The Amazon can be a perilous place, especially during the administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who loosened environmental regulations or ignored them. Environmental destruction in the Amazon is mostly illegal, with organized crime playing a significant role in it. Lawless and violent settlements around gold mines are inhabited by young miners who deal with cartels and ultimately paid in gold and drugs.
In June of 2021, Richard Mosse learned about an incident involving the Yanomami villagers and illegal gold miners that left the villagers’ children sick from malaria and their women coerced into prostitution, causing more illnesses. Gold mining, involving mercury, pollutes the rivers and harms wildlife, eventually making its way into the villagers’ food. Even with the awareness of the seriousness of this issue, Bolsonaro kept sending gold miners to their land.
After reading about it, Mosse arranged a trip to Boa Vista, Brazil, where he hired a Cessna aircraft to take him to the affected village, with the Yanomami regional leader, Júnior Hekurari Yanomami, accompanying him. The most memorable and poignant scene in the resulting film is when Adneia, one of the villagers, addresses the camera directly, expressing her anger at Bolsonaro for continuing to send gold mining groups to their land and the resulting devastation, which could only be described as revolting.
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