Abdel Mandili

About Abdel Mandili

Abdel Mandili is a documentary maker and founder of People’s Planet Project, an organization that supports indigenous communities in documenting visual evidence to defend their land rights and protect biodiversity. From his Amazigh background, he feels a deep connection to indigenous peoples and their struggle for climate justice. His work focuses on documenting deforestation, land grabbing, and the impacts of climate change, not only to raise awareness but also to achieve concrete change.

People’s Planet Project plays a crucial role in training indigenous communities in the use of film and satellite imagery to document environmental abuses and human rights violations. By strategically using this visual evidence in legal cases, they aim for legally recognized land rights for indigenous groups, an important step in protecting both the communities and the ecosystems in which they live. The organization collaborates with local environmental lawyers to ensure that the collected footage meets legal standards and can be effectively used in legal proceedings.

As a filmmaker, I use cinema to give a face to the people behind the news reports, numbers, and statistics – to humanize these issues. My goal is to use film as a powerful tool for climate justice and the fight for the land rights of indigenous communities.

Abdel’s most recent documentary, “Our Grandparents Hunted Here,” follows indigenous forest protectors in the Brazilian Amazon who have exchanged their traditional hunting tools for cameras and drones as new weapons. With these technologies, they document illegal deforestation and invasions of their land by external parties, gathering evidence that can be used in national and international lawsuits. The film, which has won multiple international awards, is screened worldwide at film festivals and provides an intense insight into how indigenous communities protect their habitat from economic and ecological threats.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker and activist, Abdel shares his field experiences during lectures and keynotes at international conferences and academic institutions. He discusses the crucial role of indigenous communities in protecting the world’s last intact ecosystems and how their ancient knowledge of the land plays a key role in the fight against climate change.