The Power of One (Pre-Production)

Logline

Naturalist, Alex Valdez, and a team of young documentary filmmakers will take us on an adventure to discover an unknown ecological sanctuary deep in the jungles of Colombia, where an anonymous conservationist, who goes simply by the name Jorge, is replanting a rainforest from a deforested piece of land and creating a home for a variety of endangered animals. This film is the first step in our mission to showcase the hundreds of unknown conservationists around the globe and inspire a whole generation to believe in the power of one.

Why Us?

We are a group of young filmmakers hungry to tell an important story. Alex Valdez is the only person in the U.S. that knows where Jorge and Jaibazul are located and he is one of the only people in the world with the same passion for nature as the ecological conservationists we want to feature in our stories. 

Why This Film?

We are in a race against time when it comes to preserving the ecological areas that give life to our planet. For example, there are less than 6,000 cotton-top tamarin monkeys roaming the wild and a large portion of them are in Jaibazul. We have a long-term plan to showcase the people around the globe who are individually making a change as ecological conservationists in order to inspire and activate a whole generation to use their power of one in unison to preserve the ecological beauty of this planet.

What Can We Achieve?

This film is meant to highlight what Jorge has done as well as bring awareness and support to Jaibazul in order to keep it alive. It also is meant to show the power of what an individual can achieve from nothing (a field). With the success of this documentary we can scale into a series, where Alex travels the world alongside his young film crew and showcases the hundreds of other inspiring independent conservationists around the globe.

With the release of this documentary we can also kickstart several campaigns, supporting not only Jorge but other independent conservationists around the globe, as well as inspire a whole generation to believe in the power of one and take action on the causes they believe in.

Funding

In order make this feature film and tell this story in the most stunning way possible we have budgeted $55k for the shooting of this project. This budget will allow us to work with a professional crew and high-quality cinema equipment with which we will capture the beauty of Jaibazul and its animals, as well as cover all the travel, transportation and supplies necessary for our trip to the sanctuary.

We acknowledge that this number is a lot to ask for, which is why we are setting a minimum goal of $12,000, a main goal of $45,000 and a stretch goal of $55,000.

If with your help we are able to reach $55k, we will be shooting a beautiful film that will have the production quality to be distributed with much more ease through festivals, as well as have the potential to be scaled into a series. This means that millions of people will see and be impacted by not only Jorge's story, but that of the hundreds of people on earth with a similar mission. 

About Jorge, Our Protagonist

Starting with a large deforested piece of land, Jorge has created an entire ecosystem and brought back Colombia’s critically endangered cotton-top tamarin monkey. Jorge began his mission after he inherited a large piece of barren land on the northern tip of Colombia. The land used to be covered in dense tropical jungle but was deforested for livestock. Jorge keeps his real name and face anonymous so no one will poach the new homes he continues to create for multiple endangered species of flora and fauna. Jorge is a modern-day version of the American legend Johnny Appleseed, as he has to date planted 10,000 trees despite the adversities surrounding the land, such as harsh weather and organized crime. Even though Jorge could retire with the money that comes from his project, he chooses to instead invest it in saving the forest and the wildlife as this has been his goal since he was a small boy. Ironically, Alex Valdez, the independent anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, has always had the same dream as Jorge. They are two peas in a pod.

The Journey to Jaibazul

To get to the remote area which Jorge has named Jaibazul, one must fly into Medellín, Colombia, then travel by car for several hours to a remote town called Necoclí. From Necoclí it is another 35 kilometers through dense jungle, and across mudslides and rivers on an ATV. During the rainy season the road to Jaibazul is unpassable. The filmmakers and their crew are prepared to embark on this unique adventures that will certainly be a story to remember.

Risks of the Project

We will need to be extremely careful in not giving out the exact location of the sanctuary or revealing Jorge’s identity. If word would get out of the location of Jaibazul, poachers would seek to steal the endangered monkeys that now inhabit this area. We plan on mitigating this risk by never revealing the exact location of Jaibazul, and not showing Jorge’s face during interviews or b-roll. Revealing the location of Jaibazul would also affect the people living in the town near the sanctuary, who live in marginalized economic conditions, as the poaching of the endangered monkeys would set back their work by several years and prevent them from continuing to grow Jaibazul as an ecological safe zone. 

Thank you

We cannot wait to embark on this adventure with you and this documentary is only the beginning of a movement in which we all can partake to shine a light to all the people in the world taking ecological and humanitarian initiatives to change it for the better.