Applause for alumna filmmaker

Oriana Camara ’20, who double majored in film and new media studies and Hispanic studies at Wheaton, was celebrated on Sept. 18, 2022, at the “10 Best of the Best” event honoring talented filmmakers.

Camara was selected by a jury as one of the 10 best of the past 10 years from the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest. In 2020, she won a top prize in the contest for the short documentary “Yasuni National Park: The Real Power Belongs to the People.” She shot the film during a faculty-led course in Ecuador.

The documentary was featured along with nine other short contest films from across the country and around the world. The event took place at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

“Yasuni National Park: The Real Power Belongs to the People” focuses on the impact of oil drilling in the area that is home to thousands of species of plants and animals as well as Indigenous people. The documentary was shot in the summer of 2019 while Camara was enrolled in “From the Andes to the Amazon: Intersections of Culture, Food Systems and Biological Diversity,” which was taught by Assistant Professor of Biology Jessie Knowlton and Associate Professor of Sociology Justin Schupp, as well as Melissa Mark from Northern Arizona University.

“Oriana is extremely talented. Her film tells the story of an environmental conflict, but with tremendous tenderness, almost in a whisper. Paradoxically, the film has an enormous emotional impact,” said Lisa Files, Young Filmmakers Contest program director and digital media associate. “We’ve had almost 1,000 submissions to the contest over the past 10 years, so being selected as one of the 10 best films is quite an honor.”

Camara said she, indeed, feels incredibly honored to be one of 10 creators invited to participate in the event. “Since I first met the team at One Earth, I’ve been struck by their kindness and dedication to helping youth share their voices. This new honor is meaningful to me because it feels like a win for Ecuador’s land, too.”