Silvino Santos produced the work over three years, employing some sophisticated cinematic techniques, which led it to be deemed of "immense artistic value" by Le Monde.

[4] It also documents the richness of the Amazonian flora and fauna, as well as the daily lives and rituals of the Indigenous populations in the regions navigated by the Amazon River, the largest in the world.

Indigenous peoples, such as the Parintintín, are depicted through ancestral records, customs, and rituals: rock inscriptions and drawings, the use of cassava as a staple food, craftsmanship with gourds and hammock making, and the celebration of women within these communities.

[5][7] In 1917, with the support of the Government of the State of Amazonas and in collaboration with Amazonian merchant Manoel Gonçalves, Silvino Santos founded Amazônia Cine-Film.

[8] The following year, with the backing of entrepreneur Avelino Cardoso, Santos produced, in Manaus,[9] a documentary titled Amazonas, o maior rio do mundo that showcased the wealth and industrial potential of the Amazon rainforest.

[10][1] Completed in June 1920,[11] the film did not focus on Indigenous peoples as much as the contemporary works of military officer and filmmaker Luiz Thomaz Reis, with whom Santos is often compared.

[15] Unlike the production of his previous film, which was shot on the Putumayo River in Peru and lost in a shipwreck, Santos personally handled the editing and development of the negatives in a laboratory located in Manaus.

[25] The title cards were translated into Portuguese, and a soundtrack was composed by Luís Henrique Xavier, a flutist and professor of composition, theory, and analysis at the music department of State University of Campinas.