The powerful documentary ‘Sukundimi Walks Before Me’ has been selected to be screened at the Sydney Film Festival in Sydney as part of the festival program on 11 and 13 June 2026. This documentary follows the struggle of the children of the Sepik River to preserve their future, when the Sepik River, ‘the Amazon of the Asia-Pacific’, is threatened by mining.

The film has been nominated for the Documentary Australia award, and has also been nominated as one of only five films for the Sustainable Future Award, the largest environmental film prize in the world.

You can see more about the film on the Sydney Film Festival website here.

In 2016, a global mining company submitted a plan to the Papua New Guinea government to build a massive mine near the Sepik’s waters. The scheme has the potential to pollute this biodiversity hotspot, destroying the environment, livelihood and wellbeing of the Sepik people. Manu Peni leads his community in a grassroots resistance, invoking Indigenous and ancestral knowledge against the forces of colonial bureaucracy and Western development. As Manu explains, “the living river, this is our identity, it is us, it runs inside me.”

About the film screenings in Papua New Guinea

‘Sukundimi Walks Before Me’ premiered in Papua New Guinea on 24 April 2026 at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. Presented in partnership with the University of Papua New Guinea Student Representative Council and the East Sepik Student Union, the PNG premiere formed a powerful discussion and panel event titled ‘Dialogue on Development and Sovereignty through a Melanesian Lens’. An additional screening occurred on 26 April 2026 at the Port Moresby Arts Theatre.

Further screenings are to occur in PNG in May, more details can be found here and by following Save the Sepik on Facebook.