Daughters of the Forest 2017
Distributed by Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-FROG (3764)
Produced by Carl Byker and Kate McMahon
Directed by Samantha Grant
, color, 56 min.
High School - General Adult
Education, Environment
Date Entered: 06/11/2018
Reviewed by Barb Kundanis, Longmont Public Library, Longmont, CODaughters of the Forest tells the story of teen girls who are able to benefit from an education at a unique boarding school (built in 2009) in the Mbaracayú Forest Preserve in Paraguay (where 90% of the forests are gone). Coming from the Aché tribe and other backgrounds, the school is an opportunity to escape poverty. Most boys leave the area for work but many girls get pregnant early and are unskilled for jobs. The school was created so the girls could form life goals and become "guardians of the forest."
The students learn business and technical skills (environmental science) and also receive sex education. The dedicated director of the school shares her own teen pregnancy story. We get to know four of the girls (Claudia, Nilda, Bianca and Numila) as they progress.
The film covers the girls through school and graduation capturing the hope for a better future. Later, when she is at college, Bianca talks of missing the people in front of her who cleared the paths with machetes so they would not get lost. She realizes that she now must be the one with the machete to clear the path for others.