En cada Hoja del Bosque
(In Every Leaf of the Forest)
Gustavo Valdivia & Iván D’onadío
Official Selection
𖤘 Short: Documentary, Ethnographic, Research
“Here, nature leads and inhabitants take their place as humbled, awe-struck caretakers. Through the voices of farmers and rangers, and the layered soundscape of birds and trees, the film quietly insists that futures depend on living in harmony with the Earth.”
In Every Leaf of the Forest by Gustavo Valdivia and Iván D’onadío is a touching, immersive documentary shaped by ethnographic research in the Andean forests of Peru and Ecuador. Guided by Constantino Rivas, a farmer and park ranger from the Ampay National Sanctuary in Peru’s Apurimac region – who played a key role in conserving intimpa, an endemic Andean tree species – and by Ángel Paz, a farmer and birdwatcher in Ecuador’s Pichincha region who has developed a technique to attract rare and elusive birds to his farm, the film ventures deep into these forests to reveal how their ecological processes are intricately bound to recent political history. As the journey unfolds, the voices of the protagonists intertwine with the layered soundscape of the forest, exposing the camera’s limits in capturing the full richness of trees, plants, and other life that inhabit these mountainous lands.
Valdivia is an anthropologist, sound artist, and filmmaker. He has carried out fieldwork in the Andes, collaborated in scientific expeditions to obtain ice cores from mountain glaciers, worked as a field producer for BBC’s Frozen Planet II, and participated as a chapter scientist in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.
D’onadío is a Peruvian filmmaker and audiovisual communicator who studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He is a founding member of Invisible Producciones, a collective dedicated to experimental and socially engaged cinema.
Directors: Gustavo Valdivia & Iván D'onadío
Producer & writer: Gustavo Valdivia
Key cast: Constantino Rivas
key cast: Ángel Paz
Courtesy of the artists