This brilliant documentary series, produced by Adrian Cowell, and broadcast on PBS' "Frontline," chronicles the destruction of the Amazon rainforest - perhaps the 20th century's worst environmental disaster.
Imagine, if you will, that one of the world's great filmmakers was there to document the opening up of the American West in its most critical decade, and you will have some idea of the epic scale of this remarkable series.
Amazonia is the last great frontier. Cowell began filming in 1980 when it was first opened up to settlers and developers. He has documented the systematic destruction of the rainforest there into late 1990 when for the first time there was an indication that the fires were being brought under control.
Each episode follows the real life stories of people caught up in the frontier's web of need and greed, stories of personal tragedy and great courage. The programs relate the individual's struggle to the wider developments going on around them. Together they illustrate the principal issues of Amazonia during the 1980s - its decade of greatest destruction.
The titles in the series are:
In the Ashes of the Forest - Part 1 - Saga of two colonists in the Amazon rainforest.
In the Ashes of the Forest - Part 2 - Concludes the Amazon colonists' saga.
Killing for Land - Squatters face off against gunmen hired by absentee landlords in the Amazon.
Mountains of Gold - Gold mining in the Amazon is a dangerous and dirty business.
The Killing of Chico Mendes - The story of rainforest defender, Chico Mendes, that ended with his 1988 assassination.
(Cowell's Banking on Disaster is a distillation of some of the material in this series.)
Other films produced by Adrian Cowell are The Last of the Hiding Tribes series and The Heroin Wars series.
