OF THE JUNGLE AND THE MOON


At the forgotten frontlines of climate collapse, a father and son reimagine what it means to stay. Baltazar, forced from Honduras as a teenager and stopped in his tracks by something ancient in the Guatemalan jungle, made a vow: to restore the land and build something that could not be taken. Two decades later, the forest is still vanishing, and his mission has cost him almost everything, including his son's belief in him.

Of the Jungle and the Moon is a short documentary currently in rough cut. Audio is in Spanish, with Q'eqchi' and English subtitles. Shot across three countries and five locations, with 600+ hours of footage and original music, it is targeting a premiere at IDFA Shorts, Sundance Shorts, Berlinale Shorts, Sheffield DocFest, and CPH:DOX, with open-access digital release to follow.

Documentary, 25 minutes (2027)A film by Kalin Steen and Lou Elena Bouey
Exec produced by Baltazar  Gíron and Emanuel Gíron
Edited by Sebastián Sebas

WHY THIS STORY MATTERS NOW 


Migration stories are usually told in motion, or after arrival. 
They rarely begin where they should: before leaving.

Guatemala is one of the ten most climate-vulnerable countries on earth. In twenty years, migration from here to the US-Mexico border has increased tenfold. It remains almost entirely absent from global climate narratives.

Seventeen million people across Latin America face displacement by 2050. As borders harden, those displaced by drought and deforestation have no legal protection and no name for what is happening to them.

The story challenges our preconceived notions of belonging. Carried by Baltazar’s voice, it asks whether resistance can take root when hope has disappeared, and whether ecological resistance can begin with unlikely heroes.

FINANCING POST PRODUCTION 


Since 2021, we have self-funded over $20,000 in production, received seed-funding from the Earth Alliance -  Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth‘s environmental organisation. We have secured impact partners, including the Honnold Foundation, Choose Love, and the Evoca Foundation.

We are now seeking completion funding to cover editing, colour grading, and scoring, as well as co-production partnerships and distribution support to carry the film through its festival run and into public release in early 2027, alongside its ambitious impact campaign.

If you are a distributor, fund, broadcaster, or co-production partner aligned with grassroots storytelling, climate justice, or migration narratives, we want to hear from you. 

Full documentary deck and detailed budget available on request. 
Contact: hello@ojamfilm.com

Click here to view our micro companion doc, Aquí me Quedo
You’d be a fool to think cartels are the worst kind of violence here. 
It’s the fire that destroys our forest, the chemicals that kill our soil, and the way we forget our mother tongue. 
Our people lose not only the resources of our land but also the right to decide how to live. 
We are now unwanted guests in our own home.

EMANUEL GIRON, PROTAGONIST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

MEET THE FILM’S CREATIVE TEAM 


The film is co-directed and produced by Kalin Steen, a documentary cinematographer based in southern Arizona whose work spans the Smithsonian, Patagonia, and independent film, and by Lou Elena Bouey, an architect and researcher who has worked in Petén for over five years and serves as a trustee at Sol y Verde. 

The film is edited by Sebastián Sedas, a Mexican editor and post-production supervisor with credits including work produced by Violeta Films and Partizan, and notable documentary short La Poeta del Ring and IDFA-selected Lanawaru. Sebastián brings a particular fluency with intimate, character-led storytelling and climate territories.

Baltazar and Emanuel Gíron, the film’s protagonists, are both executive producers, involved in all stages of production.  
Alice Aedy is advisory producer. She is a National Geographic Explorer, co-founder of Earthrise Studio. Her films have gone to Sundance and CPH:DOX. 

FROM STORY TO GROUND IMPACT 


This film is twinned with a live campaign centred on Sol y Verde, the non-profit founded by Baltazar, which the film follows in its early years. It now supports over 2,000 people across Petén yearly, with training in ecological restoration, food sovereignty, and permaculture. Their work is backed by international organisations such as the Honnold Foundation, Rainforest Alliance, Choose Love, the Evoca Foundation,  the Lush Spring Prize.

The project’s next step is a permanent cultural and ecological centre in Petén, the first of its kind in the region, housing a screening room, library, and ancestral medicine-making space. The film's release is timed to unlock the final funding needed to complete it. Through screenings in Guatemala, the US, and the UK, alongside distribution partners, the campaign will reach policymakers, students, and affected communities directly.

To support Sol y Verde's work on the ground now, you donate here.
At night, when there’s no one but the temple and the moon to witness my tears, I speak to the jungle.
I hear her reply in the strength I wake up with every day: to tend to this land and never abandon the fight.

BALTAZAR GIRON, PROTAGONIST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

OUR MICRO-DOC: AQUI ME QUEDO


Climate storytelling platforms @earthalliance and @earthrise have partnered with us to bring a 2min micro-doc to life around the theme of “Human Nature”. 

Aquí me Quedo is a companion film to Of the Jungle and the Moon and focuses on Baltazar’s migration journey and his first encounter with the Guatemalan rainforest, and how this call became an act of healing, regeneration, and belonging.

The film was distributed by Earth Alliance, Leonardo DiCaprio and Earthrise.

Click the video to watch it on YouTube