Film Screening: BEYOND FORDLÂNDIA
An Environmental Account of Henry Ford's Adventures in the Amazon  
 

Marcos Colón, Director/Producer
 
Marcos Colón is a dissertator in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a Graduate Student Associate of the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) of UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His research focuses on the representation of the Amazon in 20th-Century Brazilian literature from an environmental studies perspective. In particular, he is examining a variety of viewpoints from the post-rubber era Amazon through written texts, oral reports, and films; observing changes in the region, its nature and its people. In 2016, he visited the Amazon forest in Peru and Brazil, with support from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the Center for Culture, History and Environment (CHE) and the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS).

Beyond Fordlândia (2017) presents an environmental account of Henry Ford’s Amazon experience decades after its failure. The story addressed by the film begins in 1927, when the Ford Motor Company attempted to establish rubber plantations on the Tapajós River, a primary tributary of the Amazon. This film addresses the recent transition from failed rubber to successful soybean cultivation for export, and its implication for land usage.