If I ask you to think about Brazilian forests, you'll likely picture tropical forests like the Amazon or the Atlantic Forest. When I arrived in São Paulo, I held the same image in my mind. I had always dreamed of experiencing up close the nature and biodiversity that made Brazil so appealing to the world. Thus, I decided to seek someone who could guide me through this place and turn these dreams into reality.

That's how I came across the black lion tamarin, an endemic primate of the Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo. It was once thought to be extinct for over sixty years, and after its rediscovery, it became an environmental heritage of the state. When I shared this discovery with my friends, none of them were familiar with the animal. A search on the internet yielded limited information, mostly in the form of articles and news reports.

I noticed there was a communication problem between the black lion tamarin and the people of São Paulo. How could such an important animal be unknown to a state that had declared it an environmental heritage? Consequently, I decided to create a short documentary to serve as a tool for environmental education, aiming to disseminate crucial information about its habitat, behavior, characteristics, conservation status, and more.

With this goal in mind, I reached out to various individuals and institutions to help make this project a reality. Simultaneously, I received warnings that it wouldn't be an easy task, given that the black lion tamarin is a small, fast, and agile animal. I thought this might be one reason why there aren't many audiovisual records of this species. However, just the thought of it excited me even more, and I resolved to press on.

In this way, I managed to conduct my recordings in three main locations: Morro do Diabo State Park, Carlos Botelho State Park, and São Paulo Zoo. There were moments during the recording when we trailed the black lion tamarin for more than ten hours, enduring rain that forced us to halt filming, or instances when the forest was so dense that they slipped away, and we couldn't find them until the next day.

All these adventures were necessary to capture footage of the black lion tamarin, the character that led me to the Atlantic Forest and, without my realizing it, turned my dream into reality. Now, I invite you to watch the video and get to know it as well. Press play on the video below!