How Studio Birthplace took on corporate greed and human indifference

The new film from Studio Birthplace just premiered at the COP29 climate change conference in Baku and is a beautiful, powerful but frightening look at the destruction of some of Earth's most important natural landscapes.

The film also highlights the mortal danger faced by those attempting to protect these landscapes, most of whom have their homes and livelihoods within these areas. Called Earth Defenders, the eight minute film follows a father and son, both members of the Indigenous Iban community located within the forests of Sungai Utik in Indonesia, showing their relationship to each other, to the beauty and importance of the land on which they were born, and the devastating consequences of its destruction.

These are people who stand up and sometimes lose their lives in that fight.

Directed by Jorik Dozy [above left] and Sil Van der Woerd [above right] of Studio Birthplace, which has recently signed to Creators Inc for representation, and co-directed by Indigenous filmmaker Kynan Tegar [above centre], the film tells the story of how corporate greed and human indifference is devastating important ecological regions of our planet and how those trying to stand against that devastation are suffering, with an earth defender going missing or being murdered every 48 hours.

Below, Dozy and Van der Woerd discuss the project's genesis, the shocking statistic at the heart of the film, and how shooting on location in Indonesia, with an Indigenous cast and crew, was a beautiful challenge. 

Above: Earth Defenders premiered yesterday at the COP24 climate change conference in Baku.

Can you explain what an earth defender is and how the film came about?

SvdW: It’s a term that’s used for people who are at the forefront of protecting nature, who are the last line of defence. There are heavy conflicts happening in the Amazon, but also in Indonesia and other rainforests, where big companies try to come into the land and drive out Indigenous people who are protecting that land. So, these are people who stand up and sometimes lose their lives in that fight.

We learned that every 48 hours, [someone] is murdered doing this important work.

The project started with a longer collaboration that we have with [music artist] Novo Amor. We have done three music videos for him in the past that have really broad storytelling around nature. [Amor] really embraced that, and then we received this new album and both the artist and the label paid for the [Earth Defenders] project. Jorik and I came across this memorial website which is basically a page that lists profiles of earth defenders across the globe. It’s a very sad story. You see these pictures of people who stand up for important values - for diversity, for nature - then we learned that every 48 hours, one of them is murdered doing this important work.

We sat with that idea, and when this track came to us we felt like this could actually be a beautiful connection. We spent a lot of time on research [and] spoke with about 15 Indigenous tribes across Indonesia to really understand the issues that they’re facing and what are places we could actually visit.

Above: A poster for the Earth Defenders film.

JD: We started to dive into these stories, and learn about the Indigenous communities and how important they are for our future. At Studio Birthplace, we do a lot of work on protecting nature and loss of biodiversity and those kind of topics, but there was a huge gap missing there in the stories that we were telling, and that was the Indigenous movement. I should say Indigenous and local communities, because earth defenders are not always Indigenous people, they’re also just local communities who are taking care of their territories.

We quickly realised that were not the owners of this [story], that we could not tell it without help.

The idea started brewing and then this track came and we pitched this idea to Novo. That’s how it kicked off, but that started a five-to-six week long process of just researching how to tell the story before we started pre-production. Novo told us, “I just want to support you guys making this film and I’m honoured to have my music be part of it.” 

For a music video [five-to-six weeks is] quite a long process of understanding, but we quickly realised that were not the owners of this [story], that we could not tell it without help. So, we had to collaborate really closely with Indigenous communities and work in a different way than we normally do. 

Above: The cast and crew of Earth Defenders on location in Indonesia.

That someone is murdered or goes missing every 48 hours must have been a shocking statistic to discover? 

SvdW: We attended a conference, The International Conference Of Indigenous People, in August in Jakarta [and] we heard all these stories about people being kidnapped, people dying, people receiving death threats. It’s all about companies who try to pressure people [so that] they can continue with their business. 

We heard all these stories about people being kidnapped, people dying, people receiving death threats.

What’s interesting about the community where we shot the film is that, though these Indigenous people have been living on the land, they often don’t have the rights to the land, even though they have been living there for hundreds of years, or often even more. They’re like, "Why do we need to prove that we live here? We’ve been living here for generations?”. So, that often causes them to be pushed out, because they don’t have the paperwork, which is now also why the community we went to were one of the first in Indonesia to secure their land rights.

Above: A behind the scenes image from the shoot.

What have been the ramifications for those responsible for these crimes?

JD: One reason why there are no ramifications is that, a lot of time, there’s huge money behind why they’re being pushed out, and that’s just the sad reality. Government is giving permits to these companies to go in and remove the forest and put in a farm or plantation, or whatever it is. These are just very hard, unstoppable forces for these local communities that they’re up against. And, unfortunately, it gets violent quite often because the people don’t want to move. They’re resisting.

Can you tell us about your co-director, Kynan Tegar;  what was his involvement, and what was the process of getting him onboard?

JD: Like we said, we did a lot of research on how to tell this story, and we started looking at Indigenous and local communities who have either fought the fight for their land rights, or are currently fighting it. We stumbled on the Iban community, which is where Kynan is from, and as Sil said, they are a success story because they’ve managed to gain the land rights and they really understand the values of what they hold, so they take care of the land. Kynan is from this community and he is a filmmaker on top of that, so he was telling stories about his community.

One reason why there are no ramifications is that, a lot of time, there’s huge money behind why they’re being pushed out.

We started talking to him and realised that he’s an incredibly smart young guy who understands the power of storytelling and understood what this collaboration could bring for his village and for the Indigenous movement. Kynan was a perfect fit because he really got we were trying to do. Then whole village was, "Yes, let’s do this project and figure this out".

Above: Some of the crew on location in Indonesia; the jungle proved a tough place to work. 

Are the film's actors people from the village? 

SvdW: This village is not so big, only about 250 people, and we took a bit of a risk because we really wanted to make the film with the people, but we got really lucky. The father and the son were amazing actors, but yes, they are from that community. Everyone you see in the video is from that area, from the village or the neighbouring village.

Everyone you see in the video is from that area, from the village or the neighbouring village.

JD: We spent about a month in the village, working with the community and honing the script because, like we said, it’s a collaboration. So they have to agree with every aspect of the film. Then also we did the casting with the community, so we had quite a bit of time on the ground, which we needed to figure everything out.

Was casting via the village always the plan?

SvdW: The father we had seen in some of the videos that Kynan had already made, so we had a good feeling with him, but yes, we got very lucky.

JD: And the boy is a total superstar. He could be a movie star. The way that he is on set, and how he handled this whole project, it was amazing working with him.

Above: Images from the finished Earth Defenders film.

How long, and how difficult, was the shoot?

SvdW: We shot for eight days, and while it sounds quite long, especially for a music film, we really needed the time. During the shoot we were rained out. We had a flood and had to move communities to other parts around the land. Everything took a lot longer.

We were at the mercy of the forest and the community. So it was really hard to plan anything.

JD: We were at the mercy of the forest and the community. So it was really hard to plan anything. Sometimes we were just waiting for half a day because some people weren’t there, or the river would suddenly be much higher because of rainfall in the mountains and our location was gone. 

The film is both shocking and educating, but also beautiful; is it hard to find the balance between those elements?

SvdW: That’s kind of the bread and butter of what we do at Studio Birthplace. It’s always to try and find ways - original, innovative ways -  to combine crafted filmmaking and visual effects, which are things we really love, with important storytelling and messaging. We also realise that this doesn’t happen so much, especially in the NGO or the green space. 

Above: Dozy, Van der Woerd and Studio Birthplace focus only on stories that aid the planet, like this one for Woolmark.

Much of your work is based around conservation and the environment; how did that come about?

SvdW: As a young kid, I looked at the world and asked, “Why is it like this?" I wanted it to be different, but didn’t really have a platform. Then I became a filmmaker. Jorik and I met in Los Angeles, we both had careers in visual effects and then we really started to ask why we were making all this entertainment and continuing this hypnosis [of people]? We wanted to tell much more important stories, and once we started doing that, we quickly realised that this is exactly what we need to do and what we need to dedicate all of our time to.

There is no hidden agenda. We only tell stories for our planet, for nature and for people like those in Earth Defenders. 

That’s when we founded Studio Birthplace, in 2019, and that’s the only thing we do. There is no hidden agenda. We only tell stories for our planet, for nature and for people like those in Earth Defenders. 

As talented and award-winning directors, you must be offered more commercially-minded projects on a regular basis.

SvdW: Yes. Ours is not necessarily the best model, but we recently met some people who said that a good idea is always the first and most important thing, and then, if it’s for a great organisation or a great message, that’s a great secondary. But, for us, it’s really the other way around. It has to be about something that’s really important, then we find the great creative, but it starts with that.

JD: It’s also because we spent years in the entertainment industry, working on films and commercials and, when we look at the world and see the state the world is in, the entertainment and advertising industry has a massive responsibility on that. We feel that once you see that, once you know what we’re up against, and once you know the state of our climate, our biodiversity, our nature, you have a responsibility. We feel as artists, and as humans, we want to focus on changing that message and not putting more of that work out there. Instead putting work out that can hopefully tip the balance towards good. That’s what we’re trying with Studio Birthplace.