In the heart of Peru’s Amazon region, a poor neighborhood put aside the trials and tribulations of everyday life and celebrated an international film festival with works from countries with tropical forests. Many who attended the 10-day event had never seen a movie on the big screen, and the one used for the festival was itself unique due to the area’s geography. “The festival aims to be a tribute to the jungles of the world and its people, to the Indigenous communities, in which we believe lies the answer to the challenges and destruction that forests face now that everyone is talking about climate change,” Daniel Martínez-Quintanilla, co-executive director of the festival that ends Sunday, said.
Life in the community of Belén revolves around water. Houses and businesses are built on stilts because rains regularly lead to monthslong floods. Families own canoes to move around, but children who lack one sometimes use large plastic containers instead.
So, members of the Muyuna Floating Film Festival — muyuna in the Quechua language means “a whirlpool formed in mighty rivers” — set the screen on a 10- meter (33-foot) high wooden structure, allowing residents to enjoy the films from their canoes or the windows of their homes. “For the first time, we are getting to know these settings that are bringing us to this community,” said Belén resident Jorge Chilicahua, a 60-year-old farmer who raises chickens and plants cassava, corn and vegetables to meet his f.
