New documentary investigates the murder of Peter Blake and hundreds of conservationists
by Larry Keating 27 Oct 2021 00:07 NZDT
27 October 2021
Jake Bryant, Director of Photography, on another early morning mission filming wildlife - from Garden of Evil © Mediawave
I’m often asked where did the idea for this film come from and why did I produce it. What was the point in dredging up this painful 20 year old story?
Besides having had a nasty experience myself in the Peruvian reaches of the Amazon in 1976 ( but that’s another story) I had reported on Sir Peter’s sailing adventures through the 80’s and 90’s from the 1981/82 Whitbread Around the World Race aboard Ceramco New Zealand to his successes in Steinlager 2 and two America’s Cups.
As such I knew him and certainly respected him. And while his departure from his role in leading New Zealand to its successful defence of the ‘Cup’ in 2000 to pursue his passion in environmental issues, I like so many was intrigued.
In August of 2001 I saw a wonderful documentary aboard a flight to England. It was about Seamaster’s trip with Sir Peter Blake at the helm to the Antarctica. I was on my way to the 150th Jubilee of the America’s Cup in Cowes England.
Quite by chance I met Peter walking along a dock where many of the historical ‘Cup’ yachts such as Australia 11 were tied up. Being one of a group of great America’s Cup characters, there for the occasion, Peter talked about his next expedition to the Amazon. About another great adventure to see for himself the so called ‘Lungs of the Planet’ and how the Amazon rainforests need to be protected.
So a few months later in December that year I remember where I was when the shocking news broke that Sir Peter had been murdered by pirates in the Amazon. I had been filming a story about a new French trainer airplane in Dijon France. It was a wet and cold day when I got off the TGV (fast train ) at Gar de Nor in the centre of Paris and jumped into a taxi to take me back to my hotel. It was about 3:55pm. At the top of the hour the four o’clock news broke on the taxi’s radio (in French of course) “Le célèbre yachtman néo-zélandais Peter Blake a été assassiné en Amazonie” The driver as it happened spoke good English and repeated what had just been reported. “ A famous New Zealand yachtsman Peter Blake has been murdered in the Amazon”
It was all over the news that night from Canal Plus to CNN and BBC et al.
Fueled by media reports that it’s possible Blake was killed for his cause and that the Mafia may have been involved the rumour mill was in full flight. But the Brazilian authorities encouraged us to believe that Seamaster was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In 2016 along with my producer partner Alan Sefton, we saw a BBC documentary presented by criminologist Irishman Donal MacIntyre titled ‘Death of a Hero’ It’s an episode of a series called MacIntyre Investigates produced in 2002. Donal was probing the possibility of the attack being ignited by more sinister people than just a gang of pirates. People who possibly considered the crew of Seamaster as possible threats to leaking sensitive information and video to the world of what they had found in illegal activities in the region. Blake had been uploading to the internet pictures of all sorts of findings including illegal gold mining and massive rafts of logs towed toward mills on the river banks. Blake was also reporting by satellite phone back to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) during two and half months deep in the Amazon basin.
In the BBC film Donal MacIntyre suspected foul play and eventually flushed out an underworld character known for corruption in his nefarious activities in illegal logging and timber trade. He was one of hundreds and probably thousands, hell bent on protecting their illegal interests in mining, logging, deforestation and trading in wild animals and people.
I arranged to meet Donal in London that year while researching the possibility of making this film. He believed there was reason enough from his own research that there were others who could have lit the fuse by getting the drug and alcohol induced pirates to attack Seamaster. He agreed there and then to lead a team to further investigate the killing of Sir Peter Blake for the film should it proceed.
Alan and I felt we now had reason to start a development process but needed more information.
That same year on September 10, 2017 I read an article in the Auckland Sunday Star Times written by Sam Cowie and Amanda Saxton. Sam is an English Journalist living in Sao Paulo Brazil. After lengthy negotiations with various authorities Sam did the interview with the man prosecuted for the killing of Blake. In that article, one glaring statement spiked my interest. The still imprisoned Ricardo Colares Tavares refused to answer a question about who, if anyone else, was behind the attack on Seamaster. He effectively said 'There is much more to tell but I won’t reveal it now,' and 'I wasn’t given a chance to tell my side of the story'.
Very suspicious I thought and started to negotiate with the Brazilian authorities to meet and film an interview with Tavares.
Then in November 2017 Peter Bethune a well know Kiwi eco-warrior, a daring guy who had cheated death at least twice, once in the Southern Ocean when a Japanese fishing boat sank his boat. Then again in the Amazon after a film shoot for another series on saving endangered animals. It was a knife attack near where Seamaster was anchored 16 years earlier outside the same Amazon river town of Macapa. Pete was there on his own asking questions about Blake’s death and even requested an interview with the killer in the local Amapa State prison. It was turned down and while wandering around the dangerous waterfront that afternoon Pete survived an horrific attack in a brawl with two bandits that left him with a stab wound in his ribs. Pete suspects this was an attempted hit on him for reasons unclear.
I tracked Pete down for an interview in Bremerton near Seattle in 2019 aboard his ship Modoc. He agreed to return to Macapa for the film, to confront his own demons and tell his story.
We visited the Amazon twice over a year and started production at Macapa where both incidents occurred just 75 miles up-river from the Atlantic.
After months of negotiation to get to Tavares, my primary objective was to pick up where Sam Cowie left off from his 2017 Sunday Star Times story. I employed Sam to return to the prison with us to film the interview. For the first time since he was incarcerated, we would have Ricardo Colares Tavares on camera telling us what he would not reveal to Sam two years earlier.
The interview was fascinating and here we were (the crew and I ) in a dilapidated overcrowded Brazilian prison in the company of the man who killed Sir Peter Blake. At that stage he had spent 20 years inside. Here we were in a hot and steamy 45 degrees prison room with Tavares openly answering some very probing questions as to what happened on the night of December 5, 2001 and who planned it.
In the Sunday Star Times article Sam wrote in 2017, Tavares said, and I quote from the article, “I regret it very much, it wasn’t my intention that day” “It wasn’t the end that I had planned, and I’m doing my time”. He refers to the shooting.
Interestingly in the police files and in the interview for The Garden of Evil, Tavares said he didn’t plan anything.
Quote from The Garden of Evil “ The Judge accused me of being the ring leader…. It’s impossible, that didn’t happen, I didn’t plan anything.” “ There’s no way I can tell you who planned the robbery. I have no idea”.
There’s so much more to his story in the film and its not all about the Seamaster incident.
I realised during the weeks we spent in the Amazon that there was so much more to this story. Blake was in the Amazon with his friends on an adventure with his primary interest to see for himself the problems associated with increasing populations and the ever shrinking rainforests. It’s really all about the importance of protecting the Amazon rainforests from the wholesale destruction continuing to this day and the rights of the indigenous tribes. During the making of The Garden of Evil over 200 activists including the indigenous guardians of the rainforest were killed!
Appropriately the opening scene of The Garden of Evil has the voice of Sir David Attenborough from a United Nations speech in Poland in 2017.
‘Right now we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale, if we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon’
With the exception of the Auckland and Waikato regions The Garden of Evil featuring the murder of Sir Peter Blake will be in selected cinema’s around New Zealand from November 4.
Due to the COVID 19 Level 3 lockdown restrictions, all cinema’s in Auckland and Waikato are closed until further notice.
For screening times at the cinema’s listed here, please go to www.flicks.co.nz/coming-soon
Details of the international release will be available in a few weeks.
The following is a statement from the Blake family about the recently released film titled The Garden of Evil.
Larry Keating’s feature film The Garden of Evil has been made without the blessing of the Blake family, BLAKE (formerly the Sir Peter Blake Trust) and several crew members of Seamaster.
On two occasions, once in 2016 and again in 2019, Mr Keating approached Pippa, Lady Blake to request her support for the project, and permission to use archival Blakexpeditions footage of Sir Peter Blake. Those requests were declined.
The Blake family and BLAKE are deeply upset to learn that Mr Keating has chosen to go ahead and use footage and images of Sir Peter Blake which we believe is to sensationalise the content in his documentary and gain further publicity.
The Blake family’s reasons for opposing the film are clear:
It has been nearly 20 years since Sir Peter’s death, and those closest to him have moved on with their lives significantly. The family believe the best way Sir Peter is remembered is by his sailing achievements and through the legacy of BLAKE.
There have been several documentaries made about Sir Peter’s life, and those closest to him feel there is no need for a film that not only focuses on his death, but also amplifies the voice of his murderer. To learn that Mr Keating visited and interviewed Sir Peter’s killer in prison has caused Peter’s family, friends and close colleagues undue hurt.
The Blake family and those closest to Sir Peter believe his death was the tragic result of a robbery, not the result of being targeted by organised criminals for his environmental work, as suggested in Mr Keating’s documentary.
We encourage and congratulate film makers who continue with genuine investigations into the ongoing plight of the Amazon region, however it is our position that this film does not qualify for that support.
Furthermore, the Blake family is concerned the NZ theatrical release and any future screenings of the film will interfere with the privacy of the members of Sir Peter’s family and people who were on board Seamaster when Sir Peter was killed, causing unnecessary emotional distress and hurt.
We strongly oppose this film.
Statement from Pippa, Lady Blake, Sarah-Jane & James Blake
Supported by BLAKE