February 2006 Update

The CD is now available directly from Santa Lucia at info@santaluciaecuador.com.

July 2005 Update.

Trailer now online! Click here to see trailer.

June 2005 Update.

We are now almost at the end of all our editing, and have finished a version of our film which has been sold to TV Choice, to be distributed as an educational film to schools and other institutions. The film is called "The Struggle for Sustainable Tourism: An Ecuadorian Case Study".
Contact TV Choice on tvchoiceuk@aol.com, for more details or see their website, www.tvchoice.uk.com.

We also received a grant from Screen South towards post production on our independent film, which is also nearing completion, more news on this when we do finish it.

January 2005 Update.

After three months in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, we arrived back in England with many hours of good footage and stories, which we are now in the process of editing together. Whilst there, the intriguing history of the changing fortunes and directions of Santa Lucía became clear and we were lucky to find such helpful and interesting people to tell it.

Francisco Molina, president of the co-operative and administrator of Santa Lucia , explained how much has changed for this small region of Ecuador over the last thirty years. Once hunters and farmers who survived off the land in a way which slowly destroyed the region's natural resources, its trees, plants, wildlife and soil, the group now works together to conserve and even replenish what is now by law a "bosque protector" ( protected forest ) through their 5 year old ecotourism project. Clearly, a fascinating and profound change in mentality has taken place at Santa Lucia, which stands as an example to other places and groups of people in similar positions.

Whilst we had originally intended to tell the story of the children of the community, this story of the older group members, their history and the future that they were working towards became the more compelling.