Film

DugOut

A journey through the Amazon in a self made Dugout canoe.
 
Alone in the Amazon

About

Director

Benjamin Sadd

Sponsor

Gransfors Bruk, Hans Karlsson, Tropic Eco, Craghoppers, Aquapac, McMurdo Group, Voltaic Systems

Running time

53 minutes

Country / Nationality

UK

Our Judges say:

Undoubtedly one of the best films from the festival a fantastic adventure into the Amazon rainforest but what will thay learn?

Ed Birch Director of Salt-Street productions

Ever go on adventures with your mates? These two went to the jungle and made a boat from a tree they chopped down, with the plan to sail in it down a mysterious river. A great story of adventure, travel, and friendship.

Anna Paxton

Two guys go to the Amazon and learn how to make dug out canoes. Proper adventure, really fun, deeply interesting.

Paul Hodgson Music Judge

Ben and James have been on several 'adventures' together, from pulling a sofa across southern England to swimming the length of a knee deep river in Dorset. Making films about their trips has become a part of the journey. 

They wanted to build on these journeys in their latest project but also make something about more than themselves - to capture the beauty of the landscape, the people and the wildlife they encountered would have to be more important than any distance or number of miles they could travel. 

 It was with this in mind that they came up with the idea of DugOut, an idea as simple as the name suggests: they would travel to the Ecuadorian Amazon, live with an indigenous community, learn from them how to build a canoe, then take that canoe on a journey… 

 The film covers the two month trip, documenting their time in the Huaorani community as they built a dugout canoe, then the journey downstream through Ecuador's Yasuni region - one of the most biodiverse areas of the world.