Granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau premieres documentary on the Central Coast

Jacques Cousteau’s granddaughter, is right here on the Central Coast. Granddaughter of the famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau, Celine Cousteau is carrying on the family name.

She spent three years in the Amazon to make the film, “Tribes on the Edge.” The people and the places she discovered there, impact the very air we breathe.

“We’re completely tied to their survival … the Amazon produces 20 percent of the oxygen we depend on for our very breath,” says Cousteau.

Celine didn’t make this trip alone. A member of her team Matt Ferraro lives right here on the Central Coast. “We have a completely different environment. The ocean. The fog. All that. But like we are relying on our local environment and the health of the bay. They are relying on the health of their jungle,” says Ferraro.

In a world battling the effects of climate change, an area producing a fifth of the air we breathe is extremely important. But there is a problem. Cousteau says people are chopping down parts of the rain forest illegally. The only thing stopping them from chopping even more of the rain forest down, are the indigenous tribes that live there. But these tribes protecting the forest have problems of their own.

“Principally malaria and hepatitis” are the illnesses the tribes are facing say Cousteau. Cousteau is doing her best to raise awareness for the tribes, and the forests by screening her film across California.

The film will have a free screening Friday night at the Hidden Valley Theater in the Carmel Valley, at 7:30 p.m.