iris film

The Episodes:

1. The Source (DIE QUELLE)

- in the high mountains of the Andes

2. The Gorges (DIE SCHLUCHTEN )

- the descent begins

3. In The Rainforest (IM REGENWALD)

- from the mountains into the jungle

4. In Amazonia (IM AMAZONIEN)

- thru the rainforest to the Rio Negro

5. The Sea-River (RIO MAR)
from Manaus to the Atlantic Ocean

"7000 KILOMETRES OF MYTH - THE AMAZON" (7000 Kilometer Mythos - der Amazonas)

The history of the river is rich in dramatic adventures B beginning in the age of the Spanish conquistadors with the famous river voyage of Francisco de Orellana in 1541, leading up to that of the Portuguese Pedro Teixeira who, in 1638, led a two-thousand-man expedition upriver. Between 1848 and 1859 Henry Bates discovered over 15,000 animal species in the Amazon region. In this century, the news has been dominated by the exploits of loners such as Herbert Rittlinger from Munich who, in the fifties, descended the white-water gorges on his own in a folding boat. Werner Herzog=s films Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo aroused much curiosity about the Amazon. Yet what makes the river so special are not its dimensions, but the diversity of theNative American peoples and their cultures, which are unfortunately in the throes of extinction. When the continent was discovered there were at least one million indigenous inhabitants; only 150,000 remain today. Their disappearance also means that their comprehensive knowledge o
f the natural world of the Amazon is being lost.

The mighty eastern slope of the Andes is an inaccessible and isolated zone, concealing countless, still undiscovered surprises. Again and again, sensational finds of unknown ruined cities are announced, and nobody knows what secrets are still waiting to be dicovered there.

Our journey along the course of the river is in itself a first-degree adventure, whereby the adventure is by no means the be-all and end-all of the expedition. Depending on the circumstances, we shall decide spontaneously as to the best way of moving on; thus, in contrast to so many expeditions, we shall not be encumbered by the obligation to proceed on our journey according to a certain handicap. Without this restriction we shall be able to concentrate on the special nature of this river, which has exerted a formative influence on the culture and the history of its inhabitants.

Encounters with people and cultures, nature, geography, current events and adventure/report B all these elements together will result in a thrilling and informative documentary, far removed from the usual South-American clichés ranging from Machu-Picchu to naked Amazon Indios. This is guaranteed by the decades of experience on the part of the author, who knows both the Andes and the Amazonas from many journeys about which he has already made an impressive number of documentaries.