Christopher Clark he is – or rather was – a preeminent environmentalist, an unconventional Scottish eco-warrior. In the heart of the impenetrable Amazon rainforest, he built his own progress pointcreating a model of a utopian society, like Harrison Ford in mosquito coast or Viggo Mortensen in Captain Fantastic.
This model is based on a harmonious balance between the forces of nature and technological ingenuity, which is managed and protected by the indigenous peoples of the jungle itself. However, the situation worsens every year, and a new massive fire threatens to destroy the entire Outpost. In response, Chris makes a bold bet. To cope with the extreme devastation that the forest is suffering from, he conceived an equally impressive plan: to organize a concert Pink Floyd in the middle of this lush yet hellish jungle. The goal is to convince the Brazilian government to create a natural reserve in the region.
It says Outpost Edoardo Morabito Italian-Brazilian co-production Dugong Movies With Paradise Cinema in association with Intramovies, O2 pos producoes and Bidou Pictures, distributed by Cinecitta light.
The film switches to Authors days.
Why, one wonders, Pink Floyd, and not some current band or some pop star who could bring even more attention to this issue?
“A dream is a dream,” Morabito replies, “Chris was madly in love with the band, and yet they are a group of“ impossible concerts ”, remember the concert in Venice. And I understand that this is a paradox, because a Pink Floyd concert in the heart of the Amazon would have a devastating effect on the environment, but it was also a generational issue, a psychedelic issue, an open universe. The fact that they weren’t in business was secondary, they would never have come and Chris knew that.”
The film was born almost by accident: “I won the Turin Film Festival,” Morabito continues, “and I was looking for a plot, maybe it’s not very poetic, but there was a tender in the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, and I started from there. Chris was suggested to me by my producer and I was blown away when I read two newspaper articles. I wrote to him, met with him and we talked about our rock and roll lifestyle. Our poetic requests coincided, friendship was born.
The Amazon forest is mesmerizing, and the film does justice to it, but at the same time so frightening that it is called a “green hell”, as in Eli Roth’s cannibalistic horror. green hell: “If you are aware of your measure in comparison with it,” says Morabito, “nature can only be frightening, this is a primeval place, it existed before Adam and Eve and this is truly a virgin forest. For me, who traveled a bit outside of Europe, this was part of the adventure and charm of this project. To move, I put myself in the hands of Chris, we drove for hours along the river, I really felt like a mote.
Chris, according to the documentary, dies prematurely, but at least he sees his dream come true: “It hurt,” the director explains again, “he left while I was trying to productively direct the film, and this blocked the project for a while. time”. for a long time. But the thought of him continued to accompany me. As if he was still here and waiting for me on the other side of the world. One night I reopened the hard drive and, after reviewing the material, I realized that the film could be rewritten, even if it was different from how we intended it. It became a classic trip in three acts, the ending of which was bitter, but Chris still prevailed, because the reserve was finally created, even without the participation of Pink Floyd.
While Clark may seem like a controversial character, according to Morabito, he is a “hero”. more than life. He lived for dreams and ideals and brought them to life with a very human dynamic, I felt a kinship in everything, his madness, however illusory, was sincere and positive. He was a great intellectual, a man of culture, a translator of encyclopedias, a graphomaniac, a great reader. All accusations made against him of bioterrorism were false as he was a gringo in the forest. For him, keeping the same mattered, and he managed to realize a sustainable project with the cooperation of the entire population along the river, and not just the mestizos – who occupy an ambiguous place, they were often used to carry out massacres when one wanted to arrange a highway passing through reserve, but also the indigenous people who are the real owners and keepers of this place. Obviously, this was contrary to the goals of various governments whose interests were economic: mining, pastures for which the Amazon land is unsuitable, growing soybeans, industry. Fortunately, Lula is now moving in a different direction.”