(ANS – Kraków) – The Brazilian television channel “Canção Nova” is currently broadcasting new films by Fr Roman Sikoń, SDB, from the Kraków Province (PLS), who is currently serving in the Brazilian Province of Manaus. These documentaries recount the missionary work of the Salesians in the Amazon. These are authentic and professional documentaries, produced by Fr Sikoń in the most remote areas of the Amazon River basin. Fr Roman Sikoń is a director, cameraman and documentary-maker recognised both in Poland and internationally. He regards his missionary work as an opportunity to produce documentaries, in which he personally handles the directing, filming and editing. The director’s skill and the value of these films are borne out by concrete achievements: he has received prestigious awards, including the Main Prize for Freedom of Speech from the Association of Polish Journalists for a series of films on the persecution of Christians in the modern day, which he received alongside his friends Michał Król and Maciej Grabysa. In turn, for his famous documentary on the Amazon entitled ‘The River of Life’, he was awarded the Kazimierz Dziewanowski Prize, considered one of the most important journalistic awards in Poland. As regards their ethnographic and missionary value: these films document the unique aspects of daily life among the Yanomami indigenous tribe and the work of missionaries along the Rio Negro and in the Manaus province. As for collaboration with the media: the exceptional quality of the footage from the Brazilian jungle, with its raw and authentic images, means that this material is readily used by the world’s leading Catholic broadcasters. Among these is the Brazilian channel ‘Canção Nova’, the largest Catholic television broadcaster in this vast country. The broadcaster is currently airing its new programmes dedicated to the Salesian missions of Santa Isabel and Iauaretê, presenting them as in-depth reports that follow the lives of the riverside communities.
