Educational Media Reviews Online

This three-film set chronicles the history of Brazil's relations with the native tribes of the Amazon rainforest. Film one, entitled Return from Extinction, chronicles Brazil's Indian Protection Service's efforts to save a tribe from near extinction due to the diseases it contracted as a result of their interaction with white settlers. Film two, The Fate of the Kidnapper, outlines the story of a white settler family whose children had been kidnapped and murdered by a native tribe, and the cycle of revenge that followed. Film three, Fragments of a People, tells the story of an almost-extinct tribe which had been massacred by settlers in the early 1960's and the government's efforts to save the frightened remaining survivors before their lands are engulfed by the waters of a newly built hydroelectric dam.

These films and the accompanying booklet tell a sad tale of the destruction both the native peoples of the Amazon rainforest and of the rainforest itself. Well constructed and containing original film from the time period 1967-1998, this video set chronicles the Brazilian government's efforts to both grow as a nation and to protect the remaining "hiding tribes" of the Amazon rainforest. We see both the successes and failures in these efforts. The filmmaker tries to get all sides of this complicated story and the films contain interviews with government officials, white settlers, and native tribespeople. The most poignant parts of these films to watch is how interaction with white settlers changes the native cultures involved forever.

These films are suitable for upper-level high school and college courses in anthropology, sociology, ecology, and human rights and are an excellent representation of these topics. Highly recommended.