THE JUNGLE JOURNAL IS A CLIMATE STORYTELLING PLATFORM DEDICATED TO DOCUMENTING BIOCULTURAL CORRIDORS, INDIGENOUS STEWARDS, AND THE LIVING MEMORY OF LAND ACROSS THE AMERICAS & BEYOND.
OUR LAND, OUR FUTURE
A cinematic documentary series exploring land, memory, and climate.
A feature-length documentary and the first chapter of a larger series exploring Indigenous-led conservation and biocultural corridors across the Americas.
Currently in production, the series continues to be filmed across multiple regions between North and South America, weaving together cultural memory, ecological urgency, and lived experience into an evolving narrative of resistance and renewal.
The Vision for the Series
Our Land, Our Future is envisioned as a long-term documentary series tracing biocultural corridors and Indigenous-led conservation efforts across the Americas — from the rainforests of southern Mexico to the Atlantic Forest of the Krenak in Brazil, the Apache Nation in the United States, and beyond.
Each chapter follows a different community and ecosystem, weaving local stories of land, memory, history, and survival into a broader, interconnected narrative about the future of our planet.
Together, these chapters form a living archive of resistance, stewardship, and renewal — documenting not only what is being lost, but what is being protected, remembered, and re-imagined.
Our Land, Our Future reframes conservation not as a scientific abstraction, but as a lived relationship between people and place — offering a new narrative framework for understanding climate, culture, and survival in the 21st century.
Access & Trust
This series is rooted in long-term, relationship-based access. For over seven years, filmmaker Sara Lopez has worked closely with Indigenous families and conservation leaders from all over Latin America, namely in the Lacandona Jungle, building trust across generations and documenting daily life, rituals, and ecological change from within the community.
These relationships — grounded in consent, collaboration, and shared authorship — allow the series to move beyond extractive storytelling toward a model of filmmaking that centers Indigenous voices, sovereignty, and lived experience.
This access forms the ethical and narrative foundation of Our Land, Our Future, and shapes how each future chapter of the series will be developed.
Founder & Filmmaker: Sara Lopez
Sara Lopez is a filmmaker, climate educator, and founder of The Jungle Journal, a documentary storytelling platform exploring land, memory, and Indigenous-led conservation across the Americas. Her work centers on long-term, relationship-based filmmaking that foregrounds Indigenous voices, cultural memory, and lived relationships to land.
For over seven years, Sara has worked closely with Indigenous families and conservation leaders throughout Latin America. These relationships — formed long before a camera was introduced — now form the ethical and narrative foundation of Our Land, Our Future, her flagship documentary series. Beginning with the Lacandona Jungle of Southern Mexico, she has spent years building trust with the community across generations.
Sara’s approach to filmmaking is grounded in consent, collaboration, and shared authorship. Rather than extract stories, her work is guided by a commitment to co-creation, cultural sovereignty, and long-term accountability to the communities she documents.
Through The Jungle Journal, she is building a living body of work tracing biocultural corridors and Indigenous stewardship across the Americas — from rainforests and river basins to desert landscapes and ancestral territories — with the aim of creating a long-term documentary archive of resistance, stewardship, and renewal.
Sara is currently in production on Our Land, Our Future, a feature-length documentary and pilot for a larger series. She envisions her work as part of a lifelong practice of storytelling at the intersection of climate, culture, and memory.
Conservation EducatorIn parallel with her storytelling, Sara has spent years working in conservation education and community-based environmental storytelling, bringing issues of biodiversity, migration, and Indigenous rights into classrooms and public forums across the United States and Latin America.
Contacts & Partnerships
The Jungle Journal welcomes thoughtful conversations with production companies, broadcasters, funders, and cultural partners interested in collaborating on Our Land, Our Future and future documentary projects.
For partnership inquiries, development conversations, or festival and distribution interest, please use the form below or contact:
