Missing Rio Doce

In 2015, Brazil was struck by the biggest environmental disaster in its history, when the dam for a mine reservoir collapsed and 40 million cubic meters of toxic sludge flooded into the Rio Doce. The pollution then spread out for hundreds of kilometers—all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Filmmaker Claudia Neubern wanted to see for herself how it affected the residents and traveled to the area. She talks to fishers who have been confronted with a dead river and farmers whose land has become unusable.

Neubern mainly focuses on Joelma, a farmer who demands compensation in order to repair the damage that was caused to her fields and orchards. She won’t accept that the mining company tries to slip her—and many others like her—a few wooden nickels. On a journey down the Rio Doce, Neubern speaks with Joelma, her daughters and other resilient women. They observe how greed has destroyed a once-prosperous community. Meanwhile, the trains carrying iron ore, symbols of an almighty mining industry, keep traveling through the valley.