On February 12, 2005, a 74-year-old American-born missionary, Sister Dorothy Stang, was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon. She had been working on behalf of the peasant farmers in the area teaching them sustainable farming techniques. Among the poor, she was seen as an angel, but the powerful ranchers, rainforest loggers, and other advocates of Brazilian "progress" saw her as a troublemaker and a hindrance to their profit-making ventures.
Daniel Junge, a documentarian who specializes in social justice films, focuses on the trial of the two men who were present when she was killed, a middle-man, and two wealthy landowners accused of funding the murder. According to the Catholic Church's Land Pastoral, a group monitoring land violence in Brazil, as many as 800 settlers, union members, and priests have been killed in the Para area of Brazil in land disputes in the last 30 years. Martin Sheen narrates this documentary.
Sister Dorothy's youngest brother, David, also a missionary, goes to Brazil for the trial and provides a brief overview of her life, ministry, and love of the rainforest, which is disappearing at a rate of 20 square miles every day. The trial was important to many poor people since Sister Dorothy was seen as a leader in the movement for sustainable development on a level akin to Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who was killed in 1988. The man who shot her admits doing so and is given a 28-year sentence.
But the real interest of David Stang and the other Catholic sisters and friends of Dorothy is whether the court will convict and sentence the two rich and powerful ranchers on charges of paying to have her killed. In order to deflect attention from one of these accused men, their attorney paints an outrageous picture of the nun as a person who advocated violence and was used as a tool for American imperialism. Although that rancher is sentenced to 30 years in prison, the other doesn't come to trial. At the end of the documentary, Sheen states that the imprisoned rancher was later retried and acquitted on charges of ordering the killing of Sister Dorothy.
Short clips of Sister Dorothy speaking to the peasants and advocating for change before the authorities reveal a woman with an open heart, a ready smile, and deep compassion. It's obvious why she was so loved and is now so missed in this community. But her spirit lives on in those still committed to saving the rainforest and promoting sustainable farming in the region.
