5 minute read
An Eco-Warrior Like No Other
Jose Zelada and Richard Claus offer a sneak peek of Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon, their exciting and ecologically minded flm set in the Amazon.
José Zelada, the Peruvian writer, producer and co-director of the upcoming animated feature Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon grew up in the Amazonian region. He always wanted to make a flm that refected the stories his mother had told him when he was a boy, as well as the current reality of the region’s endangered rainforest. “Ainbo has an important connection to the Amazon through our roots,” says the Peruvian flmmaker “The beliefs, the way of seeing life, the point of view of people who live in the Amazon are so unique and different. Our universe is created through the coexistence with nature. The talking animals, magical landscapes are from stories told in the Amazon over thousands of years. All these elements help set this flm apart from other animated features.” The movie, which will be presented at this month’s virtual American Film Market, follows the adventures of the titular young girl, who must battle a spirit that embodies the evil of ‘Ainbo gives us the opportunity to show the Amazon in a more honest, authentic and faithful way — from an indigenous viewpoint. I think that being imagined and designed by the ‘sons of the Amazon,’ it has that unique touch that will make an impact on audiences.’
— Writer, producer and co-director José Zelada
man and threatens her Amazon paradise. Zelada and his co-director Richard Claus decided to make Ainbo an animated feature because they wanted not only to tell a great cinematic story but also send a message about the environment to future generations. The project was a multi-continental collaboration. Zelada led a team of Peruvian artists to develop the visuals of the flm, including characters, landscapes and the look and feel of this special world. Later on, the flm was animated in the Netherlands, led by Claus, whose credits include The Little Vampire 2D (2017) and An American Werewolf in Paris (1997). “I heard about the project from the flm’s
Amazon Delivery: Director Jose Zelada (left) and production designer Pierre Salazar await the coming release of their movie.
Savior of the Forest:
Ainbo tells the powerful story of a young girl who was born in the village of Candamo, in the deepest jungle of the Amazon, and has to fight to protect her world from loggers and miners.
executive producer, Cinema Management Group’s Edward Noeltner, during a meeting in Paris in 2018,” recalls Claus. “He had seen a presentation of the flm at the Ventana Sur market and was so impressed that he agreed to distribute the flm internationally and to co-fnance it. On the way back from Paris I thought that this would be a flm I would also like to be involved with. I asked Edward if I could read the script, he sent it to me, and this is how it all started.” Claus says he was struck by the project’s important ecological message. “The Amazon is threatened not only by illegal mining but also by ‘legal’ deforestation,” he says. “Together with rising levels of pollution around the world, mainly caused by the wealthiest 10%, it all contributes to climate change and its dangerous effects. Another aspect is the life of the indigenous people in the Amazon, who are fghting against the devastation of their culture and the environment driven by economic interests.”
Tales of the Ancestors Zelada says his mother was one of the main sources of inspiration for the flm’s main character. “The characters that surround Ainbo are based in Amazonian mythology,” he explains. “They are spirit guides. Motelo Mama, for example, is an ancient spirit based on a classic legend of the giant mother turtle that carries a big part of the jungle on her shell to hide it from its predators. The Yacuruna is a demon that controls the minds of the natives to take advantage of them and steal the gold. Vaca and Dillo are a tapir and an armadillo that bring comic relief to the flm and are also Ainbo’s spirit guides who help her along her journey. They all have an important role in Amazonian mythology. All of these characters, as well as the Amazonian forest, help us create the visual world in the flm.” The flm’s animation is being produced at Amsterdam’s Katuni studio, using Autodesk Maya. “Our pipeline technical director Bram Vermaas wrote the software to import all the assets an animator needed for a specifc shot, and with another tool the animation was exported to Shotgun, so that the supervisor and director could review the animation,” explains Claus. “In Maya, the animators worked with tools like animBot and the whisKEY animator toolkit. These additional tools helped to speed up the process a lot — for example, it made it easier to pose the characters and to prevent intersections.” Claus says the flm was quite an ambitious project as the visuals, including characters, creatures and backgrounds, were meticulously developed by his Peruvian co-producers. “The storyboard with thousands of panels demonstrated the detailed attention which was given to every single scene by our Peruvian colleagues,” he says. “It was challenging to fnd a way to stay true to the ambitious intentions given our fnancial resources and the production constraints. This was a permanent struggle, but the result, the fnal flm, shows that we succeeded.” The flm also proved to be quite an interesting challenge for frst-time director Zelada. “It was such a challenge at the beginning because of the different cultures and languages … but as time went by, we started to fow and connect in one main narration,” he notes. “Richard had experience in other flms and brought relevant input that accommodated Ainbo well for the main story. Working with him ended up being a great experience.” As they put the fnishing touches on the $10 million-budgeted movie, the directors have high hopes for their labor of love. Says Claus, “With a strong-willed girl from the Amazon as the lead character, its environmental message and its setting in the Amazon, the flm stands out from most of the other family entertainment movies. I hope the audiences will be entertained by this very special story.” Zelada chimes in, “Ainbo gives us the opportunity to show the Amazon in a more honest, authentic and faithful way— from an indigenous viewpoint. I think that because it’s imagined and designed by the ‘sons of the Amazon,’ Ainbo has that unique touch that will make an impact on audiences. Hopefully, it will open a window for the world to see the Amazon in new ways.” ◆
