The Charcoal People

This deeply human documentary examines the subject of environmental destruction, highlighting the impoverished migrant workers who are chopping down the Amazon rainforest to create charcoal for pig iron production used primarily in the automobile industry. The film examines the children and elders and their daily lives and work as they burn timber in igloo-looking huts, their bodies charred gray for $2 a day, struggling to survive.

2000

1h 4min

TMDB watch IMDb

Top Billed Cast

No Cast found

Similar movies

Blood and Water
Blood and Water
09 Sep 2007
Blood and Water
When the 2004 tsunami hit the coast of Sri Lanka, 65-year-old Anton Ambrose's wife and daughter were killed. "In five minutes," he says, "I lost everything." A year later, Anton returns to Sri Lanka. With him is his nephew, award-winning filmmaker Rohan Fernando. A Tamil, Anton moved to California in the 1970s and became a very successful gynecologist. His daughter, Orlantha, made the opposite journey, returning to Sri Lanka where she ran a non-profit group that gave underprivileged children free violin lessons. Blood and Water is the story of one man's search for meaning in the face of overwhelming loss, but it is also filled with improbable characters, unintentional comedy and situational ironies.
Toroboro: The Name of the Plants
Toroboro: The Name of the Plants
12 Sep 2024
Toroboro: The Name of the Plants
A botanical expedition in Ecuador's Amazon becomes a medium for an indigenous Huaorani community to remember the genocidal colonization it suffered in the 1960s. Meanwhile, a group of ecologists from the capital tries to stop oil exploitation in the last remaining forests where the isolated Huaoranis still live, who to this day refuse to come into contact with civilization.
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi
27 Apr 1983
Koyaanisqatsi
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
A Farra do Circo
A Farra do Circo
30 Nov 2013
A Farra do Circo
This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
Filomena
Filomena
05 Mar 2021
Filomena
The Filomena snowstorm in central Spain was undoubtedly exceptional. Its return period in many places exceeded half a century, particularly in Madrid. Despite accurate weather forecasts, Filomena brought roads, public transport, health centers, and other basic services in Madrid to a standstill. What went wrong in the management of this weather event?
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West
07 Nov 2022
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West
An immersive journey into the world of wild horses, Wild Beauty illuminates both the profound beauty, and desperate plight faced by the wild horses in the Western United States. Filmmaker Ashley Avis and crew go on a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth in hopes to protect them, before wild horses disappear forever.
The Journey
The Journey
24 Feb 1987
The Journey
Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.
The Shaman's Apprentice
The Shaman's Apprentice
27 May 2001
The Shaman's Apprentice
Scientist Mark Plotkin races against time to save the ancient healing knowledge of Indian tribes from extinction.
Amazon: Longest River in the World
Amazon: Longest River in the World
01 Jan 1918
Amazon: Longest River in the World
Documentary by Portuguese Silvino Santos, about the Amazon, its flora, fauna, its inhabitants and among other wonderful images from the beginning of the 20th century with alternating close-up shots of caimans, jaguars and tropical flora with footage of Indigenous rituals--including some of the earliest known moving images of the Indigenous Witoto people--and longer sequences showcasing the region’s extractive industries: rubber, the Brazil nut, timber, fishing, even the egret feathers that were a staple of women’s fashion at the time.
Ilyenkov
Ilyenkov
01 Dec 2017
Ilyenkov
The Soviet philosopher Evald Ilyenkov tries to purge Marxism of ideological cliches, but is rebuffed by his colleagues and the Soviet authorities. The struggle for a true philosophy turns into a tragedy for him and his family.
Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West
Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West
24 Mar 2012
Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West
As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support thirty million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact reaches its limits, WATERSHED introduces hope. Can we meet the needs of a growing population in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall in an already arid land? Can we find harmony amongst the competing interests of cities, agriculture, industry, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities with rights to the water? Sweeping through seven U.S. and two Mexican states, the Colorado River is a lifeline to expanding populations and booming urban centers that demand water for drinking, sanitation and energy generation. And with 70% of the rivers’ water supporting agriculture, the river already runs dry before it reaches its natural end at the Gulf of California. Unless action is taken, the river will continue its retreat – a potentially catastrophic scenario for the millions who depend on it.
The Man Who Wanted to Change the World
The Man Who Wanted to Change the World
13 Oct 2016
The Man Who Wanted to Change the World
Peter Westerveld, artist and visionary, doesn’t want institutions to resolve the problems linked to earth’s problems. Growing up in Africa, he witnessed the advance of the desert and dedicated himself to finding solutions for the ongoing erosion and desertification of the land. The film follows Peter and the NGO working with him to realise his project; to build contour trenches that capture and store rain water under the surface and replenish the desert land.
Ribnitz-Damgarten
Ribnitz-Damgarten
02 Jan 1989
Ribnitz-Damgarten
Ribnitz-Damgarten, the jewel at the coast of the Baltic Sea, is located directly at the Saaler Bodden, between Stralsund and Rostock. The town and its surrounding area are made for vacationing. This documentary from 1989 also shows the other side, like, for example, how the increasing population density and the industrial production influence the ecological balance of the region. A community for the protection of the Bodden landscape is actively making an effort for conservation. At the institute for deep-sea fishery, research about the fish population is conducted, and agriculture as well is looking for solutions to preserve an intact environment.
Liquid Love
Liquid Love
18 Sep 2022
Liquid Love
A critique of liquid love through sarcasm and crude humor. With the desire that the viewer empathize with the protagonists and reflect on the ephemerality of sexual-affective relationships in modern society. At the end of the short film, the transformation of people into mere consumer goods will be clear, which, once they have been used, are discarded
Another Side of the Forest
Another Side of the Forest
10 May 1974
Another Side of the Forest
Developments in the Canadian forestry industry during the 1970s are shown being carried out both as lab experiments and in the field to protect and conserve the country's vast forests. These include turning a Newfoundland bog into woodland, fostering British Columbia seedlings that withstand mechanical planting, inoculating Ontario elms against the bark beetle, devising ways of controlling fire, and more.
Birds of America
Birds of America
25 May 2022
Birds of America
In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.
The Ants and the Grasshopper
The Ants and the Grasshopper
26 May 2021
The Ants and the Grasshopper
Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions that shape the USA: from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, and to the American exceptionalism that remains a part of the culture. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognise, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.
Three Songs for Benazir
Three Songs for Benazir
02 Jun 2021
Three Songs for Benazir
The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Even as Shaista’s love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make to build a life with her have profound consequences.
The Best of Burlesque
The Best of Burlesque
01 Jan 1981
The Best of Burlesque
Legendary performer Sherry Britton presents song, dance (choreographed by Wakefield Poole) and comedy. The way burlesque used to be.
Anarchy Movie '85
Anarchy Movie '85
01 Jun 1985
Anarchy Movie '85
On December 1st, 1985 British post-punk band Public Image Ltd. performed in Nagoya City Hall, Japan. This concert film includes an interview with singer Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon) on a high-speed Bullet Train, where he acts in typical Lydon fashion, that being obnoxious. This film is a total rarity, as it was only released in Japan.