This is a 5-minute sizzle reel for the 20 minute documentary and the FEATURE FILM.
Watch the Q&A Session from the film’s screening at the Central Florida Film Festival (CENFLO) on January 21, 2024.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves," was selected by the 38th Annual Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, FL, and screened at the Gateway Theater on November 7, 2023.
It is selected to screen in the Central Florida Film Festival, Mt. Dora, in January 2024.
It is selected to screen online at Cinema Verde Environmental Film Festival, Gainesville, GA, in February 2024.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves—The Short Documentary" is selected to screen at St. Auggie Shorts Film Festival in St. Augustine, Florida, March 1-2, 2024.
It was selected and shown in the "2023 Global Peace Film Festival—Free for All Shorts Program" online portion of the hybrid festival September 25-October 1, Winter Park, Florida.
Fossil fuels must peak by 2025 and PHASE OUT by 2030 to avoid the worst climate disasters and stay below the 1.5 average global temperature, (IPCC). Al Gore said in December 2023 that if we phase out fossil fuels, global temperatures will drop IMMEDIATELY. Carbon in the atmosphere will naturally be completely gone within 30 years! That means PHASE OUT—NO MORE FOSSIL FUELS. That means NO NEW GAS or LNG by the U.S.! No Willow Project. No oil & gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. NO new exports of LNG by the U.S. (liquified natural gas—which is NOT clean energy.) NO fossil fuel subsidies. NO false solutions like carbon offsets and hydrogen. Watch Al Gore's presentation at COP28 here:
https://unfccc-events.azureedge.net/COP28_94527/agenda
This is a story of people trying to save their homes, jaguars, wildlife, ecotourism, and lodges from out-of-control climate wildfires in the remote Pantanal of Brazil, the world’s largest wetland, storing 10 billion tons of carbon—that is threatened by deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest which may have only 2 more years left before its ecosystem dies and decaying trees begin 30-50 years of releasing up to 200 billion tons of carbon that would ultimately destroy the Earth’s climate. Our survival depends on the survival of this region—so what can average citizens do to stop U.S. corporations from deforestation and protect the Pantanal and the Amazon Rainforest it depends on?
Logline
The Feature Film was Chosen for "Hot Films in the Making" list for 2022 by Roy W. Dean-From the Heart Productions!
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves--The Short Documentary" was awarded Outstanding Excellence by the Docs Without Borders Film Festival in 2023.
Please Help Us to Make This Feature Film a Reality!
Our Goal is to Raise $30,000 by April 1, 2024
Funds will be used for Audio, Archival Film & Editing
ANYTHING will help!
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Daily Earth Actions, Earthfamily
Every day actions we can do to make a difference in our world and heal our families, communities, wildlife, and the earth.
Photos
Film Overview
Jaguars roam and swim freely along the riverbanks of the Pantanal’s many beautiful rivers and inlets. It is the only place in the world where jaguars and people coexist through ecotourism in this way. Abbie Martin, a zoologist, has observed their behavior over the past ten years and with the help of local people who send her their photos, she has created a directory of jaguars and their family trees, including names given them by locals and tourists who photograph them. Here jaguars are valued by the local people, tour guides and ranchers—not killed. The peace and tranquility of this area was destroyed by climate change fires in 2020 when local people were forced to fight fires with little equipment or government help to protect their homes, lodges, ranches, and the jaguars and wildlife they love so dearly. Farm hands, biologists, and others who normally work on the nonprofit Panthera’s organic farm where they teach sustainable farming and ways to protect cattle from jaguars—found themselves fighting fires to protect their ranch, the jaguar state park, ecolodges, and the homes of local people. The fire breaks that they built saved Panthera and the entire neighborhood of homes right behind Panthera. They also braved jaguars and were charged by water buffalos as they traveled an hour by foot into the jaguar state park (which has no roads,) to build fire breaks to protect the park from burning—but 80 percent of the state park and 30 percent of the entire Pantanal still burned in 2020.
Eduarda Fernandes Amaril, owner of Wild Jaguar Safaris, whose husband’s ecolodge burned, created a rescue team for animals and worked beside nonprofit veterinarians who came to help. Two jaguars were rescued—one, Amanici, also called Gloria, was rescued on her husband’s farm. The pandemic had grounded international flights and closed borders, so Abbie Martin, whose nonprofit is the Jaguar Identification Project, and April Kelly of Conservation Wild raised money from the U.S. that was used to help buy firefighting equipment and food for people stranded during the fires and the pandemic. In 2021 fires raged again, and Abbie, Eduarda, and April fought fires alongside Panthera Manager Eluzio, Supervisor Rafael, and Ranch Hands Eduardo, Benedito, and Sebastiao who once again, courageously fought fires—but this time they were more prepared and able to intervene more quickly, with more training, saving much more of the area.
This is their story—the story of the magic and beauty of the Pantanal—the power and courage of how they saved it—twice—the many threats that still face the Pantanal—and what we must do in the U.S. to stop the deforestation of U.S. corporations that threatens the Amazon Rainforest, the Cerrado Savannah, and the Pantanal, which is an irreplaceable UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" brings attention to the plight of jaguars, wildlife, the Pantanal in Brazil AND the Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado Savannah that surround it. The film combines intimate human conversations and closeups of jaguars in the Pantanal with clear explanations of larger threats that expand to include the Amazon, Cerrado, and the U.S.—focusing on ways that individuals in the U.S. can act effectively to bring change. These three areas form a critical Triad for preventing global climate change. My film explains why this Triad is crucial--why OUR survival in the U.S. depends on its recovery--and what we must do to literally save it, jaguars/wildlife, and Earth. The Pantanal wetland is larger than Florida and stores at least 10 billion tons of carbon. The Cerrado stores at least 13 billion tons. The Amazon stores up to 200 billion tons. If ANY of these areas completely burns, the carbon releases would be catastrophic. The Amazon and Pantanal are paradises. The Pantanal is directly affected by destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado savannah. Indigenous people and scientists believe that 80% of the Amazon Rainforest must be protected by 2025 or it will not be able to regenerate itself. The Amazon creates its own weather but if deforestation continues, its ecosystem will die and dying trees will give off as much as 200 billion tons of carbon over the next 30-50 years, effectively destroying our ability to protect the climate--and the Earth will die. The Pantanal is one of the most unique and beautiful places in the world, home to over 5,000 animal species and is now also facing threats from upstream river projects.
About the Filmmaker
Dr. Susan Perz, Ph.D.
Director and Cinematographer
My Video Hosting Website: www.earthfamily.tv
YouTube: Dr. Susan Perz
Photography: www.susanperz.smugmug.com
Ebook: Conceiving a Peaceful World, www.womenswisdom.tv
Blog: www.drsusanperz.com
Over the past 20 years, I have written, researched, filmed, and edited two full-length documentary movies—and about 100 short nonfiction documentaries, interviews, and events. I have donated documentary films to Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, (GABEO) as well as a domestic violence shelter, and numerous other social justice organizations over the years. I have a Ph.D. in Education (2003), B.S. in Journalism, UF (1980), and M.Ed./Ed.S. in Counseling. In the past, I have worked as a school counselor and I am a licensed marriage and family therapist. My photography has been juried into numerous exhibits, including the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and the Alpharetta Arts Center, GA.
Film Festivals
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves--The Short Documentary" (20 minutes, 2023)--was selected by the 38th Annual Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and screened on November 7, 2023, in the Gateway Theater.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves--The Short Documentary" is selected to be screened at the Central Florida Film Festival in Mt. Dora, Florida, January, 2024.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves—The Short Documentary" is selected to screen at Cinema Verde Environmental Film Festival in Gainesville, Florida, February 2024.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves—The Short Documentary" is selected to screen at St. Auggie Shorts Film Festival in St. Augustine, Florida, March 1-2, 2024.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" was selected and shown in the "2023 Global Peace Film Festival—Free for All Shorts Program" online portion of the hybrid festival, September 25-October 1, Winter Park, FL. Shorts were online; features were hybrid.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" was selected and awarded Semi-Finalist by the Hawaii International Film Awards, December 2023.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" was selected and awarded Nominee by the Audio_Visual_Club, December 2023.
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves--The Short Documentary" was awarded Outstanding Excellence by the Docs Without Borders Film Festival in 2023.
"The Sacred Loves of Birds" (55 minutes, 2022) was selected by Nature Without Borders International Film Festival (2023)
Filmography
"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves--The Short Documentary," (20 minutes, 2023)
"Black Women Call for Justice," (8 minutes, 2023)
"The Sacred Loves of Birds," (55 minutes, 2022)
“Florida’s Endangered Wildlife and Ecosystems Collapse: A Short Documentary” (4:28 minutes, 2021)
“The Jaguar Wildlife Corridor,” (1:37, 2021)
“Save the Florida Panther and Wildlife: An Action Documentary,” (4:55 minutes, 2021)
“A Law Enforcement Killing in South Carolina, 2021, Cassandra Green Talks About Her Family’s Experience,” (39 minutes, 2021)
“Economics and Systemic Racism—An Interview with Cassandra Green, Director and Activist,” (one hour and 13 minutes, 2021)
"Wondrous Wings," (10:27, 2021)
"Chattahoochee Nature Center, (CNC), Butterfly Festival," (1:15, 2021)
"Mystical Autumn, The Photos," (18:36, 2021)
Director's Statement
The urgency of this film cannot be overstated. The Earth's climate is facing multiple points of no return--most urgently the fate of the Amazon Rainforest--and the Pantanal Wetland and Cerrado Savannah. Together they store 223 billion tons of carbon which will start being released over the next 30-50 years, if 80 percent of the Amazon is not protected by 2025. The Pantanal is the only place in the world where wild jaguars live peacefully with people. Many of these jaguars are known individually by name thanks to the work of Abbie Martin of the Jaguar Identification Project and citizen science efforts of the local community. It is home to 5,000 animal species. Its fate is dependent on saving the Amazon and Cerrado, both of which directly affect it. Our fate as humans is dependent on saving these three areas, which are environmental treasures and homes to indigenous and other local people whose rights, lives, and livelihoods are being destroyed by the environmental destruction of large corporations and plantations--both Brazilian but also foreign--including from the U.S. There is a LOT we can do here in the U.S. to reduce pressures from U.S. corporations on Lula da Silva's incoming presidential administration and his environmental goals. This film explains those solutions and ways that average individual people can create real change. I filmed in the Pantanal, Brazil for 11 days this past August 2022, and brought home more than 2 Terabytes of 4K film. Most days were spent out on the rivers, doing interviews and filming jaguars and other wildlife. The rivers are filled with alligator-like cayman and piranhas. I am the cinematographer, story editor, narrator, director, researcher, and producer of this film. Archival footage was donated by Abbie Martin-- with credits for archival fire films and fire photographs by Abbie Martin, Eduarda Fernandes Amaril, April Kelly, Veronica Domit, Heideger Nascimento, and Nick Kleer, used by permission. This is an independent film. I have collaborated with local individuals, biologists, a zoologist, business owners, four nonprofits, tour companies, etc.
How We Can Take Action
Bank Green
Find Banks that Don’t Invest in or finance or insure Oil, Coal, Gas, or Agribusinesses
Read, why investing green protects Rainforests
https://susanperzphd.substack.com/p/protecting-the-amazon-saving-ourselves
Find Green Banks that don’t invest in fossil fuels at: bank.green
You may have to contact rivers-mountains-greenfaith.org to find banks that don’t invest in mining or agribusinesses. Some banks only invest green.
Green Banks, Credit Cards, Home Insurance, Investments: rivers-mountains-greenfaith.org
Find banks that don't invest in deforestation or rainforest destruction at: https://deforestationfreefunds.org
Contact Congress and the President and Ask for Laws or Executive Actions to:
— Pass The Forest Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2950/text
More information at: https://susanperzphd.substack.com/p/saving-rainforests-supporting-the
— Make environmental destruction—ecocide—a crime— BY U.S. LAW, not just internationally.
More information at: Coming soon.
— Remove subsidies for fossil fuels, mining, and agribusinesses.
How to Find and Contact Your Congresspeople:
Ask the President—Call the White House
—Ask the President to Declare a Climate Emergency
—Ask the President to Sign the Fossil Fuels Non- Proliferation Treaty proposed by Pacific Island Nations
—Make ecocide a crime nationally in the U.S. and an International crime.
Call the White House Comment Line:
+1 (202) 456-1111
+1 (202) 456-1414
TTY (202) 456-6213
Email the White House:
Sign the Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty
How we can help our communities create laws to protect the rights of nature where we live.
The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, (GARN)
Learn about the Rights of Nature
Watch COP 28 Events and Discussions
Watch Al Gore's Hopeful Presentation at COP 28 on December 3, 2023:
https://unfccc-events.azureedge.net/COP28_94527/agenda
Watch Videos of COP 28 events and discussions on the United Nations Website:
COP 28 started November 30-December 13th.
Click on the date to see videos of events on that day.
Sometimes you have to click twice and scroll down to see the list.
Petitions
No Poaching
There have been recent problems near the Pantanal with a tragic poaching where a mother jaguar and 2 cubs were killed by a man who was jailed briefly and then released and many people in Brasil are outraged—but there is some talk of making hunting wild animals legal and the petition below that is in Portuguese opposes this. (You can copy and paste into Google Translate if you prefer to read it in English.). Right now hunting wild animals in Brasil is illegal, which protects wildlife tremendously and increases peacefulness/nonagressiveness by jaguars toward humans.
No Soy
Soy agribusinesses have destroyed half of the Cerrado savannah next to the Pantanal and soy is now encroaching on the Pantanal wetland, and if it continues it will destroy the wetland. Most soy is exported out of Brasil to China, U.S. and elsewhere, so it doesn't feed local people. It also causes the aquifer water supply to dry up and increases pesticides dramatically which poisons the rivers. The petition below if for the local governmental area where the Pantanal exists to not allow soy to be planted in the Pantanal.
United Nations: BAN Trophy Hunting. STOP Poachers. END Export/Imports.
The Global Petition To Protect The Amazon
Donate
You can donate to Jaguar Identification Project at: jaguaridproject.com
You can donate to the Giant Otter Project at:
You can donate to Panthera Brasil: pantherabrasil@panthera.org
Contact Us
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more or get involved, please fill out the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible!