The first production trailer for UNBELIZEABLUE, a new documentary that follows a multigenerational group of inspiring women leaders striving to protect the world's second largest coral reef system. To learn more, visit http://www.unbelizeablue.org



Not only do women have the potential to become conservation leaders by taking decisions and leading-tapping into gaps and opportunities-in biodiversity conservation, but they're doing it every day in Belize. As a new documentary film, UNBELIZEABLUE is putting a spotlight on diverse women conservation leaders in Belize striving to protect the second-largest coral reef system in the world and associated livelihoods. Like other coastal coun­tries, Bel­ize's eco­nomy re­lies heav­ily on its mar­ine re­sources. In fact, fish­ing and mar­ine-based tour­ism sus­tain the live­li­hoods of more than 50% of the coun­try's cit­izens. Con­sequently, the equit­able use of mar­ine re­sources is of crit­ical im­port­ance to Bel­izeans, who wish their nat­ural cap­ital to be con­served and re­in­ves­ted in a sus­tain­able way.

"But how can com­munit­ies thrive while co­ex­ist­ing with their nat­ural en­vir­on­ment? Where do we draw the line between prop­erty de­vel­op­ment and en­vir­on­mental pro­tec­tion? How does a coun­try choose between mass cruise ship tour­ism and eco-friendly overnight tour­ism? Who signs off on the tradeoff between off­shore oil ex­ploit­a­tion versus a po­ten­tial nat­ural dis­aster due to oil spills along pristine reefs? These are some of the crit­ical ques­tions and chal­lenges that will be ex­plored in the film."

With re­gards to the film's char­ac­ters, Bel­ize has the unique dis­tinc­tion that vir­tu­ally all its local and in­ter­na­tional NGOs are led by wo­men, as are key gov­ern­ment de­part­ments as­so­ci­ated with the pro­tec­tion of mar­ine re­sources. This ap­pears to be a mul­ti­gen­er­a­tional phe­nomenon where a group of wo­men pi­on­eers opened the door for the next gen­er­a­tion of fe­male con­ser­va­tion lead­ers, who are in turn boost­ing a newer gen­er­a­tion to be­gin mak­ing their voices heard. Show­cas­ing these wo­men lead­ers and their stor­ies will be the main plot­line of UN­BEL­IZE­ABLUE.

DIRECTOR: ELADIO ARVELO
PRODUCER: ELADIO ARVELO, SHAREEF HAQ, PHIL KARP, NYASHA LAING