Valentina Benavides

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Valentina Benavides is a multilingual filmmaker and social communicator. She was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. As a teenager, she lived with Indigenous families in the Andes and Amazon, where she became fluent in Kichwa and learned firsthand about their ancestral cultures. After initiating studies in anthropology and languages, she was awarded a scholarship at the University of São Paulo to study cinema. Since meeting her husband Jeff, her focus has been on integrating music, video, and arts with permaculture and applied ecology to promote food sovereignty, health, and Indigenous agricultural revival. Read more about her work at www.earthways.org/projects/art-and-education/amaruarts.