It's a bright morning and I can't sleep, so I get up and write a long email on the hotel's excruciatingly slow computer to my girlfriend in Copenhagen. I enjoy writing long rambling emails to her.

I've decided that I would like to find a school bus here. One that picks it's way through the surrounding Amazonian countryside in the morning. It would touch on a whole range of subjects that interest me here; the changing physicality of the place, government investment in education etc...
I also think that it would be a visually great way to show Rondonia, perhaps damning it slightly at the same time.
In the meantime though, we have to find Artur.

Artur's is a great story. Historical, poetic and touching. If we can do him justice, we will have a lovely film.
Leandro found him when he was doing work for Colors magazine.

As we drive the small streets of Machadinha D'Oeste, Leandro reminds me of the bullets that Marcelo, the El Dorado guy, was so pleased to show us. "They explode in the body" he said of the first set, before pulling out the shotgun cartridges that were for Jaguars and also a semi-mythical beast.
Which reminds me. The Taxi driver who took us to the airport couldn't write me a receipt because his elbow was so badly damaged... by a Jaguar, he said.

We drive to the streets of Artur's house. I'm a little nervous. If there's no sign of him, we will be short a story. If he's there, w have to shoot a really subtle story and do it justice visually and with a rhythm and a pace that can work over just 3 minutes. If we can do all that, then we will gain a lot of confidence for the final days and will be pleased with our work here.

He's alive.
We see him sitting there, quietly chatting with a younger woman in their open room.

Leandro re-introduces himself, introduces us and sits close to Artur. Almost immediately, Artur is telling stories and we are grabbing the equipment and filming. He is blind and frail and we don't want to miss what he is saying, nor ask him to do too much. It has to come from him in a free-flowing, rambling way. Soon we are shooting a beautiful looking interview and Artur's parrot, who warns him when people approach, is nestled quietly on his shoulder.

As with most of the interviews, I have given Leandro a brief at the start. Sometimes its been in great detail, but today it is much looser. Leandro knows the guy and we should use that. I ask him only to loop the conversation back through themes and stories that we like.

Artur talks beautifully and the interview (as such) lasts over an hour. He is animated and alive, yet something very sad lingers. I think we could make a longer film about him, based mainly on this interview. We shoot sparse, accompanying images - him walking with the parrots, tuning the radio etc... - but his story is so entrancing that it will work alone.

He was one of the men sent by Brazil into the jungle during the second world war to tap rubber for the allied forces. From there, his life story and his views open up and he talks and talks.

After a few hours, we are done. He says goodbye to us warmly with embraces and we walk out into the blistering heat. I think it's the hottest yet.