2025

direction: Tolin Alexander, Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan
with the participation of Maroon and Indigenous communities
length: 103 min.
release: 2025

For centuries, the Maroons in Suriname have kept capitalist society at bay. Descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped plantations, they survived by adhering to ancestral values. In recent years, however, economic interests have penetrated deep into the rainforest.

Boatman Boogie navigates the Maroni River, which forms the border between Suriname and French Guiana, to deliver essential cargo to remote Maroon and Indigenous communities. While these forest peoples grow their own food, they are increasingly dependent on boatmen for their daily provisions. Climate-driven flooding and droughts are destroying their crops, and gold mining is poisoning the water.

When Boogie is summoned by his clan leaders to attend his nephew’s trial, the demands of his work begin to conflict with his traditional duties. During a winding journey far upstream, the currents grow increasingly unpredictable.

Boogie is the film’s narrator, sharing this role with the people he encounters. The multi-voiced narrative of this hybrid, participatory documentary draws inspiration from the mato, a collective Maroon storytelling technique in which the storyteller is interrupted by others who add their own stories and songs.

The script was developed in dialogue with the participants, and in the film, they re-enact their own lives. A selection of interviews conducted during the research is published on the Monikondee research page (link below).