Who is Kapax?

In South America, Kapax is the legendary hero of the Amazonian rivers and jungles,though he thinks of himself as an ordinary, concerned Colombian who is working to change the sad reality of the Amazon region.

Kapax is both a cultural icon and a folk hero, who has a touch of the prophet about him. Kapax has dedicated his life to protecting the Amazon’s environment and giving the region a recognizable identity. Kapax still keeps the shorts, the knife and wire necklace that he wore three decades ago, while swimming the Magdelena, to call attention to the ecological and social plight of this great river. Today, this deep-voiced grandfather would like to return to the Amazon’s waters and swim them, end to end, to impress into the minds of people everywhere this definitive statement - “Whoever loves the river, must protect it.”

This picture of an imperiled Amazon is just a piece of a troubling puzzle, composed of seven million green square kilometers of lush flora and fauna that are irrigated throughout eight countries in South America. Rapid deforestation in the last decade has drastically altered this delicate ecological balance in the Amazon, adding more fuel to the global warming crisis. Experts believe that by 2050, forty percent of the Amazon forests of South America will cease to exist, and increase the temperature of the planet by twelve degrees.

Kapax views the situation to be borderline desperate and his eyes cloud over painfully when he considers the far-reaching implications. “The Amazon is becoming sick, very sick and we are under assault by outside forces that either don’t understand the terrible damage they are doing or just don’t care. The situation is comparable to that of an otherwise healthy patient, who suffers from chronic attacks of acute poisoning and lapsing into states of shock. But there is still time to stop the irresponsible behavior of men, the logging, the burning of forests, the theft of land and water, ” said Kapax.

But time here is precious for the Colombian Tarzan, as he races to prevent the biggest corporate acquisition the world has ever seen - the Guarani Aquifer itself! Literally the third largest body of pure drinking water on the planet, the Guarani Aquifer is a tantalizing prize for water companies and ultra-rich families bent on grabbing “their share” of the next great resource of this planet. Once an actor in his youth, Kapax must now step behind the camera and direct his lens at this staggering threat. For if the Guarani Aquifer is privatized, than all the remaining bodies of drinkable water will soon fall prey in a domino like chain reaction of corporate acquisition. What will the world be like without free water? At this, Kapax turns away and grimaces, “You don’t want to know.”    
More about the film…. http://www.kapaxthemovie.com

Kapax: Heart of water is a documentary about the colombian Tarzan, engaging in a life-and-death struggle with big corporations out to steal the Amazon’s water.
http://kapaxthemovie.com/

Please join us. Jan L. Mc Alpine, Director of United Nations Forum on the Forest, National Geographic Photgrapher  Attila Lorant and Curators Alessandra Mattanza, Ana Santos and Augusto Ferreti to the exhibition and Cocktail reception “Save the Forest, Save the Culture” and the presentation of the United Nations Forum of the Forest 2011. On Tuesday January 18, 2011 from 6-8pm.
More here: http://www.gabarronfoundation.org/Default.aspx?tabid=2270