After the legalisation of forest burning in Bolivia, volunteer firefighters are facing the worst fires Bolivia has ever experienced. Chaqueo is a Bolivian practice of burning the forest in order to obtain arable land, in 2019 this practice was legalised recognising fire as a legal tool for cultivating the land. What followed were the worst fires the country has ever experienced. The film presents the problem of the chaqueo and shows the efforts of groups of volunteer firefighters, who seek to save the most vulnerable places such as human settlements and nature reserves.

Selections

One World - Czech Republic
La Paz International Film Festival - Bolivia
First Nations Film and Video Festival - US
4ª Festival Internacional de Cinema Ambiental da Serra Catarinense - Brasil
El Cine Suma Paz - Colombia
HECare Film Festival - Canada
Anatolia International Film Festival - Turkey
Central Scotland Documentary Festival - Scotland
Suncine Environmenatal Film Festival - Spain, Mexico
Ara Korea International Film Festival - Korea
SunChild International Environmental Festival - Armenia
Ecologico International Film Festival - Italy
Festival internacional de Cine Austral - Argentina
T.I.F.A. - Tietê International Film Awards - Brazil
Eko International Film Festival - Nigeria
South America Awards - Brazil

Awards

Best Feature Documentary - La Paz International Film Festival
Golden Tilapia - Social Awareness Award - Tietê International Film Awards
Social Awareness Award - South America Awards
Best Editing - South America Awards
Finalist - Ecologico International Film Festival

MARTIN TRABALIK

Martin Trabalik is a Czech documentarist based in Prague. In his work, he focuses on social and humanitarian issues. In January 2016 he volunteered during the European refugee crisis on the island of Lesbos. He spent half a year in Greece and Balkans, becoming interested in photography in the process. Since then he has worked on several projects in Nogorno-Karabakh, Donbash, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other areas. In 2018 he was also awarded Czech Press Photo price in the category Problems of our age for covering Rohingya's expulsion into Bangladesh.

GERALDINE ZAMBRANA

Geraldine Zambrana Velez is a journalist, writer and filmmaker from Bolivia. She studied filmmaking at Prague Film School after getting a bachelor degree in International Relations and a master degree in Human Rights at the Institute of Political Science of Paris (Sciences Po). During the period she was working for different NGOs in India, South Africa and France, she started her work as a documentarist, finding in this means of expression an efficient way to show sensitive realities. She directed the short movie “Metamorphosis”, the documentary “Bolivia, donde nadie se cansa ni se rinde” and co-directed the documentary “Incendios”.