Amazon (1997)

Director:

Kieth Merrill

Writers:

Kieth Merrill (writer) and
Loren McIntyre (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Plot:

Both Indian shaman Julio Mamani and ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin seek medicinal plants in the basin of the Amazon River.

Plot Keywords:

River | Scientist | IMAX | Rain Forest | Ecological

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Linda Hunt	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jesse Corti	...	Julio Mamani (voice)
Mark Plotkin	...	Himself
Sydney Possuelo	...	Himself
Adrian Villanueva	...	Julio Mamani

Directed by
Kieth Merrill

Writing credits
Kieth Merrill		(writer) and
Loren McIntyre		(writer)

Produced by
Kieth Merrill	....	producer
Isaac Palmer	....	executive producer
Jonathan Stern	....	producer
Jonathan Stern	....	producer
Scott Swofford	....	line producer

Original Music by
Alan Williams

Cinematography by
Mike Hoover

Film Editing by
Stephen L. Johnson

Production Management
Marggie Castellano	....	local production manager (segment "Peru")

Sound Department
Frank Canonica	....	supervising sound recordist: mix stage
Michael L. McDonough	....	sound designer
David Parker	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Alan G. Markowitz	....	optical effects supervisor: Imagica USA

Camera and Electrical Department
John-Paul Beeghly	....	assistant camera
Jack Tankard	....	aerial photographer

Editorial Department
Kelly Edmunds	....	assistant editor
Annie Toth	....	post-production coordinator

Music Department
Scott Cochran	....	music engineer
Benoit Grey	....	copyist
Larry Rench	....	orchestrator

Production Companies

• Ogden Entertainment

Distributors

• MacGillivray Freeman Films
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)
• Warner Music (2006) (Sweden) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Saul Zaentz Film Center  sound re-recording

Runtime:

38 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.44 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP

Certification:

Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Bolivia

Company:

Ogden Entertainment

amazing footage, terrible production

The Amazon basin and the mysterious Indian tribes that live within its rainforests are subjects that are very near and dear to me. I studied this a bit in college, and I'm always a sucker for a documentary that purports to have new footage of the Amazon interior.

I paid four bucks last night to watch "Amazon" via on-demand cable. It was a huge let-down.

Actually, the film footage was actually very impressive. There were the obligatory machu picchu shots, sure, but also some great shots of the "amazon jungle railroad" which I was thrilled to finally see, great shots of the enormous headwater canyons in Peru, and some crazy Indian tribe footage where they had what looked like four foot rafters embedded in their chins. Also there were piranha, white-handed gibbons, pink dolphins, and electric eels. Plus shots of the rain forest canopy, which is not something you see very often. The IMAX team simply got some amazing footage out of this. I can't rate it highly enough - I'm sure it wasn't easy to get either.

But the production! I can't believe that somebody didn't put their foot down, and fire the director. The music made me want to watch the thing on "mute". 90 minutes of Synth-Pan-Flute ensembles... ugggh. The story was both retarded and offensive. They tried to make the Medicine Man Indian into some kind of modern explorer or something, but he never had a single intelligent thing to say. The narrator was not the worst part, but she wasn't very good either.

I'm just really angry that such amazing footage was ruined by such a stupid script and then completely trashed by *constant* and extremely annoying background music.

I hope someday someone buys the rights to this film and repackages it into a good documentary.