Aruanas Creator Talks New Environmental Thriller

Billed as an “environmental thriller,” Globo and Maria Farinha Films’ Aruanas takes a different approach to educating viewers about climate change.

“We thought, this is an amazing opportunity for us to create fiction, to talk about climate change in a way that’s not so popular,” Estela Renner, the series’ creator, writer, producer and director, tells TV Drama. “Our inspiration was to create a tool to talk about the environment through drama.”

Aruanas premiered worldwide yesterday on the Vimeo-backed platform aruanas.tv in more than 150 countries, with subtitles for the Portuguese-produced drama available in 11 languages.

The ten-episode series follows as three childhood friends—played by Brazil’s first Afro-Brazilian star, Taís Araújo, and co-stars Débora Falabella and Leandra Leal—set up a non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Amazon in order to investigate the region’s illegal mining, which is still a cause of deforestation, heavy-metal poisoning in local populations and territorial disputes that often end in devastation for indigenous communities. The show sees the protagonists balance their personal lives with their activism. “Our idea is that people are going to fall in love with the characters, just like they do with all the other dramas they see in different places. Just like Grey’s Anatomy takes place in a hospital, ours takes place in an NGO,” Renner says.

She continues, “We thought, how come no one has done a TV series that takes place at an NGO? There’s so much drama, so much adventure, so many challenges. And we felt that fiction would be a good way to talk about it without it being a documentary—something that people who usually don’t tune into that theme will watch because it is entertainment.”

A partner at São Paulo-based Maria Farinha Films and a native Brazilian, Renner said it was a no-brainer to try to tackle the topic of climate change, a hot-button issue that her home country is at the center of as the Amazon becomes ground zero for environmental conflicts; the death toll of eco-activists and land defenders in Brazil consistently ranks among the highest in the world. She has been inspired by many different movements and activists throughout her life, she says, and wanted to bring that to the set. “It is in our DNA to talk about social and environmental issues through the art of filmmaking,” she says. “There are so many people that are still in denial and governments where people still deny climate change. So we said, How can we talk about climate change without talking about it?”

The phrase “climate change” is not mentioned once in the show, Renner contends, because the series’ essence lies in the characters—they are not one-dimensional talking heads who spout buzzwords in a thinly veiled effort to trick viewers into watching a show about global warming. Rather, they are complex, relatable young women who, perhaps too idealistically, set out to change the world and their arcs just happen to take place at an NGO. “We did everything we could to have our characters be the reason why you’re going to watch the series,” she says. “We tried our best to have the series be first entertaining and to talk to people through their hearts. And we tried not to fake the message all the time. Hopefully [the show] has the feeling that the message is there, but it’s there because you got involved with a story, not because we are trying to teach anyone anything.”

And Renner walked the proverbial walk in production, heading up an eco-friendly and humanitarian set. The production had Greenpeace on board as technical advisors, not only aiding the show in “going green” but informing its character development as well. “They gave us personal stories, personal strategies that helped us a lot to create the fiction,” she says. “There are so many NGOs that do research, they do the investigation, they fight [private] agendas, but they lack help to communicate their causes. So we said, Let’s do this together because we have the same goals.”

Maria Farinha was the first company in Latin America to become a certified B Corporation, a designation that means the company balances purpose and profit. “We believe that the change has to come from within,” Renner says. “So everything we do, our team, everyone on the inside—we try to be the change we wish to see in the world.” In keeping with the theme of female empowerment, 47 percent of the people who worked on production were women. “It’s not that it fell into place to have half of the team be women—we looked for them. We were active about it. We purposely looked for half of the crew to be women because that’s how we want the world to be,” Renner continues. “And also we worked with locals. Why should we bring out-of-towners from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo?” she adds. There were no plastic water bottles on set either, with each member of production given their own steel water bottle in order to decrease waste from plastics, and the set had zero carbon footprint. “We are hoping to set an example and to be an inspiration,” Renner says.

Aruanas also carries the call to action “Care for the Amazon,” a global campaign that was co-created by various notable environmental and human rights organizations, including WWF, Amnesty International, Open Society Foundations, Global Witness and UN Women. Additionally, from July through October, 50 percent of all net sales from the series will be donated to an initiative that protects the Amazon rainforest.

Aruanas’ main message, according to Renner, is that the rainforest has more value for everyone when it is protected. It aims to sound the alarm on the global environmental crisis; promote, protect and raise a glass to the extraordinary work of activists; and connect people from across the world to the reality of the problems plaguing the Amazon, a biome that acts as the planet’s air conditioner. “We all share a common planet and want a good planet that’s not super warm and dirty and polluted,” she says. “We don’t want to polarize, we just want to unite everyone and fight for the same home.”