Follow the documentary ‘THEY BECAME HORSES’ about the journey of the Boys of Betel by signing up here:

“THEY BECAME HORSES” is a feature-length documentary in development following the “Boys of Betel” into adulthood.

Once boys without direction or hope, the boys at the Betel home for children in the heart of Brazil - Patrick, Reginaldo, Rogerio, Antonio, Fabricio, Welliton, Gleidson, Douglas and Aurimar - are learning to love again. The natural horsemanship program gave their lives purpose, and the steadfast love of their adopted parents Richard and Ingela gave them a stability they had never known.

But drastic changes to Brazil’s family legislation alter everything. The government is shutting down the Betel home for children, along with nearly every orphanage in the country, sending the children back to whatever homes might remain open to them… or back to the streets.

Patrick and Fabricio, the most advanced boys in the program, are back on the streets, struggling to survive. Aurimar, a sweet joker and a charmer who adopted Richard as his beloved father and had quit drugs, had his tentative beginnings in serious horsemanship cut short. Rogerio, the quietest of the boys, is a natural horseman who had to overcome racial stereotyping to gain respect, but he may not be able to continue his horsemanship training. And Reginaldo, the young man who was plucked from among his playmates to become the project leader, is learning a whole new set of challenges in Canada, where he joined Ingela and Richard in December 2012.

After making leaps of progress, going back to school and learning to care deeply for another creature, the boys must choose whether they will continue overcoming their inner fears and demons to become the men they were destined to be — or not.

The documentary explores how the spirit of an orphan is not confined to just those without parents, but affect all who struggle to find meaning and identity in a world of shifting realities. The horseboys of Betel who had to become men before their time return to the streets of their youth to test their new-found leadership qualities… without their beloved horse companions.

Estimated completion date: June 2015.

For more info: email TOBI ELLIOTT at tobi@bluecyrusmedia.com

Here is Patrick da Silva’s story:

Boys of Betel: Patrick’s story from Blue Cyrus on Vimeo.

Here is Rogerio da Costa’s story:

Rogerio da Costa: Boys of Betel from Blue Cyrus on Vimeo.

Watch the promo video for “Boys of Betel”:

Video by Charlotte Gentis, March 2010.

Edited by Tobi Elliott.

©2011 Blue Cyrus Media

A 20-minute film Blue Cyrus Media completed in 2010 for the non-profit organization Horses for Orphans. Filmed and Written by Charlotte Gentis. Narrated and Edited by Tobi Elliott. Original Music by Douglas Silveira and Jon Patell. Blue Cyrus Media © 2010.

(NOTE: ‘Horses for Orphans’ is part of Torchbearers Trust. Torchbearers Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales No.100113).

View our NEW WEBSITE here: www.trapperofpeaceriver.com

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Dec 2011 Trapper of Peace River Demo from Blue Cyrus on Vimeo.

Carl Gitscheff: trapper, farmer, father and grandfather, is above all an advocate and lover of wild spaces. Over the course of his life, Carl has been drawn back again and again to the wilderness he learned to love as a child, trapping and hunting in the footsteps of his grandfather.

But as coalmines multiply on his trapline, natural gas wells are drilled in his backyard, and oil is being pumped from the Peace River region where he lives, the animal habitat he has spent a lifetime learning, is being sorely tested.

The tug-of-war over the rich resources of British Columbia’s northeast is eroding more than the landbase: it threatens to strip traditions, a way of life – even memories – from Carl and others like him who live off the land.

Carl is a richly complex person: a passionate defender of wild spaces who believes against all  odds that a balance between industry and wildlife can yet be achieved, and father who desperately wants to leave an inheritance of the love of the wild to his young daughter.

How will Carl fight for the habitat? Will he succeed in helping industry and nature co-exist? Will anyone listen to the trapper of Peace River?

Directed and Produced by Tobi Elliott, Peace River Trapper Inc.