Bonito CineSur environmental film festival

The fourth edition of the Bonito CineSur festival opened in late July 2026 in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, coinciding with World Conservation Day. Twelve documentaries from seven South American countries were screened in competitive long‑ and short‑form categories, with free public admission. The programme highlighted environmental conflicts such as illegal fishing in Uruguay, women’s resistance to a Peruvian mining project, Patagonian land‑rights struggles in Argentina, and Indigenous perspectives on Amazon deforestation in Brazil. A jury was set to announce winners on 1 August, presenting the Troféu Pantanal.

On 31 July the Colombian documentary “Páramos II El Origen” by Alejandro Calderón was shown. The film explained that high‑altitude páramo ecosystems across the tropical Andes act as natural water sponges, storing water in glacial‑volcanic soils and feeding rivers that flow to the Amazon, Orinoco and the Atlantic. Calderón warned that mining, monoculture agriculture and intensive cattle grazing threaten these habitats and called for a global discussion on land‑use policies, urging dialogue among local communities, Indigenous peoples, ranchers and landowners.

Media coverage on 2 August reiterated the documentary’s emphasis on páramos as vital water towers and linked their protection to broader Amazonian conservation, reinforcing the festival’s focus on trans‑regional environmental challenges.