots of the jungle from above the canopy.
Matt starts his ascent up a tree, complete with kit...
Posted from: Near Atalaia, on the river on the way to logging camp
We have resumed our boat journey to the remote logging camp and didn鈥檛 quite make it in daylight today so have pulled into the riverbank to sleep the night. Laura has stayed behind in Tabatinga to start transcribing the Matis tapes so it鈥檚 a very male affair for this section of filming. The sleeping options are pretty limited with hammocks being tied to every possible place inside of the cramped boat. This isn鈥檛 too pleasant as inside it stinks of diesel fumes and it's boiling hot from the lack of ventilation.
Posted from: Vida Nova
We've just had a very civilised breakfast with a missionary couple in their beautiful home in the village of Vida Nova, a tiny village deep in the heart of Vale do Javari. Paul and Cheryl Rich are an American couple in their sixties who have lived among the Marubo people for almost 30 years. They have created a little patch of heaven in the endless forest, complete with rainwater-harvesting system, solar energy, email via satellite and home-made jam. Sitting in their backyard overlooking their vegetable patch and herb garden you could easily be mistaken in thinking you were somewhere in Midwest America.
Posted from: Parana
After the log ceremony we recouped back at our portakabin for a break. Pete was feeling a little better but I was feeling terrible with headaches and sneezing. In these types of village locations we have to be especially alert to malaria symptoms so I had this thought in the back of my mind. Luckily there was a small health hut in the village so it was decided that we would all give blood samples for testing. As I was still feeling bad Rob took over shooting duties to film some nice long lens shots around the village while Pete and I lay on the floor of the hut.
Posted from: Parana
The extreme environment of the Amazon is taking a heavy toll on the crew. Yesterday our highly talented cameraman Matt Norman tested positive for malaria and had to be evacuated to the nearest town for medical help. Luckily we are just an hour鈥檚 boat ride from a remote missionary air strip and we managed to call a plane in very quickly. He is now the fourth person to leave this shoot.
Posted from: Parana
We've just spent a week filming with the Marubo people, the most powerful tribe in Vale do Javari, a vast indigenous reserve in the far West of Brazil. We chose the remote village of Parana for our filming, because it's home to a very young and very gifted Shaman called Robson.
Posted from: Parana
An amazing sunset disappeared behind the longhouse while inside a night of Marubo line dancing was just kicking off. Philippe informed Rob that Robson the shaman was to later use his shaman powers to treat a young boy who was very ill, so we made ready our equipment for what could be an interesting evening.
Posted from: Parana
While in the Marubo village we have set up our camp inside a portakabin-style hut that they use as a school. We are of great entertainment to the village and there are always a few Marubo who are happy to sit, chill and smile at us. It鈥檚 quite a stinky smelling place, full of hammocks and our eating area. Today Bruce and Philippe will move out and into the longhouse to spend a few nights as guests of a family. Apart from Rob with his asbestos-strength insides, we鈥檝e all been slowly going down with tummy bugs - and the sight of one of us lying on the floor or running for the bushes has not been an uncommon sight. Even Bruce, who never gets ill, is suffering.
Posted from: Parana
As I'm writing this I've just broken into a secret stash of dry roasted peanuts that have been traveling in a camera box since Peru. Sat joining me for this mini-feast are three little wide-eyed Marubo kids who are loving this treat as much as I am.
Posted from: Parana
Day two of the tickling ceremony and excitement was growing as we followed the group of men down to the riverbank. Bruce was right in among them as they climbed into a canoe. There were already too many people in it but we really wanted this sequence so Pete and I crammed ourselves in and kept filming.
Posted from: Parana
The tucandeira ant ceremony is an ancient ritual designed to test the strength of the young warriors of the tribe. The Marubo believe that enduring the searing pain of the ant sting makes you a stronger person and a better warrior.
Posted from: Parana
The heat was sweltering and an excitement was building around the village as the men and women had separated into two groups and from a distance were making eyes at one another. The groups were about 100 metres apart with the men standing proudly in a line and the women up a slope huddled together and giggling and pointing at the men. Bruce was stood in the middle of the line of men wearing matching white beads and body paint. Pete and I were filming some shots among the women and they were quite flirty and funny.
The team head off to collect ants for a traditional ant ceremony
The Marubo ant ceremony involves the poisonous tucandeira ant. Participants first dig up the ant from the roots of trees and then pierce its thorax with a stick. They then wipe the ant over red dots they have drawn on their body so that it stings them. The ceremony involves singing Marubo songs with the shaman.
Posted from: Parana
It's very humid already today and spent this morning with a group of villagers on the trail in the search of tucandeira ants. These are to be used in a ceremony later today when the men of the village go through a painful ritual. The ants are also nicknamed 鈥榖ullet鈥 ants because of their painful sting. The braver the warrior, the more stings he will endure, in the more sensitive body places. Bruce has been invited to take part so about 20 of us are walking in a line through the jungle on this most unusual of hunts. It鈥檚 a real family event with elders, women and kids joining the group.
Posted from: Parana
Today was very eventful. We woke up early at the missionary outpost to find that Alaina, our anthropologist and Marubo expert, who had only joined us the evening before, had developed flu-like symptoms and shivers. As we were at a medical outpost she was able to be immediately tested for malaria and unfortunately tested positive. This result meant that Alaina鈥檚 trip was over before it had started as, along with protecting her welfare, the Indigenous Reserve has strict rules for protecting those living there from incoming diseases.
Posted from: Parana
The Marubo village stands high up on a bank overlooking the river and it鈥檚 from there that I鈥檓 shooting a time-lapse shot of a stunning sunset expanding over the bend in the river and the jungle beyond.
Posted from: Aurelio just outside of Tabatinga
Once we left the Matis village we are back onboard our three boats again to travel further up river to the head waters with the goal of visiting the extremely remote Marubo tribe. Things didn't start well when the engine of our boat packed up before we had even left the river bank. The gasket had blown but, not to be beaten, our fantastic driver Mario tipped out his toolbox and announced that we should not worry as he would make one from spare parts. In the meantime we all sat tight and the process of being eaten alive by sand flies began.
Posted from: Aurelio just outside of Tabatinga
Whilst the Amazon and its tributaries may flow smoothly and steadily, you can be fairly guaranteed that trying to film here won't. This place throws new problems at you every day: from illness in the crew to boats breaking down, to tricky tribal negotiations and obstructive bureaucrats, not to mention swarms of insects, torrential rain, knee-deep mud and unbearable heat. As producer/director, my job is to deal with all of these problems as they arise, try to find practical solutions and keep the production going. Every delay is extremely costly, financially and editorially as valuable filming time slips painfully away.
Posted from: Aurelio
Today I moved into Tumi's house. Tumi was my host when we made the Tribe episode of the Matis and in most ways it is great to see Tumi and his family again - they have been really welcoming and pleased to see me, and the children have grown up loads. But I went to bed last night feeling disconcerted and strange - the Matis here, as in other communities, are having a really difficult time.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
I was asked recently what I was reading in a photograph, so I thought I'd list some of my reading material for your amusement. It's a bit telling I'm afraid.
I'm going to try and get the rest of the team to do the same.
Today has been one of the most extraordinary days of my whole life. We took a flight over Vale do Javari, a vast reserve set up to protect the territory of the indigenous tribes of this area. It's one of the world's last remaining true tracts of wilderness, and conjures up everything you imagine when you think of the Amazon: a vast sea of green stretched out beneath us, with occasional tiny settlements dotted throughout the landscape. It's home to the highest concentration of uncontacted groups in the world - with a known population of just under 4,000 people occupying an area the size of Portugal.
Posted from: Cardiff
I was sitting in the office in Cardiff on a rainy day, trying to make sense of some expenses when Sam asked me: "Can you go to Brazil tonight?" English is not my first language and sometimes I don't understand people. As always when I don't understand I nodded and said: "Yes, yes," and before I could amend my mistake a flight had been booked by the super efficient Jo and I received a paper with instructions: a man was going to meet me in Heathrow at 4 am and give me an envelope, then I had to flight to Brazilia to deliver the envelope to another contact in a place that he would confirm at the last minute. The envelope contained a key piece for a shooting device. I mean, how cool is that? I had just turned into a Bond woman!!
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
Being one of the two bilingual people on a shoot is hard. You are the one who has to be constantly aware of what's going on, in both camps, and non-stop translating what's necessary to make things work. You have to know a bit of both sides culturally, and even emotionally.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
All the crew are feeling very hungover again today after a fourth night of heavy drinking and dancing at carnival. The Brazilians certainly know how to party, and I'm proud to say we鈥檝e been holding our own and keeping up rather well. We鈥檙e in a small logging town called Benjamin Constant, on the border of Brazil, Peru and Columbia where they have a long-standing tradition of cross-dressing for carnival.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
I should have know what was coming when Rob praised my long black dress with its pattern of colourful flowers. He had a vision and he would not let go of it. Saturday the 5th, the first day of Carnival, Laura and I spent a couple of hours looking for accessories for our boys to wear. We, "the English", and especially Bruce had to impress.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
In the Amazon I feel very English at times. Saturday is the first carnival night. They said 8pm and there we were - fed, cleaned and waiting for carnival to 鈥渉appen鈥 - whatever is to happen, we just want it to happen in time. Ah鈥he pace of the Amazon really tests our nerves. Even I, who has been to this place so often and knows that in Brazil things run to a different rhythm, get irritated.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
The big shoot tonight will be following Bruce as he enters the Benjamin Constant Carnival Beauty Pageant. Rob and I arrive early evening to film a time-lapse shot of the arena as preparations are underway and the dusky sunset turns to night. I set the camera to record one frame every six seconds so that when the image frames are played back at the normal 25 frames per second (as is the normal frame rate) the transition of dusk into night, with clouds whizzing across the sky, appears 300 times faster. As we wait for the time-lapse to record, the band and compere test the sound PA for what is sure be a night of Brazillian mayhem.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
We filmed Bruce walking around the corner to the Bloco football match and we were met by quite a sight. A loud cheer went up to greet us from the friendliest bunch of Brazillian men who were halfway through putting on their dresses, wigs and makeup. A beer can was thrust into Bruce's hand and he was instantly embarrassed as the newest member of the football team.
Posted from: Benjamin Constant
We are back on the river today, which feels great. It's just a 20-minute ride to the small riverside town of Benjamin Constant where we will be spending the next four days filming carnival. Brazil is about to go carnival crazy so it should be a fun shoot ahead.
Posted from:Tabatinga
Today we are leaving Tabatinga to go to the little town of Benjamin Constant where we will experience a carnival. It will be a new experience for us, perhaps even for myself as a Brazilian; carnival takes many different forms in the different parts of the country. It originates from the same paganism and catholic traditions but manifests itself in various ways: from the samba schools of Rio and Sao Paulo, to the samba reggae of Bahia and Frevo, Maracatu, and Caboclinho of Pernambucao. They鈥檙e all an amalgamation of rhythms and traditions and are also influenced by indigenous Brazilian and African culture.
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About Amazon
Bruce Parry, presenter of the 成人快手's Tribe, travelled the length of the Amazon to film a major new series for 成人快手 Two, shown in autumn 2008. You can relive his journey online through exclusive blogs, video and much more.
