Yasuni - Two seconds of Life

In Ecuador, the Yasuni National Park in the Western Amazon Region is one of the sites with the greatest biodiversity on our planet – and it also holds a big part of Ecuadors oil reserves.

Ecuador´s president has made an extraordinary proposal to the International Community of States to prevent further oil-spills in the rainforest region: to leave the oil in the ground.

“YASUNI – Two Seconds of Life” (Ecuador/America/Austria 2010, 90 min, documentary) directed by Ecuardorian filmmaker Leonardo Wild, impressingly documents the whole case and gives speech to all parties involved: politicians, scientists, native people or lawyers.
Yasuni also displays Ecuador´s local music scene and its personal language, adding a very own and sound and unique voices.

Short info about YASUNI:

Declared as a World Wide Biosphere Reserve in 1989 by the UNESCO, it covers 982.000 hectares and is home of many local native tribes like the Tagaeri and Taromenane groups, as well as the Huaorani.
However, the ITT block of the Yasuní also has 20% of Ecuador's crude oil reserves, with most of the park already being exploited by national and international oil companies, most of which suffer oil spills leaving behind contaminated areas.

Ecuador´s proposal:

Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has offered what seems to be a unique idea: If the world will pay for protection of it's green lungs, Ecuador is in return willing to stop further exploitation of oil in Yasuni's ITT block, one of the most fragile and biodiverse parts of Ecuador, and the world's, rainforests. The proposal is to, "Leave the oil in the ground."

Filmmaker and producers statement:

This is a documentary film about the whole case. We simply asked all parties involved, politicians, oil people, scientists, native people about their opinions and ideas, we have travelled deep into the forest to catch true images of the area and its people, we followed one chief on his trip to the UN in New York - just to find out how complex, how difficult this topic really is. In parallel, since this is mainly an Ecuadorian movie, we brought in local musicians with their very personal language, covering the images with their sounds and voices.

In 2010, the world is invited to watch this report. The whole planet is far too close to the edge of catastrophic climate change and near the limits of it's resources, yet the extraction of some resources can mean the destruction of something even more valuable. During a rather weak effort of many nations to pull the breaks to avoid climate change, this movie offers information and views from one of the most important areas, one of the few and last mostly untouched areas of the Amazon rainforest.

FILM CREW

DIRECTOR – SCRIPT
Leonardo Wild
A novelist and scriptwriter, Leonardo is a man of many “professions,” among them wooden-house designer, sailor, inventor, scientist, corporate image consultant. In 2007, he was privately asked by one of the advisors to the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, on how to present the Yasuni-ITT Initiative to the world. This triggered his interest in the dilemma: to leave the oil underground, or to extract it endangering whole ecosystems. And he realized that, in order for the news of the project to be spread, there had to be an independent account of it with no vested interests except to tell the story from many different viewpoints. This led him to look for no-strings-attached funding for the film, and a crew ready to be part of the project simply because of the importance of the subject matter. He speaks Spanish, English and German. With over 41 scripts produced (short films, TV spots, documentaries), this is his second feature-length documentary.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – EDITOR
Pablo Morales
Co-owner of Yeti Films, Pablo has worked with Leonardo on numerous commercial projects and thus agreed right away to support the production of Yasuni, Two Seconds of Life. He worked for various publicity and production companies, including TV stations, before founding Yeti Films, a company that has already made its name for high quality standards and creativity in the Ecuadorean audiovisual scene. Pablo was, from the very start, excited about doing something “different,” even in the arena of Ecuadorean documentaries, and together with his team at Yeti Films, has given his full support for the entire production process of the film, both as camera-man, DOP and editor. He is also an active musician, and shares a passion for telling stories that can change the world.

SOUND ENGINEER – FILM SCORE COMPOSER
Eric Spitzer-Marlyn
With many years in the film and music business, and well-known through his work for Werner Herzog, Eric writes score music, acts as music and sound supervisor, overseeing the sound design plus surround mix for films. He was the main sound recordist for the Yasuni film, and in charge of the whole sound design and finishing touches that give this documentary its special depth. Eric traveled to Ecuador three times to work both on the sound as well as giving directing input and editing consultancy. Eric, having worked together on an educational documentary with Leonardo, was immediately eager to jump in and help bring this film to a level that met international film standards.

DIRECTOR’S ASSISTANT – VOICE COACH – SINGER
Lisa Stern
A professional actress, singer and vocal coach, Lisa helped coordinate and prepare the local musicians in Ecuador. She also helped the director’s assistant, and the sound engineer. She coached singers and performers in the recording studios both in Ecuador and in Austria, and organized most of the paperwork for Fairies Music Moviemaker. She helped to interpret and translate between German, Spanish and English, an all-around, multi-talented assistant.

GRAPHICS AND 2D - POSTPRODUCTION
Amanda Cifuentes
Co-founder of Yeti Films, she provided most of the 2D animation and graphic design for Yasuni, Two Seconds of Life. With a vast experience in many different audio-visual projects, she has been an important asset in more than just the graphic design of the film, giving creative input and moral support at times when the project seemed to be too big to finish, or too complex to see through. She also assisted in various music shooting sessions, and production meetings.

GRAPHIC AND CREATIVE DESIGN
Miguel Morales
Creative Director and co-founder of Yeti Films, Miguel’s main job has been to help design the graphic line for Yasuni, Two Seconds of Life. He has received various publicity prizes in Latin America, and together with Amanda he created the visual line and artwork concept design for the film. His work has mainly been in a wide variety of commercial projects for various Ecuadorian publicity agencies.

ASSISTANTS
René Chicaiza
Rene worked as a freelance assistant for various production companies in Ecuador and also had worked previously in projects with Pablo, Amanda and Leonardo. He was asked to join the film crew in the trip to the jungle, to Nuevo Rocafuerte, Tiputini and Jatuncocha. After the trip, he was diagnosed with cancer and died in December of 2009.

Jorge Guamán
Another freelance assistant for Ecuadorean production companies, Jorge joined in the trip to the Intangible Zone, to Penti Bahiwa´s community, Bameno. Filming in the jungle is not an easy task, and both he and René had prior experience. Without their special care for the equipment, the film process would have been cut short without a doubt.

CO-PRODUCERS - USA
Justin Gonzalez
Justin is a producer of the film, main investor, and fund-raiser. Along with managing a non-profit organization and many different businesses “for a better tomorrow,” he is a majority holder in more than three companies dedicated to “green technology,” development and application of solutions to world problems. CEO of Intangible Zone Productions, he also owns Imagine.Do, an experimental media group. When he heard from Leonardo about the idea of making a film presenting the Yasuni-ITT Initiative’s dilemmas, he enthusiastically committed himself to find funding and support it beyond the production stage with Intangible Zone Productions.

Bob Banner
Bob was one of the first to offer to help with much needed seed money for the film. Bob is the editor of HopeDance Magazine: “The purpose of HopeDance is simply to report on the outrageous, pioneering and inspiring activities of outstanding individuals and organizations who are creating a new world -- regardless of their spiritual tradition or political agenda.” HopeDance.org hosts films, events, healthy living, and much more.
http://www.hopedance.org/


Intangible Zone Productions (WildWorks Producciones, A Better Tommorow Foundation, Fairies Music Moviemaker):

CO-PRODUCERS – ECUADOR
Yeti Films
With a very young but special team of talented film, corporate image and publicity developers, Yeti Film agreed to support in the production of the film from the very beginning. Yeti Films dedicates itself mostly to numerous commercial productions, and it has co-produced a Cuban-Ecuadorean feature film: Club Habana. Yeti Film is owned by the DOP and Editor Pablo Morales, an award winning publicist Miguel Morales, and the creative 2D animator and graphic designer Amanda Cifuentes.
http://www.yeti-films.com

WildWorks Producciones
Leonardo Wild´s own independent production venture, under which he produced the documentaries “Pesta,” (83 minutes) and “CEPAS” (38 minutes) as well as other short films.

CO-PRODUCER – AUSTRIA
Fairies Music Moviemaker
The company of Eric Spitzer-Marlyn and Lisa Stern, Faeries Music Maker agreed to help in the co-production of Yasuni, Two Seconds of Life, when it was clear that Yeti Films needed international support as the film was growing to be more than just a local issue.

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