A river has a voice. As the body of water, we call “river” moves through the landscape, it produces all kinds of sounds. As tiny droplets of moisture or rainwater in the rainforest merge to become a stream, the voice of the river is heard in the forest and talks to other lifeforms. Depending on the landscape the voice changes from crisp gentle rivulets into fast-moving nervous steams, or the violent and loud eruptions of waterfalls and the slow- moving fast waterbodies of the river delta. If we follow the water from the moment it spawns into existence born from etheric nebulas in the mountains through the narrow cracks of rock and underground river sections, its journey through the rainforest passing human settlements and industries till it ends up into the sea, we can feel and understand the river as a complex entity with its own voice, personality, relationships and memories.

Not only does the body of water have a voice but also all the lifeforms that use the river as their habitat produce sounds and sing songs to communicate. The fish, river crabs, water plants and even bacteria produce sounds in resonance with each other and with the sounds of human activity connected to the river. All together they produce an unheard symphony of the interwoven relationships they have with each other. A poetic datafication of interdependencies and interrelationships echoing how the river as a living entity is an agent in the lives and deaths of all connected to the river.

The river tells interconnected tales. Its sound reflects the multiple perspectives of various lifeforms living and dying with the river, the political dimensions of capitalistic exploitation of the water, the cultural tales of ancestors, indigenous tribes or riverside communities dependent on the river, as well as their political fights for access to and survival of the river. The iconic Amazon River is the largest river on our planet, and it faces transcontinental challenges such as droughts, oil extraction, infrastructure projects, and contamination. These challenges not only resonate the larger challenges of the Amazon as an ecosystem but also embody the larger challenges any river faces in this time of climate change, ecological crisis, exploitation and postcolonial thinking. It’s an iconic metaphor for our current state of living and thinking.

In 2017, the Whanganui River in New Zealand was granted legal personhood, thereby affording it both political and legal representation. The act fundamentally changed the perception of the body of water, acknowledging it has rights and responsibilities. It shifted the relationship of humans with the river from an exploitable recourse into an equal entity that has its own will. There is hope for change, if we listen to the river in different ways.

With Amasonic we want to invent new sensorial modes for understanding the life, transformations and dramatic tales surrounding the river. The river produces and reverberates many sounds of human, non-human and mythical entities and with Amasonic we want to echo its reality and many tales. The axis is to converge and create communal knowledge, a new form of inventing and settling scientific research in an aesthetic that can reinforce the life of many, mirroring the life of the river itself. With Amasonic we want to create river songs, making tangible that all life is interdepended to the river and to nature in general, and want to celebrate the interconnective web of relationship we have with each other and the nonhumans around us.

Production details:
A Studio Biarritz and Polymorf production
Created by Maria Cecilia Oliveira & Marcel van Brakel
Country: The Netherlands, Germany and Brazil
Running time: 15-30 mins
Status: in development, expected release in 2026/2027

In scientific collaboration with RIFS: Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ with Cecilia Oliveira, Head of the Tran- disciplinary Research Group: “Ecopolitics and Just Transformations”. And researchers from Mamiraua Institute for sustainable development, focussing on ecosystem conversation through the involvement of local communities, with bio-acoustic specialist Jorge Menezes and anthropologist Patricia Carvalho Rosa.

Supported by Netherlands Film Fund and Creative Industries Fund NL.

Amasonic was presented at IDFA Forum 2025 and MABE (Museu de Arte de Belém) as part of their VAZIOsobre Terra exhibition in November 2025.