Aug 8, 20235 min read

THE MONKEY ISLAND

Did you ever film with a monkey on your shoulder? Well, that was a normal part of our amazing experience shooting the last documentary at The Monkey Island, a Caribbean paradise for rescued monkeys in Panama.

AWARDED BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY at the Golden Tree Documentary Film Festival in Paris this year (2023), “The Monkey Island” tells the story of rescued monkeys that live in a sustainable island in the Caribbean Sea of Panama. Orphans, victims of wildlife crime or improperly raised as pets, these monkeys are too traumatized to live in the wild again.

After leaving Canada and spending years on a sailboat, Francine found her refuge in the archipelago of Bocas del Toro, one of Panama’s top ecotourism destinations with 9 main islands, thousands of islets and cays, dense primary mountain cloud rainforest and expensive mangrove areas. A natural paradise where you can surf, dive, chill with your cocktail overlooking pristine waters, party and eat very well.

But 40 minutes far away from Colon Island you can find total peace at Urraca Private Island, a sustainable Eco-Lodge where Francine lives and also manages the Monkey Island Foundation. We went for our first time by the invite of an American surfer called Lucas Rogers and his local friend just for a day pass. They offer tours to help with the monthly expenses for the monkeys (veterinarian, food, medicine), and the tourists come by boat to spend a couple of hours at the island with Francine learning about the animals and possibly interacting with the monkeys that are used to people. Like Mika, the howler monkey on this first image our water cinematographer Alex Thompson captured of her hanging on a tree and playing with salt water. She was actually trying to touch his camera’s dome and it came out so amazing that it became my favorite picture he took during our stay there.

While Mika was being photographed and fed with fruits by our crew, I started talking with the amazing human being that takes care of The Monkey Island, the French Canadian Francine Roy. She told me her story and I immediately got goosebumps. And for a independent documentarist, that means "Yes, lets film it". So we checked the forecast and came back a few weeks later prepared to film her story.

Filming with little Zorro on my shoulder became normal, since he was an orphan and never wanted to be alone."

Sleeping a few nights in this Caribbean paradise among marine life, Howlers, Tamarins and Squirrel monkeys, sharing stories with Francine during our delicious meals or just capturing every beautiful detail around, made us feel more connected with this unique place on Earth. Filming with little Zorro on my shoulder became normal, since he was an orphan and never wanted to be alone. And of course, I was always available when he wanted to climb me for some company. This little howler monkey is one of the documentaries characters - yes we have monkey characters for the first time. Zorro lost his mom on a electric power line accident. He was unborn when that happened but the veterinarian performed the birth but the mom didn't survived. In such cases, when they can’t survive alone in the jungle without a tutor, local vets send this orphans to The Monkey Island, where they can live with other rescued monkeys in an island of their own - and without predators.

The Monkey Island is made up of two islands and I have to say my only frustration filming was not being able to go on the other island, which is specially designated for the rescued monkeys (only). These are the white faced Capuchins that don’t like new human friends and they bite to communicate so I had to be on the edge of the main island and patiently wait for them to show up to my 600mm lens. But it was either that or being possibly attacked by the pack, and everyone that films wildlife knows that respect and boundaries are extremely necessary (when they are not fully dependent to humans like this little guy on my shoulder).

The island where humans can stay is where Francine's home and Eco-Lodge are located, made up of gorgeous bungalows on the water, a lobster farm, solar panels, amazing food and a beautiful connexion with the indigenous community (Ngobe) that lives around her. The neighboring indigenous community plays a large role in her business, selling fish and other sea food to her, recycling her cans, her right-hand woman, Elisia, is an amazing indigenous chef and Francine also runs ecotourism tours to their island. There, we had an incredible morning learning how to make coconut bread with the Ngobe indigenous community of Isla Tigre. They also helped her with her fampus bridge project, but you’ll have to watch the documentary to know about this one.

Isla Tigre indigenous community

“IF she had to give away her own life for one of these monkeys, she would..”

The indigenous chef Elisia talks about Francine in the documentary.

The love this woman has for the monkeys is surreal. She has studied everything about different species and tries with all her heart to care for every single rescued monkey that comes to her island. The oldest Capuchin, Toutie, her first rescued monkey, is now the queen of the place, that grooms the new ones and makes the rules at their own island. They all have names, traumas and sad stories, but found an island and a protector to call their own. Twice a week, Francine goes for a kayak happy hour with Toutie and I don’t need to say it was one of the most special moments of our days filming there. And one really interesting thing is that when she approaches the island, all the other monkeys respect it and only Toutie gets into the kayak.

However, that was March of 2020 and Covid

was starting to hit the world!

We were traveling thorugh Bocas del Toro and left to film at the Monkey Island (an isolated place in the middle of the archipelago) without really knowing what was going on. Nobody was talking about deaths, closing airports or anything like that, but everything changed during our 3 days of filming. Upon our return to the main island we were greeted with full streets of people buying kilos of rice, beans and other food and home supplies at the supermarkets, hospitals were getting filled and rumors the islands were going to close. When we decided that leaving the island was the best choice we were forced to separate from each other due to our differing home countries and new guidelines for flying during this time. But almost for a year, editing this documentary saved my mind from going crazy on Covid lockdowns in Brazil, I am sure of it. It actually gave me enough time to put together this story that gave us our biggest Award to date as a Documentarist. The Monkey Island was my first environmental focused documentary that I hope inspires people to protect and respect wildlife life Francine does, even if you have to buy an island to make your point.

Writen by Lorena Montenegro

WATCH our awarded documentary online:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/themonkeyisland (ENG)

https://www.adventure-sports.tv/the-monkey-island (ENG)

https://www.moanafilmes.com.br/the-monkey-island (PT)