We are very excited to welcome Hayley Stuart to Rivers For Change! Hayley is a whitewater kayaker, filmmaker and environmentalist and joins our Ambassador Team while working on her newest project called ‘Still River, Silent Jungle‘.
While studying abroad in Bolivia and Chile, Hayley dove into environmental filmmaking with two short documentaries about the impacts of hydro development. In 2017 she spoke about the impacts of mega hydro at the Sun Valley TEDx conference and her documentary ‘Hunger For Tomorrow‘ is used in University Hydrology curriculum. She’s worked with indigenous communities around Latin America on the topic of hydroelectric development and travels back to Bolivia next month to continue work on her current film.
‘Still River, Silent Jungle‘ (madidifilm.com) is a documentary showcasing the local passion to protect the most bio-diverse national park in the world, Madidi National Park, located in the Bolivian Amazon. In June, Hayley and her team of international whitewater kayakers, National Park Guards, indigenous leaders and environmental activists descended the remote Tuichi River together, sharing their stories and reasons for protecting the river. Their film will mark the beginning of the movement to the protect the region and headwaters of the Amazon River from the Chepete-Bala mega dam proposals that threaten to flood almost 1,000 square kilometers of Amazon Rainforest.
To read more about the Chepete & Bala dams, here’s an article from the Ecologist.
Look for ‘Still River, Silent Jungle‘ film festivals in 2019.
When Hayley isn’t filming she teaches Spanish and whitewater kayaking at World Class Academy, a traveling boarding high school for young adventurers.
Welcome Hayley!
