Washington DC, 19 November 2014: Twenty years ago, Christopher Walker, Gordon Durnin and Tony Avirgan were the first film-makers to tell the story of the fight against Big Oil in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. Their reporting was featured on ABC News, ABC Nightline, NBC Dateline, BBC and CBC, keeping the story in the headlines while their documentary "Trinkets and Beads" was distributed internationally. It was also short-listed for an Academy Award Nomination being named an "outstanding documentary" by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Filmed over 3 years, it covered the fight by the Huaorani people to remove the oil companies from their lands and preserve the Yasuni National Park – one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world - and was instrumental in gaining support for the subsequent moratorium on oil drilling in the Yasuni National Park. (Web link: http://icarusfilms.com/cat97/t-z/trinkets.html)

Now Big Oil is back. In 2013 Ecuador's President Correa announced an end to the moratorium on oil drilling in the Yasuni Park, opening it - and Huaorani lands - to oil drilling once again. The stage is set for an oil invasion by companies from the United States, China, Brazil and Argentina in conjunction with the local state oil company. Illegal loggers have already started moving, using oil company roads while oil production is planned to commence in 2016. Most of the oil is destined for the U.S. (previous oil reserves discovered on Huaorani land were estimated to be worth $1.5 billion - enough to keep cars rolling in the U.S. for 13 days).

The "Trinkets and Beads" team have now been invited by local leader Moi Enomenga and the Huaorani community to document their continued struggle to protect their lands and their way of life. A new film can play a major role in publicizing the impacts of oil drilling on the peoples and ecosystems of the Amazon, and the local and international struggle to stop it.

With their expertise in producing documentary films on cutting-edge environmental and social issues over the past 30 years the team are confident of success. Tony, Chris, and Gordon are planning to make a sequel to "Trinkets and Beads" and have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money to get started.

See here for more details:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trinketsandbeads/trinkets-and-beads-the-sequel