A DOCUMENTARY FILM

DIAMOND RIVERS REBORN

PEOPLE • PLACES • A BRIGHTER TOMORROW

Watch The Trailer

ABOUT THE FILM

A Story Of Transformation

Diamond Rivers Reborn returns to Brazil’s Chapada Diamantina, once a thriving diamond-mining region whose economy collapsed as the industry declined. The new documentary traces the region’s transformation from extraction toward preservation and the creation of Chapada Diamantina National Park in 1985.

At the center of the film is Benenson’s return to Bahia and his reunion with another Peace Corps volunteer, botanist and park founder Roy Funch, who spent six years campaigning for the region’s protection.

The film brings their stories together with those of descendants of mining communities, former prospectors, tour guides, volunteer firefighters, scholars, geologists, lodge owners, and Quilombo leaders.

The result is both a return and a reckoning. A landscape once defined by diamond-mining now faces new questions about conservation, tourism, agriculture, fire, water, and cultural memory.

The film asks how a community shaped by extraction can become a steward of the same land. And also what one generation owes the next.

The Filmmakers

Bill Benenson

Bill Benenson is a filmmaker, producer, environmentalist, philanthropist, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer whose filmmaking career spans more than five decades.

His early work includes Diamond Rivers, and his subsequent credits include Dirt! The Movie, The Hadza: Last of the First, and The Lost City of the Monkey God.

laurie Benenson

Laurie Benenson is a writer, editor, filmmaker, and philanthropist who founded and served as editor-in-chief of Movieline Magazine and was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times.

Her producing and executive-producing work includes Dirt! The Movie, The Lost City of the Monkey God, Fantastic Fungi, Kiss the Ground, Common Ground, Ground Swell and Diamond Rivers Reborn.

She is chairman of the board of the Amazon Conservation Team, which works to preserve the territories and traditional cultures of the Amazonian Region.

FLIMMAKING & PHILANTHROPY

For nearly three decades, Bill and Laurie have served as managing directors of the Francis & Benjamin Benenson Foundation, supporting causes including the arts, environmental conservation, Indigenous rights, and other social issues.

PREVIOUS & RELATED WORK

A BODY OF WORK

The documentary continues a body of work Bill and Laurie Benenson have built around environmental, cultural, and social storytelling.

Bill’s credits include:

| Dirt! The Movie

| The Hadza: Last of the First

| The Lost City of the Monkey God

Together, Bill and Laurie have produced or supported films including:

| Kiss the Ground

| Common Ground

| Ground Swell

| Fantastic Fungi

| Diamond Rivers Reborn

They have described the intersection of filmmaking and their  philanthropy as “filmanthropy” — making and supporting films that  concern issues they care about.