Maria e Zé Claudio

Overview

Documentary about the life story, struggle, and legacy of environmentalists Maria do Espírito Santo Silva and José Claudio Ribeiro, who were killed by gunmen on the orders of landowners in May 2011 due to their denunciations of deforestation and illegal logging in the Praialta-Piranheira Agroextractivist Settlement where they lived, in the municipality of Nova Ipixuna, in the southeast of Pará, Amazon. Ten years after the murder, relatives of Maria and Zé Claudio and witnesses to the case continued to suffer threats to their lives and intimidation to leave the settlement where they live. Nonetheless, the relatives of Maria and Zé Claudio remained on the land, turning the couple's residence into a kind of museum-foundation bearing their names, and continued to mobilize the fight for justice, against violence in the countryside, and in defense of the living forest, where the gigantic Brazil nut tree named Majesty, a symbol of the living presence of Maria and Zé Claudio, resides.