Bridge Initiative is a nonprofit that connects artists and scientists to create public work about the environment. Echoes of the Amazon is our next documentary — an exploration of Indigenous sovereignty, ecological knowledge, and the forces reshaping our world.

Founder and director Kate Fleming recently traveled deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon alongside producer and activist Zoë Tryon, director and National Geographic explorer Darian Woehr, and cinematographer Fraser Mortan. Together they journeyed to a remote Achuar community — reachable only by charter flight — to begin the listening and relationship-building that will form the foundation of this film.

What they encountered expanded the scope of everything they set out to do.

The Achuar are among the most carefully self-determined Indigenous nations in the Amazon. Their territory remains largely intact — not by accident, but through decades of organized resistance to oil extraction, land seizure, and cultural erasure. At the center of that resistance is language. The Achuar language, like so many Indigenous languages globally, faces the very real pressure of disappearing within a generation. With it goes not just words, but a complete and living philosophy — a way of understanding the relationship between people, land, and the natural world that the rest of us need access to.

Echoes of the Amazon exists to create a bridge. The documentary will bring together the Achuar community, artists from the Indigenous diaspora, and storytellers across the Americas in a conversation told on their terms — about land, sovereignty, and what we still have the chance to protect.

This is a multi-stage project. The first expedition established the relationships and creative direction. The next phase — already in planning — returns the full team to continue filming with a deeper production scope. The story has only grown since they arrived.

None of this happens without support. Funds raised go directly toward production costs: travel, equipment, accommodation, and the sustained time in community that this kind of filmmaking demands. Every contribution at every level makes the next chapter possible.

Donors at every level will receive dispatches from the field — a direct window into the expedition, the community, and the story as it unfolds.

See Hello Whale trailer here — our current documentary, now making its way through film festivals.

Follow our journey on Instagram @bridgeinitiativeorg and learn more about our work at bridgeinitiativeorg.com. 

Thank you for being part of this work. Stories like this one matter — and so does your support in making them possible.

Bridge Initiative Team


Bridge Initiative is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas. All donations are tax-deductible.